BUDDIES BLOGS
Border Patrol – A weekly Look At Racing from both sides of the 1000 Islands
Craig Revelle – August 30, 2009
After
a couple of weeks of summer, the cool, damp and dreary days have returned to
rain on the parade of race fans, drivers, track owners and everyone involved in
auto racing. Friday night, a
forecasted late evening rain led to disappointment as the dark gray clouds
rolled in early and virtually surrounded the Can Am Motorsports Park. Despite a
few sprinkles that fell, the show went on, and the racing was exceptional.
Saturday night the Brockville Ontario Speedway was forced to cancel due
to rain, but our neighbor to the south, Thunder Alley Speed Park was able to get
their show in, and with an early rainout at the BOS, I made the short trip
across the river, to Evans Mills, New York.
Friday started out with the sun
shining, and hardly a cloud in the sky during the morning, but the clouds
gradually moved in, and by race time, rain was in the area.
After moving the show along through the qualifying heats, track officials
began to line up the feature events,
In the Modified feature, Justin
Haers continued his impressive Can Am runs with the win.
This was Justin’s 6th Can Am win in just 13 starts this
season. Point leader Billy Dunn was
second, veteran racer Ted Lamb was third followed by Tim O’Brien and Chris
Higgins. Lamb led the first 13 laps before Haers took over the lead.
The Sportsman feature was a
fantastic duel between two teenage superstars, Chris Raabe and Matt Billings. Going into the night, Raabe had a slim four point lead over
Billings. In the late stages of the
event, Raabe held the lead, but Billings made a pass using the outside lane.
Less than a lap later it was Raabe getting the top spot back.
A Billings’ win would have sent the two drivers tied for first place
overall heading into this weekend’s final points event. However, it was Raabe scoring the win over Billings, and a
mere 8 points now separate them. Following
Raabe and Billings across the finish line were Matt Hulsizer, Brandon Sweet and
Kenny Bearup.
Lansdowne racer Steve Barber
made his Sportsman debut at Can Am, started at the back of the 28-car field and
finished an impressive 15th place.
Barber purchased the car a few weeks back from Pat O’Brien, and plans
to finish out the year at Brockville in the 4cylidner division before making the
jump to Sportsman full time next season.
Chris Thurston, a name
synonymous with racing at Can Am Motorsports Park picked up the IMCA Modified
win. The Thurston family ran the Lafargeville, New York track from
the mid 1970’s through to the end of the 2000 racing season.
Kenny Hamm was the Street Stock winner, and JR Durham won the Thunder Car
feature. The Pure Stocks and Late
Models were postponed because of light rain that began to fall after the
Sportsman feature.
While Can Am was able to dodge
most of the raindrops on Friday night, the Brockville Ontario Speedway wasn’t
so lucky on Saturday. Persistent
rain Saturday morning, and expected to last into the evening forced the
Brockville Speedway track officials to cancel the evening’s events.
With Brockville canceling their
show early, I quickly searched for an alternate plan, and after checking the
weather radar, and talking to friends en route to the track, I decided that I
would make the trip to Evans Mills, New York, and the Thunder Alley Speed Park.
Thunder Alley runs the
Sportsman division as their headline class, and they put on a great race to end
the season. It was the final night
of racing for the season at the track, and champions were crowned in all
divisions.
The Sportsman feature was won
by Kenny Bearup, but not after defending a serious threat from back to back
champion Chris Raabe, who was looking to end the season at the track with
another win. While Bearup took the
win, Mike Trapp finished second, Luke Whitteker took advantage of the Brockville
rainout and finished third, Billy Clark and Raabe rounded out the top five.
Raabe was crowned champion for 2009.
The IMCA feature was won by
Kevin Cook, with Ryan Scott getting the track championship.
Dave Mannise took home the checkered flag in the Street Stock class, but
it was Dave Pope winning the season long championship.
Mike Bruce was the Mod Lite winner, with Rich Rainville named track
champion, Steven Gilmore was the Pure Stock winner with David Rogers winning the
championship and in the Thunder Cars, Zak Petrie capped off his
championship-winning season with a victory.
Sunday, the Cornwall was set to
host the final round of the Lucas Oil Quebec-Ontario Challenge, but once again,
rain was the deciding factor. Mother
Nature has hit Ron Morin’s Cornwall Motor Speedway hard this season, raining
out another event at the immaculate facility.
This coming weekend, the final
weekend of points will be upon us. At
Can Am, Chris Raabe and Matt Billings will settle the Can Am Championship in the
Sportsman, while at Brockville, Billings finds himself entrenched in battle with
Randy Gaudet and Shane Pecore for the elusive Brockville Sportsman Championship.
With last weekend’s rainout, Danny O’Brien and Steven Billings have a
virtual lock on repeating as Modified and Street Stock Champions while Steve
Barber holds a slim four point lead over Chris Bakker in the Rookie class.
Cornwall Speedway will host the
Small Block Modified Super DIRTcar Series, an annual Cornwall Labor Day Weekend
event, which puts the top Small Block Modified Competitors against the Cornwall
Motor Speedway regulars. Kyle
Dingwall has been named Cornwall Speedway track champion for 2009.
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