BUDDIES BLOGS
Border Patrol – A weekly Look At Racing from both sides of the 1000 Islands
Craig Revelle
– May 24, 2009
This weekend, my racing adventures
started out on Friday night at the Can-Am Motorsports Park in Lafargeville, New
York, followed by the season opener at the Brockville Ontario Speedway on
Saturday evening.
Friday night, The Modifieds had double
feature races, as the rainout from May 8th had been postponed due to
rain. Watertown New York racer
Billy Dunn picked up the win, followed by Justin Haers, Kingston’s Danny
Obrien, Scott Parliament and Bill Gill.
After the heat races, and the Sportsman
B-Main non-qualifiers event, the regularly scheduled features began to line up
in the staging area. The first
feature on the agenda was the IMCA modified feature.
Dale Caswell was the winner, followed by Ryan Scott, Mike Cousins, Chris
Thurston and Brian Holder.
The Sportsman feature was up next and
Brandon Sweet had a classic battle with Alan Fink late in the race.
Sweet, who was last years Can-Am track champion took the win.
Fink finished second. Sammy
Reakes, Brandon Hagan, and a hard charging Matt Billings rounded out the top 5
spots.
The SUNY Canton Street Stock series was
next on the evening’s agenda. Ron
Wadforth, who was aiming for an unprecedented 8th consecutive win had
a fantastic battle with Western, New York area racer Mike Schultz.
Wadforth almost made the pass in the closing laps after a restart, but
couldn’t get his car past the Schultz car.
Mike Schultz took home the win, his first ever at Can-Am.
Wadforth settled for second place followed by Sid Harmer Sr. Ron Hawker,
and another Trenton, Ontario racer Greg Belyea.
The Big Block Modifieds were up next,
and this time it was Justin Haers coming out on top after 30 laps of racing.
Billy Dunn, who had won the previous two features, took second place,
followed by Jason Potter, Tim Obrien, and Lance Willix.
The last event of the evening was the
Crate Late Model class. As the
class is still in its early stages, car counts remain low.
This week, 4 cars took the green flag for their feature event, and Dale
Caswell, who had already won earlier in the evening in his IMCA modified also
won in the Late Model. Mike
Burdick, making his first appearance in the class finished second, followed by
Aaron Jacobs and Andy Howard.
On Saturday evening at the Brockville
Ontario Speedway, Mother Nature finally blessed us with a great day for racing,
and allowed the gates to open for the first time in 2009.
Speedway owner Paul Kirkland did a fantastic job in preparing the track
for opening night. The track was
fast, and very smooth, a combination that is hard to obtain, especially early in
the season.
The Street Stock feature was the first
out on the track, and what a barnburner it was.
On lap 2, a red flag was displayed stopping the action, as Lansdowne
racer Mark Grier took a spectacular flip off turn 2.
“I got squeezed down into the tire
barrier on the inside of the track, and the car flipped over.
It happened so fast. The car
is in really bad shape, but I am doing ok”, says Grier, who quickly points out
that this is one of the risks involved in our sport.
Later that night, Mark visited the hospital for precautionary reasons,
and was released soon after.
Nicholas Gauvreau picked up his first
ever feature win, passing defending track champion Steve Billings on the final
lap. Billings was second, followed
by Kevin Fetterly Jr., Bill Code, and Brock Cullen.
The Vintage modifieds were also on hand,
taking fans back to the early days of the track.
One family that tore up the track back in 1969 when Brockville opened
their doors for the first time was the Denzil Billings family, and they continue
to pile up the victories, as Denzil’s son Paul drove to victory over John
McNamee, Jason Powers, John Gibson, and Clay McNamee.
For photos and stats from the early days of Brockville, and many other
area speedways, go to www.speedwaynostalgia.com
The small block modifieds were next up,
and Danny Obrien quickly showed that he will once again be the car to beat this
year at Brockville. Danny, who is a
an eight time track champion at Brockville, including the past 3 seasons fought
off a late race challenge from brother Tim Obrien to take the opening night win
in his 1000 Islands RV Centre sponsored ride.
Following the Obrien brothers at the finish line were Eric Gauvreau, Adam
Moore and Ryan Poole.
In the sportsman class, veteran Randy
Gaudet showed the young guns a few tricks as he piloted his car into victory
lane. Gaudet is a 3-time track
champion in the sportsman class, and is no stranger to Brockville Speedway’s
victory lane. Adam Turner finished
second, Matt Billings was third, followed by Chris Herbison, and early leader
Shane Pecore.
The final event of the night was the
4-cylinder “rookie” division. Gerry
Oszczakiewicz, known around the racing community as “Gerry O” was the
winner. Gerry O, who was one of the
last cars to sign into the pits for the evening was the first one to the finish,
as he endured a late race battle with Lansdowne driver Steve Barber to pick up
his first win of 2009. Barber
finished second, followed by Chris Bakker, another Lansdowne wheelman Frank
Mitchell, and Nolan Swamp. It was a
good night for Mitchell, as he also won his qualifying heat race earlier in the
night.
In other racing action around the
DIRTcar region this weekend, at the Brewerton Speedway on Friday night it was
“Super Matt” Shepherd picking up the win.
Saturday night, at Can-Am the SUNY Canton series resumed for both the
street stocks and sportsman cars. Matt
Hulsizer was the sportsman winner, and Tiger Chapman was the street stock
winner. Frank Caprara picked up the
win in Saturday’s modified feature. At
Fulton, it was Billy Decker picking up the season opening win.
Brockville Ontario Speedway Recap:
May 23, 2009
358 Modifieds 30 laps : Danny O Brien, Tim O Brien, Eric
Gauvreau, Adam Moore, Ryan Poole, Jason Riddell, Dave Heaslip, Mitchell Jock,
Denis Gauvreau, Bryan Rogers, Billy Cook, Bill Gill, John Mulder, Andy Lloyd,
David Austin, Steve Bilow, Skip McKenzie, Todd Stewart, Joe Banks, Victor
McCalpin, Kyle Dingwall
Sportsman 25 laps: Randy Gaudet, Adam Turner, Matt
Billings, Chris Herbison, Shane Pecore, Dylan Evoy, Luke Whitteker, Dave
Wilgosh, Randy Earl, Roger Varacalli, Dana Aikins, Tammy Jalbert, Adam Trickey,
Tabitha Murphy, Doug O Blenis, Sheldon Hoogwerf, Todd Fergeson, Jessica Power,
Mike Mainse, Ryan Buzzell, Joey Evans, Luke Stewart, Greg Belyea, Dillan
Sallows, Bob Albright
Street Stocks 20 laps: Nicholas Gauvreau, Steve
Billings, Kevin Fetterly, Bill Code, Brock Cullen, Derrick Eaton, Steve Kearney,
Danny Mocibob, Guy Regimbald, Selena Simzer, Guy Amesse, Brandon Bolton, Art
Brown, Mark Grier, Brian Billings, Jack Code
Rookies 16 laps: Gerry Oszczakiewicz, Steve Barber, Chris
Bakker, Frank Mitchell Jr, Nolan Swamp, Ron Day, Chris Lloyd, Dwight Feltham,
Brandon Henderson, Scott Walldorf, Glen Miller, Dave Sequin, Joe McNichols,
Colin Tracey, Ben Nurse
Vintage 12 laps: Paul Billings, John McNamee, Jason
Powers, John Gibson, Clay McNamee, Alan Harju, Denzil Billings, Cody Mallory,
Kurtis Mitchell, Harm Vanderwede, Troy Bergeron, Wayne Ridell
Photo courtesy of Jim Clarke - Clarke Motorsports Communications
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