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Border Patrol – A weekly Look At Racing from both sides of the 1000 Islands

Craig Revelle – May 17, 2010

It was a busy weekend of racing on both sides of the border this weekend, as all area Speedway’s were blessed with great weather, perhaps a reward for dealing with last weekends rain and cold temperatures, that completely washed away racing at most tracks.

On Friday evening I traveled to Chapman’s Can Am Motorsports Park in Lafargeville, New York, on Saturday, it was the season opener at the Brockville Ontario Speedway, followed by the season opening twin 25’s at Cornwall Motor Speedway.

A full field of Big and Small Block Modifieds, Sportsman, Street Stocks, Crate Late Models, IMCA Modifieds, Pure Stocks and Thunder Cars filled the pit area Friday night at Can Am. Bill Dunn, who has finished second the previous two weeks at Can Am, took home the popular victory over Steve Paine, and Matt Billings. Billings, who competes with a Small Block Modified, showed that he could race against the more powerful Big Blocks. Billings passed opening night winner Rob Bellinger on the final lap to capture a podium finish.

The Sportsman feature rolled onto the track with Rod MacDonald leading early, but it was Brandon Hagan proving he was the class of the field on this night, as he earned his first checkered flag of the season. Josh Van Brocklin was second, followed by Matt Hulsizer and Rob MacDonald and Dillon Sallows.

Lee Gill won his second straight Crate Late Model feature, with Greg Belyea finishing second. Belyea stepped up and increased the first place prize to $1000 and was working hard to keep that money in his own pocket, but couldn’t get past Gill in the closing laps. Brandon Kidd, Terry Hunt and Andrew Hennessey finished third through fifth respectively.

Ryan Scott won the IMCA Modified feature evening, remaining undefeated through 3 events in 2010 at Can Am. Kevin Smith was the Pure Stock winner and Zak Petrie won the Thunder Car main event.

Saturday evening was opening night at the Brockville Ontario Speedway, and a packed pit area, featuring 31 Sportsman, and 27 Modifieds were on hand for the annual opening night Syracuse qualifying event.

17-year-old Gage Morin, Grandson of Cornwall Speedway track owner/promoter Ron Morin picked up his first ever feature win at the BOS. Morin battled Tim O’Brien in lapped traffic in the closing laps to pick up the victory. O’Brien was second, Pat O’Brien was third, followed by Kyle Dingwall and Todd Stewart.

Chris Raabe continued his obliteration of the Sportsman field, returning to Brockville regularly after a one-year hiatus. Raabe was never challenged through the race, and easily picked up the win over Randy Earl. Shane Pecore finished third followed by Dylan Evoy and Dave Wilgosh. Local racers Steve Barber and Josh Kane finished 7^th and 12^th respectively.

The Raabe connection continued in the Street Stock class, as Todd Raabe was the opening night winner. Raabe had a hard fought battle with Nicholas Gauvreau through most of the race, but picked up the feature win. Darrick Eaton finished 3^rd, followed by Yan Labelle and Brent Labois.

Under a picture perfect day, Cornwall Speedway was the final track to get their 2010 racing season underway. Twin 25 lap features for the Modifieds highlighted the night’s racing schedule that also included the return of the Sportsman division, and the Pro Stocks, Semi Pro, and Mini Stocks.

Matt Billings, again, just coming off a win at Can Am on Friday night as the top 358 proved it was no fluke as he backed it up with a win at Cornwall in the first 25-lap feature. Billings battled Tim O’Brien through lap traffic, which ended up being the deciding factor in the race, as O’Brien tangled with a lap car on the final corner of the final lap that allowed Billings to move underneath and take the win. O’Brien was scored in second, but not without some damage from his contact with the lapped car and the wall. Kayle Robidoux, Michel Chicoine, and Kyle Dingwall rounded out the top five.

The second feature started with veteran driver Laurent Ladouceur up front, and led until lap 23 when Kayle Robidoux slipped past, and drove on to victory. Ladouceur remained second. Eric Gauvreau was third, Danny O’Brien fourth and Brian MacDonald competed the top five spots.

Chris Raabe, who was going for his third win of the weekend, came up a little short in the 20 lap sportsman feature. With a commanding lead, Raabe was working through lap traffic, when a slower car made contact with Raabe’s car sending both into the wall, and out of the race. This opened the door for Chris Herbison, who led the remaining laps and picked up the win. Randy Earl was second followed by Steve Bernier, Steve Barber and Sheldon Hoogwerf.

Joey Ladouceur picked up were he left off in 2009, winning the 20-lap opening night Pro Stock event over Dave Bissonnette and Corey Wheeler. Benoit Dubois won the Semi-Pro feature and Andrew Giroux was the mini-stock winner.

Elsewhere around the local racing scene, Luke Whitteker, also just 17 years old won the 50 lap opening night classic at Edelweiss Speedway in Quebec. Whitteker, making just his 4^th start in a 358 Modified now has 2 feature wins to his credit. Whitteker earned the win over Pierre Dagenais, Eric and Denis Gauvreau and Gage Morin.

Next weekend, the routine starts over, with Can Am on Friday, Brockville on Saturday, and Cornwall on Sunday. If that isn’t enough, Merrittville Speedway will be hosing the first round of the 358 Modified DIRTcar series on Victoria Day here north of the border.

I hope you have enjoyed my weekly column. Any comments or suggestions can be sent to crevelle@ripnet.com or check out my new website, www.finishlinewebdesign.ca.

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