RICK @ the RACES (16/17 Sept)

16 Sept                     Mohawk International Raceway , Hogansburg, NY

17 Sept                     Mohawk International Raceway, Hogansburg, NY

What a great pleasure it was, to have the North East’s premier Dirt Racing Series taking place on my ‘door step’ this past weekend. All four of the top SUPER DIRT SERIES divisions had tour races at my local Mohawk International Raceway. Although I live in Cornwall, Ontario, and just ten minutes away from the Cornwall Motor Speedway, the ‘MIR’ is probably nearer to my home. When racing  takes place you can hear the distant roar of the engines coming from the other side of St Lawrence Seaway , from my front porch.

On Friday night, the 358 Modifieds and Sportsman were having their series races , and with the help of a reasonably early finish at work, I was able to get there before 7-15 pm , just as the warm ups were taking place. Without wasting too much time, I was out in the middle taking pics along side MIR’s official photographer, Andy Watts.

The Mod Lites and the 4 cylinder Bandit division were also on the program and as usual the Bandit feature was the first of the night. The Bandits at the ‘MIR’ have to be some of the fastest 4 cylinder ‘rookie type’ racers I’ve seen in North America and always put on a good race.

Winner was Dan Desnoyers .

The 75 lap 358 Mod feature was the one I was looking forward to most, probably more so than the following nights ‘Big Block’ race. Big Blocks are great, but you can’t beat a good 358 Mod race.

Our local guys did well in this one and put on a good show, but when the checkers fell , it was Billy Decker there to take the spoils. Stephane Lafrance came home second , with Tim O’Brien in third.

The Sportsman feature was next and was marred by a big wreck at the start of the race that took out leading Series contender Tim Sears.

After the restart the race was dominated and won by eventual winner Josh VanBrocklin.

By now it was about 11-45pm and with work the next day , I gave the Mod Lite feature a miss and made my exit. Once more, I was needed at work to do a Saturday morning shift, and managed to get finished before 2-00pm.

With the ‘MIR’ being so close to home, there was no big rush to get back there , so slowly meandered over the border at about 4-00pm. I had plenty of time to chat around the pits and watch the race haulers arrive.

Many of the Pro Stocks had been at Autodrome Granby the previous night for another Series race, where many teams had sustained damage.

Stephane Lebrun’s car was so badly damaged, he was using the Dave Bissonnette , back up car. Ted Lesage, my buddy and crew chief, later sent me some pictures. I’ve included one in this report,  !

With it being a Saturday night, and the Big Block Mods in attendance, Andy Watts and myself were joined by many other visiting photographers, which included friends, Jay Fish , Dave Dalesandro and Jeff Clemons.

As well as the Mods and Pro Stocks, the nights program also had the addition of the CRSA Sprint Cars and the Mod Lites once more. I must admit, that after seeing some unimpressive Patriot Sprint shows locally this year, the thought of these being included in the show scared me little .

I have to say, my predictions were wrong, they put on a very good show , with very few cautions and their races were a pleasure to watch. Veteran driver Art Kiser won the feature.

The Modified 100 lapper was up next and provided fans with a dramatic finish.

Brett Hearn led for most of the race and looked like he’d got it in the bag, until a couple of laps from the end when a tire started breaking apart.

It obviously slowed him up , and allowed Jimmy Phelps to get by and grab the checkers. Luckily , the failing tire stayed inflated and Hearn was able to nurse the car into second place, with Billy Decker taking third.

The Pro Stock Feature followed this and turned out to be a good race too.

Corey Wheeler, had a great drive, and captured his first ever DIRT Series race.

Ghislain Valade was second while Lebrun came home third in the borrowed Bissonnette car.

Last week I reported about Paul Harrison winning the BriSCA F1 World Final at Brafield in the UK, and and this week, while I was at the ‘MIR’, back in England it was the turn of the BriSCA F2 stock cars to have their big event. (For the benefit of my North American friends, BriSCA F2’s are scaled down versions of the larger, V8 engined BriSCA F1’s , and contact is still a big part of the racing… not a sport for sissy’s ! )

The BriSCA F2 World Final took place on Saturday night, and once again my media friends ‘across the pond’ , have kept me up to date. Prior to moving to Canada in 1994 , I competed in both BriSCA F1 and F2 stock cars and still follow both formulas ‘from a distance’. I’ve included a couple of pics from Colin Casserley and Jerry Fisher.

The event took place at the Norfolk Arena at Kings Lynn and apparently just as the race got under way it started to rain. Races don’t get canceled because of rain in European stock car racing ( you just get on with it ! ) and the big race turned out to be a muddy survival of the fittest.

Mark Simpson # 871 was the winner.

On the subject of rain, I must mention that the rescheduled ‘rained out’ 358 SUPER DIRT SERIES race from the Cornwall Motor Speedway (on 4 Sept) will be taking place this coming Sunday (25 Sept) . It should be a great show as the points in the Series get closer between Danny ‘the Pocket Rocket’ O’Brien and ‘the Doctor’ Danny Johnson.