BUDDIES BLOGS
Border Patrol – A weekly Look At Racing from both sides of the 1000 Islands
Craig Revelle – June 24, 2009
One
of most anticipated weekends of the racing season finally arrived, and it was a
spectacular weekend filled with excitement.
It all started with the regular Friday night, and Saturday night tracks,
Can Am Motorsports Park, and the Brockville Ontario Speedway.
On Sunday night, the attention turned to the Cornwall Motor Speedway for
the World of Outlaw Late Models. The
Late Models are a traveling series, that hosts events all throughout the United
States, and just recently have added races here in Canada to their schedule.
Once the show wrapped up at Cornwall, the series then jumped the St.
Lawrence River and traveled to the Can-Am Motorsports Park on Monday evening for
their inaugural event at the fast half-mile Lafargeville, New York track.
Friday evening, I traveled to the Can Am
Motorsports Park. Can-Am was host
to a full show featuring the Big Block/Small Block Modifieds, Sportsman, IMCA
Modifieds, Street Stocks, Pure Stocks and Thunder Cars.
In the Big Block/Small Block Modifieds,
it was Watertown, New York driver Billy Dunn, starting deep in the 14 car field,
putting on a racing clinic, as he had a full straightaway lead over second place
Justin Haers at times during the 30 lap event.
Dunn took home the popular win, with Haers in second, Frankie Caprara
finished third, followed by strong Small Block competitors Bill Gill, and
Kingston, Ontario driver Tim Obrien.
The Sportsman division has become the
most exciting class of cars to watch this season, and this weekend was no
different. 26 GM Crate Engine
powered cars took the green flag. Brandon
Sweet was the winner, but it was Brockville’s Matt Billings that had the
fastest car at the end, and just ran out of time, and could not get around the
reigning Can Am Motorsports Park Sportsman Champion.
Filling out the top five spots behind Sweet and Billings were Matt
Hulsizer, Sammy Reakes and Chris Raabe.
In the other divisions at Can-Am, Mike
Burdick picked up his first win in the new Late Model division.
Mike Cousins also picked up his first win of 2009 in the IMCA Modifieds,
Kyle Sharpe won the Pure Stock event, and the final event, the 4cylinder Thunder
Cars, it was Robert Martin with the victory.
On Saturday evening, it was a memorable
night in many different ways. The
weather became a major factor throughout the entire area.
Virtually every racetrack in the DIRTcar region was forced to cancel
their events due to rain. The only
exception was the Brockville Ontario Speedway.
The light rain that was in the area stayed away, and even a dark cloud
that was inevitably going to hit Brockville dissipated just before it reached
the Speedway. It was also a
memorable evening for a popular Kingston, Ontario racing family who accomplished
a family first, second, and third sweep of the Modified feature.
The first feature event that rolled onto
the Brockville Ontario Speedway was the Street Stocks.
Brian Billings led the field to the green flag, and then just 16 laps
later captured his first feature win of 2009.
Dominic Gauvreau finished second, followed by Steve Billings, who is the
son of race winner Brian. Jack Code
finished fourth, and Guy Amese rounded out the top 5.
The Vintage Modified division was the
next feature event of the evening. Dave
McNamee and Denzil Billings Jr. led the 11-car field to the green flag. McNamee led early, but in the end it was another member of
the McNamee clan picking up the win. John
McNamee moved up from his third place starting spot and took the lead and drove
on to victory, his first of 2009. Clay
McNamee finished second, Jason Powers was third, Paul Billings was fourth, and
former Modified driver, and current Sprint car driver Paul Pekkonen strapped
himself into a Dave McNamee owned car and finished fifth, in his first attempt
in the Vintage class.
The Modifieds were up next and Ryan
Poole and Steve Bilow set the pace early as they led the 21 car field onto the
track for their 30 lap main event. Third
place starter John Mulder led the early laps, but deep in the field there were
some familiar faces starting to move up through the pack.
