RICK @ the RACES   (3/4/5/6 Sept)

3 Sept                       Mohawk International Raceway, Hogansburg, NY

4 Sept                       Brockville Ontario Speedway, Ont

5 Sept                       Cornwall Motor Speedway, Ont

6  Sept                      Rolling Wheels Raceway Park, Elbridge, NY

This weeks report features the Labor Day Long Weekend which is the traditional end to most of domestic track championships in my area. The North East was experiencing a crazy heat wave leading up to Friday and I was looking forward to a full agenda. I missed out on Wednesday nights rescheduled ( because of rain) World of Outlaw Late Model show at the Mohawk International Raceway due to work commitments, but I did get to hear the race !

As I sat on my deck late in the evening at home in the East end of Cornwall (Ont) supping a ‘cold one’, I heard the roar of the engines drifting across the St Lawrence Seaway from Hogansburg NY. Just imagine how frustrating that was !

An unexpected early finish at work allowed me to dash across the International Bridge to Fridays races at the MIR. I even had time to wander around the pits and eat before it started. I’ve said it before, that the food there is some of the best on offer around the tracks.

It had been another sweltering hot day and as I joined track photographer Andy Watts on the center I made sure I was armed with plenty of Mosquito repellent. The MIR ‘Mozzies’ always seem to be attracted to me ! Even though the weather had been hot and sunny the forecast predicted rain and colder temperatures, so the program was hurried along as quickly as possible.

The heat races were all over in 30 minutes and after a brief intermission the Modified Consi took place. Before the Frenchie’s Chevrolet 50 lap Modified feature, there was a drivers introduction as well as a tribute to four close friends of the MIR that passed away during the last year.

From the back of a ‘Frenchies Chevrolet’ flat bed truck four torches were lit in honor of Mark Smoke, Mitchell Jock , Richard Herne and my good friend Mike Watts.

Once the racing got started, there was no doubt who was in command as Dale Planck dominated , and by the time the checkers had fallen, he’d almost lapped the entire field.

Ricky Thompson won the Pro Stock Feature while Chris Raabe got his win # 28 for the year in the Sportsman division.

My original plans for Saturday were to add a new track to my port-folio and meet up with Roland Vanden Eynde, (Europe’s leading TRACKCHASER) and his girlfriend Aline. For quite a while I’ve been receiving Roland’s Track Chasing reports and was looking forward to meeting him for the first time and a trip to the Riverside Speedway at St Croix , Quebec.

They were flying in to Canada from their home in Vilvorde, Belgium for a TRACKCHASING trip. As they arrived at the airport for departure, their airline had some bad news for them. They were informed that they’d over booked and no seats were available for them. The airlines answer was to offer them tickets with another carrier via a different route. This was not acceptable , and as a result their trip had to be canceled. This kind of situation stinks and airlines should not be allowed to get away with doing business this way .

Once I heard the bad news, my Saturday plans were changed completely and I made my usual visit to the Brockville Ontario Speedway.

From the unbearable heat wave of mid week , it had now turned a lot colder and the wind was blowing with the effects of Hurricane Earl that had hit Maritime Canada. My shorts and T shirt were replaced by a sweater and jacket while other race fans huddled under blankets in the grandstands.

As usual , I was there early and did my regular pre race wander around the pits.

Six more of my RICK @ the RACES decals were added to the cars of my race driver friends. The Mini Stock of Jean Marc Larose and the 358 Modifieds of Bobby Herrington, Danny O’Brien, Dave Heaslip , Stephane LaFrance and ‘Stock Car’ Steve Bilow.

The big change in weather made me think twice about staying on the center all night !

So once I’d got a few action photos from the heats, I retired to the safe side of the fence and became a normal race fan for the rest of the night.

Bobby Herrington had his car ‘hooked up’ just right and won the 358 Feature in a continuous green flag race. If there had been a caution, the result may have been different as Danny O’Brien had been closing the gap in the closing stages.

Dylan Evoy got his second consecutive win in the Sportsman division, Cole Dingwall took the Vintage , Kevin Fetterly got another victory in the Street Stocks while young Josh Kirkland was the Rookie winner.

Pat O’Brien was crowned 2010 this years 358 Mod Champion.

The program was pushed along quickly because of the chilly conditions and I was on my way home by 10-30 pm.

The first thing I did when I got home, was to check the internet for an important result. While I was at the BOS the BriSCA F1 World Final was taking place at the Coventry Speedway in England and I was anxious to know who’d won.

I’d been chatting earlier in the evening about it with Dave Heaslip. Back in 2003 he raced in the big event at Coventry driving a loaned Mark Woodhull car.

I had been the ‘middle man’ in the organizing of that trip, following Laurent Ladouceur being the first Canadian World Final representative in 2001.

Since then I’ve always hoped that Canada would be included again, but to no avail. It did look promising for this year but , for some reason it didn’t materialize.

Thanks go out to Dave ‘Smiffyman’ Smith for his Facebook message relaying the results and by Sunday lunchtime, I’d received a ‘YOU TUBE’ link from ex-pat David Kipling in Vancouver BC.

