RICK @ the RACES (April 17/18 2009)

Saturday 18 April         Canandaigua Speedway NY

This past weekend heralded the start of the 2009 Dirt racing season in my part of the world with a double header at the Can Am Speedway, Lafargeville NY. Can Am is one of the ‘border tracks’ and located only a twenty minute drive down I 81 from the Canadian/USA frontier at 1000 Islands.

On Friday night they were hosting the second round of the SPORTSMAN SUPER DIRTCAR SERIES ( the opening round at the Black Rock Speedway NY was held two weeks ago and won by Sammy Reakes IV )

Friday’s are my busiest work day and I rarely finish early, so as expected had to miss out . Winner of the big race was Chris Raabe # 01 of Napanee (Ont)

I was looking forward to attending Saturdays show , day two of the Can Am spectacular which featured the opening round of the 358 MODIFIED SUPER DIRTCAR SERIES. Alas, I woke on Saturday morning to rain and drizzle, and after checking various weather related web-sites, I found the same was predicted later in the day at Lafargeville.

I had a feeling that Can Am might get canceled, so purposely left home in Long Sault (Ont) earlier than normal so I could be there early.

It started raining as I crossed the Johnstown/Ogdensburg border and it got worse, the further I traveled. I arrived at the track at around 2-15pm just as the cancellation was announced. With the decision being made early, and me being in the right place at the right time, I now had three other ‘do-able’ alternatives.

I could either go to the Skyline Raceway ( nr Cortland NY) , the Five Mile Point Speedway(Binghampton NY)  or the Canandaigua Speedway (NY).

The Skyline Raceway was very tempting and it would have been a ‘new track’ for me, but after chatting to DIRTCAR official Cory Reed I decided on the Canandaigua option. He’d been on the phone and confirmed it was warm and sunny down there, and that’s where he was heading. I jumped back in to my car and followed him.

Two hours later I pulled into the Ontario County Fairgrounds where the track is located. The sun was shining and I was wearing just a T shirt on my first pit walk about. Headline division were the Big Block Modifieds with Sportsman and Streetstox as the support.

One of the nicest looking cars in the pits was the Modified of local hero Gary Tomkins # 84 who I had a quick chat with.

There were two Canadian drivers amongst the Modified ranks, James Friesen # 52 from Ontario and Dexter Stacey , son of Wallace # 66w of Quebec.

Most of the evening, I stationed myself in the center , on turn three and four with the other photographers. My Glasgow born , St Catherine’s Ontario buddy Alex Bruce was helping me figure out the settings on my newly acquired flash attachment. The racing was first class and both Modified and Streetstox features provided nail-biting finishes. Matt Shepherd # 9 held on for the Modified win from Gary Tomkins after a late caution provided a ‘green, white, checkers’ situation.

The show was over before 10-30 pm and it wasn’t long before I was out of the gate and heading for home. For the return trip, I chose the 1000 Islands border crossing and after clearing customs by 1-00am I was soon pulling into the Mallory Town Tim Hortons on HWY 401.

Just beating me in the line up for coffee was the Wallace Stacey team , who’d also made pretty good time getting away from the races. Wallace owns Bully’s Truck Stop on Hwy 132 in Kahnewake ( Montreal) which I frequent occasionally during my working day. I sat shooting the breeze with them for a while before going back to Long Sault.

OTHER STUFF

During the week I had a message and some photos sent to me from my buddy Robert Wilms in the Netherlands.

He was at the preview and ‘demonstration day’ of the new RACEWAY VENRAY. From 1977 until I emigrated to Canada in 1994 , I was a regular visitor to the Baarlo AutoSpeedway (near Venlo NL). Not long after my trans-Atlantic relocation the track was forced to close down, leaving a void for local racers. A new tack was built not far away at Venray which also proved very popular until environmental issues ( or B/S as I prefer to call it ! ) forced it too to close. In its place promoter Harry Maessen has built a brand new facility, and this is what Robert went to see last weekend. It looks good, check out the photos.