Pat Obrien started in the 11th position, was working his way
to the front running the bottom groove, while brother Danny was working his
usual magic up on the top side of the speedway. At the finish, it was the eldest of the Obrien brothers, Pat
in victory lane for the first time in 2009, younger brother Danny moved up from
his 14th starting spot to get second, and completing the Obrien
filled podium, was youngest of the brothers, Tim Obrien. This was the first time that all three brothers shared the
top 3 spots, but it probably wont be the last.
Adam Moore finished fourth and Todd Stewart finished fifth.
The Sportsman class once again put on an
interesting event. Sportsman racing
has become an exciting class to watch as the division is mixed with experienced
veterans, experienced teenagers, and some with no racing experience at all.
Dillon Sallows and Todd Ferguson, both rookies in the sportsman class,
with minimal experience led the field to the green flag.
The green quickly changed to red, as Sallows was facing sideways in turn
2, and collected several cars on the opening lap crash.
When racing resumed, it was 15-year-old Luke Whitteker leading, with
experienced veterans Randy Earl, and Randy Gaudet in hot pursuit.
Whitteker did a tremendous job holding of the veterans, but in the end,
experience prevailed as Gaudet made his way around Earl, and then Whitteker to
take the win. Gaudet was followed
by Shane Pecore, Whitteker, Chris Herbison and points leader Matt Billings, who
was involved in a mid race crash that had the Billing’s Automotive sponsored
machine on the hook and headed to the pits earlier in the race.
The last event of the evening was the
popular 4cylinder “rookie” division. Chris
Lloyd and Josh Kirkland led the field to the start the 16-lap event. It was Kirkland leading from start to finish and picked up
his first ever win. The win
wasn’t easy for Kirkland, as Benoit Laroche did everything he could to spoil
Kirkland’s victory party. Laroche
settled for second, Chris Bakker was third, Brighton Speedway regular Leslie
Turcotte-Mowat was fourth and Chris Lloyd rounded out the top five. It was a rough night for the top 4cylinder drivers, as point
leader Gerry Oszczakiewicz returned to the pit area with the help of Kane’s
Towing. Lansdowne racer Steve
Barber also had his problems on the evening and was unable to finish.
Sunday evening was the most anticipated
show of the season at the Cornwall Motor Speedway.
It was the 2nd annual invasion of the World of Outlaw Late
Models. It was a packed house at
the Ron Morin owned Cornwall facility and nobody left disappointed in the
outcome. The driver known as “Kid
Rocket” Josh Richards was the winner of the 50-lap event.
Richards is from Shinnston, West Virginia, and has won both times the
World of Outlaw series has visited Cornwall, and is a mentor of 2-time NASCAR
champion Tony Stewart. Fan favorite
Tim McCreadie finished second, followed by reigning Late Model champion Darryl
Lanigan, who made the trip from Union, Kentucky and finished third followed by
Tim Fuller and Seaford, Delaware’s Austin Hubbard. Fuller and McCreadie are both graduates of the Big Block
Modifieds and live in the Watertown, New York area. Joel Doiron was the winner of the Modified feature.
Monday evening, the 2200-pound, 800
horsepower World of Outlaw Late Models invaded the Can-Am Motorsports Park.
The Sportsman and Street Stocks were also on the schedule for the
evening. Rick Eckert, of York,
Pennsylvania took home the win. Fan Favorite Tim McCreadie finished second, matching his
previous night’s efforts at Cornwall. Vic
Coffey, Tim Fuller and Clint Smith rounded out the top 5.
Matt Billings, of Brockville was the winner in the Sportsman class, and
Trenton, Ontario racer Ron Wadforth won the Street Stock main event.
Next weekend, Can Am Motorsports Park,
and Brockville Ontario Speedway will once again fill out my weekend schedule.
Can-Am will host a full show featuring the Big Block/Small Block
Modifieds, and Brockville will host the SUPERIOR CELLULAR & SOUND sponsored
program featuring a kids tire race, and a 20 lap enduro at the conclusion of the
evening’s program.
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