RICK @ the RACES  (7/8/9/10 Oct)

SUPER DIRT WEEK 2010

This past week was a busy one for me after attending the annual SUPER DIRT WEEK in the Syracuse area of New York. The base for this event, which is the climax of the North Eastern dirt racing calender , is the New York State Fairground on the edge of the city. This is complimented by satellite shows at the near by Rolling Wheels Raceway, Cayuga County Fairgrounds and the Brewerton Speedway.

As normal, I booked a few days off work to take in the spectacle and set off from Cornwall , Ontario early on Thursday morning ( 7 Oct). I wanted to be at the fairgrounds before lunch so I could attend the mid day Media conference.

The conference was opened as usual by Joe Marotta where the various dignitaries were introduced to the floor. World Racing Group boss, Brian Carter relayed their plans for 2011 which included next years SUPER DIRT WEEK. Following the conference lunch was served.

Once I’d had my lunch, I watched some of the warm up laps before moving on to my next location. Thursday night of SUPER DIRT WEEK is traditionally the turn of the Brewerton Speedway to host a round of the 358 SUPER DIRT SERIES. Most fans, will tell you that this usually one of the best races of the week and it’s always a ‘full house’

While I was there I met up with my buddy , fellow ‘Brit’ and ‘Short Circuit Magazine’ columnist Martin Clark. (SHORT CIRCUIT MAGAZINE is Europe’s leading ‘quality’ oval racing publication) . Martin the magazine’s NASCAR correspondent and formerly from Colchester in Essex, is now located in Charlotte NC. As a ‘day job’ he works for a race parts component company and he was at SUPER DIRT WEEK combining work with pleasure.

Before taking up my position on the center to take photos, I had my usual walk about the pits. I’d had a new batch of rickattheraces.com decals made up, and during the course of the weekend many of my racing friends attached them to their cars. The list of friends is too numerous to include on here so please go to my website www.rickattheraces.com and check out the ‘Stickerbuddies’ section. A BIG THANKS TO ALL OF YOU.

The big race of the night was won by Jimmy Phelps, who was chased to the flag by Matt Shepherd and Brett Hearn. Instead of returning to the fairgrounds after the races, I parked up my HHR amongst the other campers and spent the night at the track. The back seats were folded down where I had a really comfortable bed made up in the back.

In the morning I took a leisurely drive back to the Fairgrounds for Friday’s races. Breakfast was had at Denny’s in Cicero before arriving around 9-30 am. There are shower blocks on site, where I was able to clean my self up.

The big events on the mile included twin 20’s for the 358’s and triple 20’s for the Big Blocks. A watched the two small block races but opted to miss the Big Blocks.

After taking photos of the two winners, Billy Decker and Wayne Jelley I made an early start for my evenings destination.

If I had to choose between watching a high profile Big Block race or a similar one for 358’s, In most cases I’d usually choose the latter. I guess it’s because in my part of the world, they are more popular and always tend to get a bigger entry list.

On Friday night there was a 358 SUPER DIRT SERIES and a Sportsman Series race at the Rolling Wheels Raceway which is only about a 20 minute drive from the fairgrounds. On my way, I stopped off for a Chinese supper ‘to go’ in Elbridge which I ate in the sunshine of the parking lot on arrival. Once again there was a good turnout of cars and fans for a program that consisted of two of my favorite racing divisions.

Both races provided race fans with a dramatic ending. The Sportsman race looked all set for either of the two hot shoe New Yorkers, Ryan Susice or Tim Sears to take the win as they dueled for most of the race. Ontario, Canada’s Chris Raabe had other ideas and took advantage of some late race cautions to make up some ground on them.

After a restart Chris put the hammer down and blasted past to take the checkers. This was the Napanee youngsters record breaking 31st feature win of the year.

The 358 Modified race also had a surprise in store ! Brett Hearn who drew a front row position on the grid for this 75 lapper looked unbeatable throughout. It was one of those races that appeared to be leading up to a boring flag to flag win. True to that old saying, ‘ it’s never over until the fat lady sings’ , when everything changed on the last half of the final lap.

A late caution had closed the gap between Hearn and Danny Johnson and as the white flag dropped the ‘Doctor’ was on the ‘Jets’ tail. This just happened to be at a time when a brace of back markers came into the picture.

As they all entered the last turn Hearn went one way around the slower cars while Johnson went the other. Brett got tangled in a traffic jam while Danny cruised through to win the race. It was great stuff .

