Rick at the Races

RICK @ the RACES ( 1 to 5 July 2009)

1 July Capital City Speedway (Ottawa Ont )

4 July Genesee Speedway (Batavia NY)

5 July Cornwall Motor Speedway

This weeks report begins on July 1 , better known to Canadians as CANADA DAY .

There’s not many better places to spend this special day than in the nations capital especially if it involves auto racing.

I went along to the Capital City Speedway at Stittsville for the full program that was on offer. Canada Day being a public holiday meant the celebrations started early with a band playing from noon.

All the divisions put on a good show with Kevin Foisey taking the Legend Feature and Tim Dorning the Late Model event.

To finish the evening there was a display of fireworks.

As usual I was back to work for a couple of days until Friday where once more I was lucky and finished at a sensible time to go racing. Problem was, it was raining everywhere and all the local tracks had been canceled. I guess I wasn’t so lucky ! and had to have a night at home.

Earlier in the year, when I was attending the Cornwall Motor Speedway banquet, I struck up a conversation with long time friend and Dirt Pro Stock driver , Joey Ladouceur about the tracks I’ve visited over the years. I happened to mention one of the New York Speedways that was still on my ‘hit list’. That track was the Genesee Speedway at Batavia. Joey told me of his intentions to race at the DIRTCAR Series that was to be staged there later in the year and if I wanted to go along with him, I could.

We kept in touch on this subject, and last Saturday, July 4, (the special day for my American friends) I joined him, crewman Francois Lavigne and DIRTCAR official Brian Mulligan for the long haul down there. Joey who transports his DIRT Pro Stock in a long enclosed trailer towed behind a former Ambulance picked me up at 9-30 in the morning.

Batavia is situated in between Rochester and Buffalo and we arrived at the track , mid afternoon.

It’s a typical small ‘Fairgrounds’ type track of about a quarter of a mile in length. Racing started, earlier than most tracks , at 6-00pm, which is necessary to accommodate all the divisions on offer.

They included four and eight cylinder Stock Cars, Sportsman, Late Models, Sprint Cars and ‘top of the bill’ on this occasion was the DIRTCAR Pro Stocks for a 40 lap DIRTCAR Series race.

Our early arrival enabled me to check out the place and watch the race teams arrive. With it being an important Series race, we weren’t the only ones to make the long five hour haul. There were many others from Eastern Ontario and the St Lawrence Seaway area of upstate New York as well as lone Quebecer, Stephane Lebrun of Gatineau.

Once the racing got going I stationed myself on the center with Genesee track photographer Michelle Mullen. I normally bump into her in Syracuse during SUPER DIRT WEEK and it was a pleasure to see her again.

She arrived at the track clutching a cup of Tim Hortons coffee, the great Canadian institution. A cup of ‘Timmy’s is one thing most of us from north of the border miss on our sorties to the south, and Michelle informed me they had a shop there in Batavia. Looks like , the Canadian coffee shop chain is expanding more into the States as I hear a few are springing up in Western New York.

The big race of the night provided fans with a race long duel between Joey and Pete Stefanski. Joey took the lead just before the half way point and looked set to keep Stefanski at bay until a late caution changed things. On the restart, Pete got the advantage and charged by in the last few yards to the checkers.

Following the races a group of us gathered in the pits by Louie Jacksons hauler where he’d got a TV set up. We were able to watch the last 30 laps of the thrilling NASCAR Cup race from Daytona. Oh what a finish ! with young Kyle Busch getting involved in all sorts of trouble after attempting to block Tony Stewart. The end of the race looked more like a demolition derby.

I enjoyed my first visit to the Genesee Speedway. It became track # 175 on my TRACKCHASING totals

We left Genesee around 11-00 pm for the long overnight ride back to Ontario. After checking out the Batavia branch of Tim Hortons , Joey drove us to Syracuse. To give him a break, I then offered to take over, and took the wheel of the hauler as far as the Canadian border. That brought back memories, it was the first time for many years I’ve towed a stock car. (it was back in England during the 1980’s). We all needed to be back in Canada for the next days races at the Cornwall Motor Speedway and I got home at 4-30am in the morning.

It was a big day at our local track with a DIRTCAR Series event for SPORTSMAN and a Mohawk Racing Parts Series for Pro Stocks. After we’d all caught up on some sleep we were there for the evening show.

The sun had been shining all day and the pits were full of cars. Cornwall don’t normally run SPORTSMAN as a regular division but this special event attracted plenty of competitors from all over the North East.

The big race was won by current DIRTCAR SPORTMAN Champion Chris Raabe from Napanee , Ont after being constantly pressured by New Yorks Brandon Sweet. Valcour, Quebec driver Guy Ouellette was third.