RICK @ the RACES ( 8 MAR 2008)

MOTORSPORTS EXPO 2008 , Syracuse NY.

Just one week ago I was looking forward to the big plans I had for 8/9 Mar ( this past weekend). I was to spend one day at AMEC’s proposed new ice track at Saranac Lake NY , and the other day at the MOTORSPORTS EXPO SHOW in Syracuse NY.

It didn’t matter which day I went to either, as they were both weekend events. The first disappointment came at the beginning of the week when I heard that the ice racing event had been canceled. It was now down to just the Syracuse trip, but as the weekend approached ‘Environment Canada’ were giving warning of a huge ‘mother’ of a winter storm heading our way .

Shall I go Saturday ? Shall I go Sunday ? or Shall I stay at home ? Decisions, Decisions !

Joining me for the trip was my racing buddy, Roger Aubin, a long time DIRT racing fan , who’s also from Maxville Ontario like me. We planned to use his Ford Escape SUV and were to decide first thing on Saturday morning if we were going or not.

I was up at the crack of dawn and although I had to shovel an overnight accumulation of about 8 inches of snow from my driveway , it had stopped falling and the sky was quite bright.

A phone call was made to Roger ,  we were both willing to take the chance, and were on the road by 7-45 am.

Soon after joining the 401 ( Motorway) near to Cornwall ( Ont) the snow started coming down again and the roads got slicker. We passed at least four vehicles upside down, and plenty of others that had been abandoned after spinning out the previous night. It wasn’t long before we came to a halt, parked behind a fire truck and other emergency crews dealing with a spun out transport truck ( articulated lorry to my UK readers) . We sat there for half an hour as the snow came down heavier.

It was at this point that I wondered whether we should scratch the trip and head for home, but we decided to go as far as Brockville before turning round. By then the snow had eased off so we continued with our plans, crossing the border into the USA at 1000 Islands.

It was still snowing lightly, but thirty minutes later after reaching Watertown NY, it had stopped, with just regular rain to contend with as we continued on to Syracuse.

After lunch at the Ponderosa buffett at Pulaski , we arrived at the show, at 1-30pm.

The first car I noticed as we entered the hall was the beautiful yellow Saab Street Stox of my AMEC friends Claude and Claude Jnr. Hutchings. During the summer when they’re not racing on the ice , young Claude competes at the Brewerton Speedway NY where he won the Championship last year. He told me he’d be racing a DIRT Sportsman at Fulton Speedway in 2008.

It’s amazing, how many friends you make in the world of racing.

After traveling many miles in treacherous conditions I always seam to bump into plenty of people I know, race fans, drivers officials and fellow media members. I also chatted briefly to a few of the top DIRT Modified drivers , Gary Tomkins, Dale Planck and Justin Haers. ( Gary , he’d recently returned from a racing trip to Australia) . ( Dale, he’d got his new car on display fresh from his win in the Winternationals at the Volusia Speedway FL),  and as for Justin, I’ve known him since I helped him and a few other SUPERDIRT SERIES teams find their way through the streets of Ottawa on their way to Autodrome Edelweiss about five years ago. One of my local Modified drivers, Brian McDonald ( Cornwall Ont) was also there, with his ESS Sprint Car that he’ll be racing in 2008.

Although Central New York is generally accepted as being ‘DIRT Country’ there was also a good representation from the paved tracks, with Mods Super Mods and Late Models on show.

The three day show also featured the crowning of the 2008 Miss DIRTCAR

( Oh that new name of DIRTCAR really annoys me !  it sounds so silly, What was wrong with the plain and simple name of DIRT MOTORSPORTS ? )

Any way, I’ll get off my soap box , and tell you that the new Miss DIRTCAR is the lovely Miss Jo Marie Rankin from Pennsylvania. Like most good car shows there were plenty of pretty girls adding glamour to the cars and trade booths.

Just as Roger and I were about to leave one such girl asked us if we’d like to enter a draw for a Florida vacation. Why not, I thought, and as we filled out the forms we struck up a conversation.It turned out to be Bob McCreadies daughter.

Well like I said earlier, Roger has been going DIRT racing for many years and ‘Barefoot’ Bob, and  son Timmy are a couple of his favorite drivers. He could remember when she was a just very young girl. That really made his day, and a photo session had to be done !

By now we’d spent two hours at the show, and with all the weather forecasters predicting another big storm that evening, we left Syracuse at 3-30 pm with the plan to get back home before the roads got too bad.

Everything was fine until we got to Watertown when the nasty stuff started . Snow and freezing rain made the going difficult and the nearer we got to the border, the worse it got.

Once back into Canada, the trip up the 401 was really slow. The road was covered in ice and snow and the strong wind made visibility difficult. After a quick stop for supper at the ‘730 TRUCKSTOP’ it was an 80 kph crawl back to Maxville, where another eight inches of snow had accumulated.

It was so nice to get back home and relax with a ‘cold one’ while the white stuff continued to fall. By Sunday morning it was so deep , I was ‘snowed in’ until the mid-afternoon,  when two plows and back-hoe ( JCB ) arrived to dig me out. I’m glad we didn’t wait until Sunday to make the trip