After the races I decided to return to the fairgrounds for my overnight stop. Once there, I parked up beside the Motor Homes of the Chris Raabe Team and Cornwall race fan Lenny Sabourin. I joined them for a late night barbecue. Chris was missing from all this as he’d sensibly decided to get to bed early . On Saturday he had 180 miles to race. Not only was he competing in the big 30 lap Sportsman event but also the ‘Salute to the Troops’ 150 lapper for 358 Mods.

Once awake on Saturday, I took an early morning drive to nearby Camilus for yet another Denny’s breakfast and a visit to the local Walmart. I was back at the fairgrounds by mid morning for the start of the days racing.

As well as taking photos of the racing action, I was also taking shots around the pits for various driver web sites. My own web site www.rickattheraces.com is maintained by Craig Revelle of Finish Line Web Design, who also does the same for a number of the drivers in attendance.

They included , Joey Ladouceur, Danny O’Brien, Matt Billings, Chris Raabe, Billy Dunn, Luke Whitteker, Brandon Sweet, Christine Martin and the rest of the American Traditions team. So as you can imagine much of my attention was given to these guys.

At around 12-30 I had my annual photo ‘engagement’ with the rest of guys at the Area Auto Racing News stand. Each year they arrange for photo shoot with a bikini clad Miss Motor Sports on board one of the race cars.

This years MMS, Danielle Wilson was posing next to the # 747 Ryan Godown car

The big event of the day was the ‘Salute to the Troops’ race for 358 Mods which got under way just after lunch time.

For the first part of the race I was stationed in my usual spot on the cinder track at the exit of turn four.

I was there when Stewart Friesen in the # 99 car got involved in a scary crash where after hitting the wall he ended up on his side. It looked bad, and I was so relieved when I saw him climb from the wreckage.

‘Moody Mile’ expert Billy Decker went on to take the win with Tim McCreadie coming home as runner up and Rick Laubach in third. The race wasn’t over until around 4-00pm so for the second year running , I missed the big Sportsman race that followed.

The reason being, is that I wanted to be at Rolling Wheels early for the evening’s World of Outlaws Sprint Car show. This event which was added to the SUPER DIRT WEEK program last year, for the first time is very popular and a full house was expected. There was no time to stop off for another Chinese meal, so I grabbed some pizza slices to go, when I tanked up with gas .

All the big names in Sprint Car racing were there including Steve Kinser, Donny Schatz and Danny ‘the dude’ Lasoski.

As well as a full show of Sprint Cars a ‘win and your in’ event was being held for Big Block Modifieds, Basically the feature winner, earned a position on the grid for Sundays SEF 200 at the Fairgrounds.

Jeff Brownell was the lucky man to win this one, while Steve Kinser, had to fight his way past his son Craig to win the Outlaw event.

I decided to stay parked up at the track in my HHR ‘motor home’ and awoke early on Sunday for the last day of SUPER DIRT WEEK. Instead of stopping for breakfast on the way, I grabbed a coffee to go and made my way directly to the Fairgrounds. I wanted to get a good parking spot on the center and close to the pits. This I managed to do, and once parked I had a picnic breakfast with some of the stuff I’d bought the day before.

This was the final day of SUPER DIRT WEEK and the headline SEF 200 was taking place, for the mighty Big Block Modifieds, but before this could happen we had the 30 lap Pro Stock feature.

This is always a spectacular affair and I had plenty of  friends taking part in it. Compared to previous years, this race was completed without any major wrecks with Rocky Warner of Gloversville NY taking the honors.

After a short break the pomp and ceremony started for the build up to the SEF 200, the climax of the weeks events. The USA and Canadian National Anthems were played very tastefully on a saxophone by a local musician before we heard those famous words ‘Gentleman , start your engines’.

I don’t mind admitting, that 200 lap races ( especially on a large track such as this) fail to keep my attention and as normal I didn’t watch all the race.

I took photos in my usual spot for the first part of the race before going for a wander around.

I then viewed some of it in the media room on TV  before watching the last sector from pit row.

When I ‘rejoined the race’ from the front stretch Stewart Friesen was fighting off a challenge from Jimmy Phelps while trying to conserve fuel. A few late race cautions worked to his advantage as he amazingly made a tank of fuel and the same set of tires last for 132 laps. He crossed the line ahead of Phelps and Jimmy Horton , to make history as the first Canadian to win the event.

What’s even more amazing, is the fact that only the day before he’d been involved in that scary 358 Modified wreck. There were a lot of us proud Canadians after the race that had nothing but praise for what Stewart had accomplished.

Once I’d taken my victory Lane shots, I made my exit and before too long was heading back up Interstate 81. After stopping at the Ponderosa in Watertown, I was back home in Cornwall, before 10-00 pm.