RICK @ the RACES ( 7 /8 Aug 2010)

7 Aug           Brockville Ontario Speedway

Well, this weeks report will be a short and sweet one, after Mother Nature and work commitments reduced my weekly race tally to just one event. As usual, a busy work day on Friday meant no racing that night.

I had originally thought about getting up early on Saturday morning and traveling to the Watkins Glen Circuit , but to be honest, I was pretty much ‘burned out’,  decided to stay local and go to the Brockville Ontario Speedway. It was a regular weekly show consisting of Modifieds, Sportsman , Street Stocks and Rookie’s.

At the start of the night I made my usual tour of the pits and chatted to most of my driver friends.

During the evening I took delivery of some ‘RICKATTHERACES’ decals that I’d ordered , and I must admit, I’m very happy with the finished result.

They are the good quality vinyl type in full color. They feature the Canadian, UK and USA flags, the Rick at the Races logo and of course some racy looking checkers. The idea is to try and get them on some of the race cars that I take pictures of .

The first to apply one was Ralph Murphy who stuck one on each side of his daughter Tabatha’s SPORTSMAN. Next ones to follow were Josh Kane (SPORTSMAN) and Matt Billings (Modified).. Thanks guys !

While the warm up laps were taking place, I was given permission to take pictures from the starters rostrum , which gave me some interesting shots of the race cars.

That was quite a neat experience !

Once the racing got going I joined track photographer Henry Hannewyk on the middle to snap the action.

By Brockville standards, things were quite placid, with no major wrecks this week, so most of my pics were side by side action shots.

We had a pleasant surprise in the SPORTSMAN feature where Dana Aikens of Wellesley Island (NY) fought off Chris Herbison, Dylan Evoy and Chris Raabe to grab his first win in this division.

Todd Raabe won the Street Stocks event and Nolan Swamp the Rookies

The Modifieds also gave us a new face in Victory Lane when Tim O’Brien took the honors. His elder brothers Pat and Danny have been there many times at the BOS but this was a first for Tim, who conveniently did on the night that his car owners ‘Jims Performance Plus’ were sponsoring the races.

The next day it was the turn of the Cornwall Motor Speedway for their regular Sunday night show. As normal I was there early, and arrived at around 2-00 pm just as a few sprinkles of rain began. The forecast had not looked good, but you always have to be optimistic. As I got out of my car the rain got heavier and it looked like the weather man was right. With the rain pouring down and plenty more on it’s way ( according to the radar) the races were canceled.

By now it was 2-30 pm and I wondering if I should take a ‘gamble’. A few weeks ago when wet weather effected my area, I got lucky by driving up to the Drummondville, Quebec races to miss the rain.

There just happened to be a 100 lap Modified race taking place at the Motodrome St Marcel (RPM) between St Hyacinthe and Sorel so I decided to go for it, and take the chance. I jumped into my car an headed for Quebec. By the time I reached Montreal I’d driven out of the rain and was beginning to feel quite hopeful.

I’m in Montreal most days of the week ( with my job) and know most of the ways around the bottle necks, but on this occasion I made a wrong decision. I assumed that on a Sunday afternoon things would be quieter and chose to go via the Fontaine Tunnel. Well, I guess there must have been an accident or something, because the approach to the tunnel was at a stand still. As soon as I could , pulled into the Galleries De Anjou and found the nearest Tim Horton’s, so I could assess the situation. At the same time, that big mass of rain I’d seen on the radar back in Cornwall, had caught up with me. It was now 5-15 pm , pouring down with rain and the races were due to begin in 45 minutes time.

At this point , I decided to throw in the towel, and return home. Later that night, I found out from one of my Face Book friends Josée Poisson who was there, that the races got canceled after the first two heats. So, as you see, it was a quiet week for yours truly.