RICK @ the RACES (7 May 2011)

7 May      Brockville Ontario Speedway (Practice Day)

7 May      Fulton Speedway NY (2011 Opening Night)

This past Saturday was a busy one, when I attended two different race tracks in two different countries on the same day. With just one week to go before opening night, the Brockville Ontario Speedway held a Practice Day for all divisions, which started at 1-00 pm . I arrived before mid day with the plan of spending a couple of hours there, before moving on to an evening show, south of the border.

The BOS pits were starting to fill up as I arrived with a wide variety of cars . As you’d expect, the tracks two premier divisions of 358 Modifieds and Sportsman were well represented.

The first person I chatted to was John Mulder who’s car really looked good with graphics on the side promoting his welding business and a tribute to his son , Madison on the rear.

Next to John was my buddy Stephane Lafrance who was unloading his Modified from the hauler.

In recent years ‘Steph’ has been building and designing his own racers, so his cars are always worth a look.

Another car I was eager to see was the new Sportsman of Tabatha Murphy. The car looked great so before it went out on the track I took plenty of pics. I have to thank ‘Tabs’ and her dad Ralph, for once again adding the www.rickattheraces.com logo to the front roof pillars.

Like the cars of Stephane and John , they also added my decal , thanks guys !

Once the practice session got under way I moved to the center to capture the cars in action.

After each division had taken hot laps I made my exit, and I was soon heading for the border in my HHR. It was a nice surprise to find no delays at the 1000 Island crossing and after the usual ‘interrogation’  I was soon in New York State and heading south down I81.

My destination was the Fulton Speedway for their opening night, and with the sun shining it was a perfect day for driving. I arrived about 4-00pm and already there was a line of race car haulers waiting at the gate. The headline division were the Modifieds, but there were plenty of other divisions there too, which included Sportsman, Mod Lites, Late Models and Gladiators ( Budget 4 cylinders) .

I had my usual wander around the pits before the start, which gave me the chance to meet up with two old friends, Claude and Claude Jr Hutchings. I’ve known the father and son racers from Sauquoit NY for a number of years through their involvement in Ice Racing. Claude is the president of the AMEC club that races regularly each winter on the frozen lakes of the Adirondack region. Their summer passion is for dirt racing and in recent years Jr has been a regular 4 cylinder class winner at the Brewerton Speedway in his Saab. Today he was in his ‘open’ Sportsman competing against the 525 crate ‘Mods’.

Parked next to the Hutchings team was another good friend of mine, Christine Martin with her Sportsman. This time, My thanks go out to Claude and Christine for adding www.rickattheraces.com decals to their cars.

Fulton has to be one of my favorite tracks for taking pics, and I was pleased to be joining track photographers Chris Mark’s and Mike Johnson out on the middle. These guys are always good fun to shoot with and it was great chatting with them during the night.

Both of them had been at Brewerton (Fulton’s sister track) the previous night and much talk was about the historic race they witnessed. The Modified feature was won by Peter Britten, a visiting driver from Australia, who held off Billy Decker to take the checkers. Sounds , like it was quite a night !

This week end was Brewerton’s third night of racing in 2011 , and it’s interesting to note that all three winners come from different countries. Opening night was won by Canadian Stewart Friesen, second night it was USA’s Billy Decker and now on the third one , an Australian. Brewerton can truly be called an International race track !

As usual, the racing at Fulton was good, and I managed to get some good action shots early in the evening. My Pentax is still not back from the ‘shop’ so I’m continuing to use a loaned Cannon. I don’t have a separate flash attachment for it, so action shots in the dark were limited. The Modified feature was dominated and won by Pat Ward, while the other winners included

Dale Caswell (Late Models)

Sam Reakes 1V (Sportsman) Roy Bresnahan ( 525 cr) and Doug Williams (Mod Lites). I had no problem with the standard flash for taking Victory Lane shots !

The racing was all over by 11-30 when I retired to my HHR. The bed was already made up in the back and that’s where I stayed until the morning. With nothing on my agenda for Sunday, I took a slow ride home to Cornwall, Ontario.

Don’t forget, the opening nights are coming up for my remaining local tracks . This Saturday, 14 May at the Brockville Ontario Speedway, Sunday 15th May at the Cornwall Motor Speedway, Wednesday 18 May at the Capital City Speedway (Ottawa) and on Friday 21 May at the Mohawk International Raceway ( Hogansburg NY)