RICK @ the RACES ( 19/20 Sept 2009)
19 Sept Autodrome Drummond , Drummondville , Que
20 Sept Cornwall Motor Speedway, Ont.
Once again a busy Friday at work affected my racing plans, and I ended up missing the penultimate night of the Capital City Speedway season . I didn’t get finished until 8-30 which was too late for me to get there. I’m hoping for better luck this coming Friday for the 2009 finale.
On Saturday (Sept 19) I was joined by my buddy Jim Clarke, the media officer for the Kawartha Speedway (Ont) on a trip to the Autodrome Drummond in Quebec. Jim lives in Belleville, so he drove up to my place in Cornwall where we traveled up together in his Chevy Impala. It made a nice change for me to sit back, relax and be chauffeured to the races.
Originally Saturdays races were to be part two of a weekend show consisting of SUPER DIRT SERIES races for both Big Block and 358’s. Fridays part one, the Big Block event was canceled due to poor weather and postponed to Sunday.
The 358’s were scheduled for Saturday, it was a lovely sunny day, and that’s what we were going there to see.
We arrived early and already the pits were starting to fill up.
Before the competition got under way 53 small block entries had signed on.
The $10,000 to win 150 lapper was split into two segments with a mandatory pit stop for ‘maintenance’ at the 75 lap point. Larry Wight led for the first 12 laps before Brett Hearn came past to take control. Hearn built up a commanding lead and stayed there up until lap 55 when an out side rear tire let go forcing him to make a quick pit stop. The tire factor on this very slick track was to provide plenty of drama in the coming laps. Wight regained his lead and held on to it until the half-time pause.
On the restart Jimmy Phelps grabbed the lead, while Pete Bicknell , Pat O’Brien and Danny Johnson were in hot pursuit. Hearn was not too far behind after carving his way through the pack back in to contention. As the race drew to a close it looked like Phelps had it in the bag even though his outside rear looked ready to ‘pop’ at any time .
The 150 lap race then turned into 171 laps after a series of cautions due to tire failures ( not Phelps) meant a sequence of ‘green, white, checkers’. Eventually the flag fell as Phelps crossed the line first with Hearn and Johnson on his tale. It was a race full of drama and one of the best SUPER DIRT SERIES races I’ve witnessed for a long time.
Jim and I had other commitments the following day, so were not there for Sunday’s show to see Matt Sheppard take the Big Block race.
A great weekend of racing at Autodrome Drummond was marred by the unthinkable turn of events that happened to the Michael Storms , Vinny Salerno owned racing team from New Jersey. Their race hauler and it’s contents were stolen from the Hotel where they were staying.
The full story can be heard if you go to www.dougsdirtdiary.com and then go to the audio section and listen to Doug’s interview with Vinny. It’s very sad and I hope that anyone with information gets in touch with Vinny or the authorities.
I was a lot later getting home from Drummondville than expected. Would you believe that in the middle of the night (1-30am) we were stuck for over 30 minutes in construction delays in central Montreal ? Yep, they had chosen to do major work near to the Mercier Bridge !
I crawled in to bed at about 4-00am on Sunday morning and was up by 9-00am . I had to get ready for my duties at the season finale at the Cornwall Motor Speedway. The racing was scheduled to start at 2-00pm but I needed to be there a lot earlier.
Headlining the program was a DIRT SPORTSMAN Special backed up by the regular divisions,
Rookies, Semi Pro’s and Pro Stocks. To finish off the day a Demo Derby took place on the front stretch. 
Jean-Marc Larose not only won the Rookie feature, but clinched the track championship. Gaetan Amesse took the Semi Pro Feature 
Joey Ladouceur made it look easy in the Pro Stock event.
The SPORTSMAN Special was dominated as expected by Napanee, Ontario’s ‘Teenage Tornado’ Chris Raabe the current Mr DIRT SPORTSMAN Champion. When watching his driving style it’s like witnessing a perfectionist at work. This year he made his debut on the paved circuits, and there’s been a lot of talk about him moving on to greater things. Most people automatically think of NASCAR but I personally think he should set his goal even higher and try for road course stuff. I’m talking about F1 Grand Prix cars, I think he’s got what it takes !
This time last year I was in the UK watching another type of F1 race car, not the Grand Prix variety but the BriSCA F1’s. I was over there for the BriSCA F1 World Final at the Foxhall Stadium in Ipswich.
Well September is the traditional time for this event and this past Saturday while I was up at Drummondville this years big race was taking place at the Kings Lynn Speedway in Norfolk.
Thanks to my ‘facebook friends’ , Carlo Dries from Luxembourg and Peggy Anne Lilley in the UK, I knew the result when I returned from Quebec.
Congrats go out to Rochdale’s Andy Smith who retained his title. Last year he won it on the paved ‘Foxhall’ and this year the dirt of Kings Lynn.