From what I can see, this years race looked like a bit of ‘procession’ with defending champion Andy Smith having a virtually unchallenged drive to the checkers. I was hoping Paul Hines # 259 would do well, as I knew him when he was just a young kid. Derek his dad and I were friends and as we stood watching the races together back in the 1980’s my daughter Carla and Paul would keep each other company. (I often remember buying them both candies to keep them occupied during the less interesting parts of the night) . I see that the race gets red flagged following a big first bend wreck and on the restart Paul leads briefly before his clutch lets go and he gets spun round.

Here is the link for the race… enjoy

The weather was not much better on Sunday for the Cornwall Motor Speedway’s JIFFY 150 , the traditional Finale to the regular racing season ( the Enduro brings down the curtain next Sunday afternoon) The Jiffy 150 consists of a 100 lap SUPER DIRT SERIES race for 358 Modifieds as well as a 50 lapper for Pro Stocks. Added to this were the regular divisions of Sportsman, Semi Pro’s and Mini Stocks.

Just like Saturday, the wind was blowing and it wasn’t very warm. There were also threats of rain so once again a slick presentation was needed to beat the elements. There were a few sprinkles through out the night but the show pressed on with no major delays. As normal the Mini Stock Feature took place before the intermission, which provided another win for Mike Gaucher.

There were 40 Modifieds in attendance and 31 of them took the green for the 100 lapper.

With Series leader Danny ‘ the Doctor’ Johnson, sitting on pole, many people must have wrongly predicted the result !  It just shows that anything can happen in racing.

Johnson looked good throughout the race with Lee Ladouceur seriously challenging in the early stages, but once Danny O’Brien got going, the ‘Pocket Rocket’ was on a mission. It didn’t take long for O’Brien to pass ‘the Doctor’ with brother Pat hot on his heels in third.

As Pat got passed Johnson, the question in everyones minds was which of the O’Brien brothers would be in Victory Lane. Danny was happily keeping ahead on the top groove as Pat chose the lower . When the checkers fell, Danny was still at the front, Pat had kept his second while Danny Johnson took third.

Before the races, Danny along with Pro Stock driver Joey Ladouceur had added RICK @ the RACES decals to their cars.

The 50 lap Pro Stock Feature, ( as I expected ) dragged out for quite a while with numerous cautions, but at the end of it all, Ricky Thompson got his second win of the weekend.

The Sportsman Feature saw Shane Pecore get his first Cornwall victory with assistant starter Bradley Pecore , his brother, the first on the scene to congratulate him. The night ( and regular season) came to an end with the Semi Pro’s where Nico Leblanc took the honors.

In July when I was back in the UK for my Mum and Dads anniversary , Mitch Jock, won of my race driver friends sadly passed away. In his memory the David family put up two cash bonus awards for the nights Hard Chargers in the Modified and Pro Stocks divisions ( Mitch competed in both over the years) .

Modified winner was Rick Richner and the Pro Stock award went to Cory Wheeler.

The 2010 Cornwall Motor Speedway Champions were, Laurent Ladouceur (358 Modifieds) Chris Raabe (Sportsman) Joey Ladouceur (Pro Stock) Geatan Amesse (Semi Pro) and Ronnie Tyo ( Mini Stock).

Once the racing was over the traditional end of season party took place in the pits. This usually goes on until the early hours, so with plans for another racing trip the next day, yours truly had to miss out on this one.

On the Labor Day Holiday Monday I made my usual visit to the Rolling Wheels Raceway at Elbridge , New York for their annual Robert N Petrocci Memorial race for Big Block Modifieds.

I took a leisurely drive down to central New York after crossing into the USA at Ogdensburg. I arrived early and had plenty of time to take a snooze in the back of my car before the action started. My Chevy HHR has the rear seats folded down with a bed made up, and my plans were to stay overnight at the track.

Even though this race is no longer a SUPER DIRT SERIES event, all the tour regulars were present. After my pre race pit wander, the cars of Dale Planck and Lance Willix became the latest to wear the RICK @ the RACES decal.

The weather had turned a bit warmer and I was back in my shorts and T Shirt when I joined my New York photographer friends Mike Johnson and Jay Fish on the inside of the fourth turn.

The track was in quite a rough state and many of the top cars ‘broke’ during the heats. Throughout the night and in between races, constant attention was given to it by the graders and by Feature time it had improved quite a lot.

Once again Mother Nature was teasing us, and with rain on the radar the show was quickly moved along.

Just like Brockville, I got enough racing shots from the heats to keep me happy and decided to watch the main events from the grandstands.

Brett Hearn won the Modified Feature from Danny Johnson and Jimmy Phelps while Jip Ortiz took the Sportsman event.

Both features were run in very dusty conditions even though it had sprinkled with rain.

As planned, I slept in the HHR after the races and drove back to Cornwall the next day. The trip worked out well, with Tuesdays now being my regular day off, I hadn’t got to be back at work until Wednesday.