RICK @ the RACES (22/23/24 May 2009)

Capital City Speedway (Ottawa, Ont 2009)

Autodrome St Eustache (Que)

Cornwall Motor Speedway (Ont)

This past weekend was a busy one, which started on Friday night with a quick dash straight from work to the Capital City Speedway in Ottawa. By starting my shift two hours earlier, I managed to get finished by 5-00pm.This enabled me to be at the track before start time, and take advantage of the early evening sunshine for photo opportunities.

The Late Models were back on the program this week and it was good to see Derek Lynch from the Kawartha Speedway making an appearance. He told me that he hopes to be a regular visitor this year.

 

The Late Model Feature was won by young Justin Holtom. Taking the honors , in the other classes, were Brian Sehl (4 for Fun) ,

Mike Oakley ( Mini Stocks)

Gregg Ogilvie (Thunder Cars)

 Kevin Foisey (Legends).

When the racing was over,  I was feeling quite hungry, following my rush from work , so joined the speedway post race party at The Local Heroes , bar and eatery in Stittsville. It was quite late by the time I arrived home in Long Sault.

A week ago Mother Nature ‘wiped out’ most of the races on Saturday night with rain outs everywhere. One casualty was the Brockville Ontario Speedway’s season opener for Dirt Mods where I’d planned to go. The opener was therefore moved to this past weekend which I unfortunately had to miss. I’d prearranged to attend the Autodrome St Eustache in Quebec for the staging of the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series race.

I much prefer watching DIRT Modified racing, but when it’s possible I make an effort to see ‘quality’ events on the asphalt.  I don’t want to get ‘blinkered’ so try to see at least one event from this Series each year.

Since NASCAR took over from CASCAR a couple of years ago the Canadian Tire Series has been ‘hyped up’ by the media to become the premier Canadian Late Model tour for paved track fans.

With that so called ‘magical’ word of NASCAR added to the title, it has attracted plenty of publicity. St Eustache, is just a short drive ( about 90 minutes) from my place, so I wanted to be there.

I don’t mind admitting, that I have a hard time ‘getting into’ the NASCAR CANADIAN TIRE SERIES, (or it’s forerunner the CASCAR SUPER SERIES). Like I said, I give it a chance each year, but it still fails to grab my attention. Maybe it’s the longevity of the races, the St Eustache round was 250 laps. I’m not a great lover of long haul races, even on the DIRT circuits. In my opinion 100 laps are sufficient for the small domestic ovals such as this. I’ve always acknowledged the fact that these events give a lot of pleasure to many people so once again I decided to go along with an open mind in the hope of being entertained.

It was a warm and sunny day and I arrived soon after lunch. Mother Nature was being kind, unlike last years event I attended, which got postponed due to rain.

One of the first people I met was Greg MacPherson editor of Inside Track Racing News. He was busy, like me trying to gets some shots of the afternoon practice session.

While walking the pits I came across Dexter Stacey in the # 55 WHS Racing Pontiac. Dexter is the son of Wallace Stacey the Dirt Modified driver who’s Bully’s TruckStop sponsor Alan ‘Slideways’ Johnson. Just a few weeks back, while returning home to Canada from the Canandaigua Speedway NY , I’d joined them for a coffee and a chat. The St Eustache event was Dexter’s first race in a Late Model ( He’d been driving his 358 Dirt Modified at Autodrome Granby, the night before ! ) . He didn’t get much chance to practice as a clutch failure put him back in the pits for repairs. He did however, qualify for the big race and started at the rear.

Crowd favorite was Andrew Ranger, in the # 27 Walmart/Tide Ford Fusion who of course is another driver with DIRT racing roots (his father being former Dirt Mod driver Rob Ranger) .

Apart from the race cars, one other attraction in the pits for me was the race hauler of Scott Steckly, which is a real ‘head turner’, It’s one of the new International’s with the ‘retro’ treatment on the front end.

Sharing the program with the ‘tour cars’ were the NASCAR SPORTSMAN who had a 60 lap Feature, the Tobias ‘Rev Star’ Sprints and the four cylinder compact division.

I quite enjoyed the SPORTSMAN race, as 60 lappers are far more appealing to me. It was close fought between the first three who finished in this order, Martin Marcoux, Guy Jubinville and Steve Cote.

After a drivers autograph session on the front stretch the 250 lapper got under way. I sat in the pit bend Grandstand and saw various lead changes up until about 10-00pm, when after about 120 laps, I’d seen enough. After my early start for work on Friday, attending Capital City Speedway that night, then spending most of Saturday at St Eustache, I was ready for some rest. In my absence Dave Whitlock # 39 in the Dickies/NMT Dodge took the honors. The good Greg MacPherson was kind enough to send me a Victory Lane shot.

Once back in Long Sault, Ontario a good nights sleep was had before the next event on my agenda, the Sunday night races at the Cornwall Motor Speedway. I live less than ten minutes from the track, so could take it easy until the evening start time.

The first event on the program was the Semi Pro feature postponed from the previous week , which was followed by the regular nights races. Brent Kelsey won this one.

The Modified Feature came under red flag conditions twice following two spectacular wrecks.

The first was on the start line and involved a number of cars, while the second was for Billy Cook who did a wild flip on the first turn.

Thankfully no one was injured in either incident and once restarted the race developed into a good battle between Kayle Robidoux and Kyle Dingwall.

At the checker flag it was Robidoux who showed how much his luck can change in seven days.

Just one week ago he became the victim ( or ‘landing strip’) for the Brian McDonald roll over.

The Pro Stock main event provided a rare and welcome Feature win for George Renaud.

OTHER STUFF

This week I had a message from Ian Hall, another old buddy in the UK.

I’ve known Ian since the 1970’s. In the mid 1980’s he was regularly racing a BriSCA F1 stock car # 381 and I often helped out on his crew. The team were based in Southern England and raced as far afield as Scotland and the Netherlands. Last week , while we were getting rained out in Eastern Ontario and New York, Ian went to check out the action at a new track that’s just opened at Emmen in the Netherlands. I asked him how the trip went and he sent me this report and a photo of car # 67 ( my old racing number)
How did the trip go? GREAT, our hotel near Emmen was like Fawlty Towers!!, the weather could have been better, but then again even worse .nearly got stuck in field.
the track may be the same size as Coventry, but its not the same shape, wide bends (in & out of bend same shape) track surface  pathed concrete covered with shale/sand well prepared. plenty of cars three  F1 heats & two F2, Brits poor results (all grades visited) two leg affair next at Coventry. Track organisation very poor, even British drivers did not know what was going on. issues with noise levels many cars black flagged. surrounding area a mess, with other off road motor sport mud /sand water every where.Racing was good 217 should have won but with a restart with two laps from end the race was restarted unexpectedly on 1/2 bend leaving 217 behind, he tried to catch up but over did it and spin out twice. Dutch 67 won two races, should have also won on Sunday but crashed out.
found a small one man brewery on the way home

MORE INFO ABOUT THE EVENT CAN BE FOUND HERE   www.f1stockcars.com

Finaly…. I missed it on TV, but, I have to say ‘CONGRATS’ to David Reuteman, ( son of DIRT racing legend ‘Buzzie’) on winning his first NASCAR SPRINT CUP race at the rain-shortened Coca Cola 600 at Charlotte on Monday. I hope we see the blue and white # 00 in Victory Lane many more times in the future.