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3 July Rolling Wheels NY . SUPER DIRTCAR SERIES
7 July Frogtown Int Speedway NY
8 July Cornwall Motor Speedway Ont SUPER DIRT CAR SERIES
10 July Brockville Ont Speedway Ont SUPER DIRTCAR SERIES
This time last year, I took a break from doing these RICK @ the RACES reports when the media work I do increased as the racing season got busier.
During July and August there are so many events to attend, it's difficult to find the time to sit behind the computer and get something down. My “Retro” reports which started as a winter project , have suffered, and I'm getting a bit behind. I'm still hoping to get these weekly reports out if possible but they may come out later. If things had gone to plan this week I would have six tracks to report on, but work commitments and 'Mother Nature' put a stop to that.
On Tuesday July 3, I took a day off work and traveled down to the Rolling Wheels Speedway at Elbridge NY for a staging of the SUPER DIRT CAR SERIES. The weather was kind and it was a nice comfortable night to watch the program which consisted of Big Block DIRT Modifieds, Mod Lites, Sprint Cars and Antique Stock Cars. The top billing Mods had two 50 lap feature races which were won by Brett Hearn and Gary Tomkins respectively. I found these races OK, but not the most exciting SDS races I've ever seen. For me the best racing of the night came from the Antique Stock Cars, with eventual winner, Shirley Morden and Gordy Woods providing side by side action for most of the race.
On Friday, (July 6) , the Ransomville SDS race ( 6 hour drive) was out of the question, as I had to work, so my plan was to attend Thunder Alley (Evans Mills NY) for a 'big bucks' Dirt Mod show which was only two hours from home. It rained all day where I was working in Montreal and the forecast for most of the North east was much the same. Therefore when asked to work later than normal, and to grab a few extra bucks, I willing obliged. As I expected, Thunder Alley got 'rained out', but was surprised to find out later, Autodrome Edelweiss ( which was my second choice) survived.
With bad weather predicted for most of the weekend, I opted to do a Saturday morning work shift and try for my local Frogtown Int Speedway NY in the evening. The headlining event of the night was a Mowhawk Racing Parts series race for DIRT ProStox but also included 358 Mods and the other divisions. Everything was going fine, Joey Ladouceur won the ProStox Feature, and the Mods came out for theirs. Just one lap into it , the rain started, and within minutes the night was over.. Another night bites the dust, but at least we saw a good ProStox feature where second placed, Giles Godard made Ladouceur work hard for his victory.
It rained for most of the night, and things didn't look good for Sundays SUPER DIRTCAR Series race at the nearby Cornwall Motor Speedway. I got there early and sure enough, with the wet grounds and pits and more rain in the forecast, the plug was pulled. This was the start of the Canadian section of the SDS tour, and Autodrome Drummond was scheduled for Monday night. The wet weather continued, and as you might have guessed the Drummond fixture went the same way as Cornwall.
Thankfully for all the disappointed race fans negotiations between both tracks and DIRTCAR officials took place to reschedule the races for another double-header on Sun 22 & Mon 23 July . This is great news and what makes it even better is boost it will give to the Airborne Speedway (Plattsburg NY) the following day (Tues 24 July) . On that day the DIRT Mods are due to make an appearance at the Mike Perotte promoted paved track. With so many of the top US race teams in the area for the Cornwall/Drummond races, and Airborne being conveniently on the way home, it should ensure a good field of cars.
With both Cornwall and Drummond postponed from the three consecutive Canadian SDS races, all hopes were on Tuesdays (July 10) show at the Brockville Ontario Speedway. The weather forecast looked good and an early finish from work enabled me to be there nice and early, to see what turned out to be a classic race. Local hero Pat O'Brien upset the 'form card' by coming home first in front Tim Fuller , Billy Decker and the rest of the sports elite. O'Brien from nearby Kingston (Ont) in his 730 Truckstop/ Gypsum Logistics backed Bicknell had been challenging Fuller, pole-sitter and leader, for most of the 100 lap race. As the two of them came up on lower placed cars, Frank Cozze fought hard not to be lapped, Pat tried to get passed on one side while Tim took the other. It was a gamble for both them, but it was the local man who got lucky, passing them both and charging ahead on the remaining eleven laps to take the checkers in front of an ecstatic partisan crowd.
Just for a change, because this was such an 'upset' for the books, I'm including the official results from the DIRTCAR Press release.
Modified Event Summary
FIN STR CAR# DRIVER
1 4 6 Pat O'Brien/Kingston,ONT($6,000)
2 1 19 Tim Fuller/Edwards, NY
3 8 91 Billy Decker/Unadilla,NY
4 10 98h Jimmy Phelps/Baldwinsville,NY
5 7 20 Brett Hearn/Sussex,NJ
6 5 44s Matt Sheppard/Waterloo,NY
7 23 7x Steve Paine/Waterloo,NY
8 6 77x Dale Planck/Cortland,NY
9 2 49 Billy Dunn/Watertown,NY
10 20 84 Gary Tomkins/Clifton Springs,NY
11 9 44 Frank Cozze/Wind Gap,PA
12 16 21 Yan Bussiere/Drummondville,QUE
13 17 1 Jeff Sykes/Edwards,NY
14 11 3 Justin Haers/Phelps,NY
15 25 99 Ryan Phelps/Fulton,NY
16 30 99a Mike Adderley/Watertown,NY
17 12 27j Danny Johnson/Rochester,NY
18 21 14j Alan Johnson/Middlesex,NY
19 28 60 Kenny Stafford/Homer,NY
20 14 66 Kyle Dingwall/Morrisburg,ONT
21 15 42p Pat Ward/Genoa,NY
22 13 1a Brian Weaver/Windsor,NY
23 26 5 Jason Potter/Pulaski,NY
24 3 07 Chris Jones/Picton,ONT
25 24 25 Bobby Herrington/Kingston,ONT
26 19 95 Mark Hitchcock/Kingston,ONT
27 27 115 Stephane LaFrance/Morrisburg,ONT
28 18 35 Adam Moore/Elgin,ONT
29 22 61 Bryan Rogers/Kingston,ONT
30 29 60x Bill Gill/Plessis,NY
PIC 1 ROLLING WHEELS SDS ACTION
PIC 2 BRETT HEARN'S CAR IN THE ROLLING WHEELS PITS
PIC 3 SHIRLEY MORDEN ANTIQUE STOCK FEATURE WINNER AT ROLLING WHEELS
PIC 4 A BEAUTIFULL LOOKING ANTIQUE STOCKER AT ROLLING WHEELS
PIC 5 FROGTOWN INT SPEEDWAY ACTION
PIC 6 FROGTOWN INT SPEEDWAY ACTION
PIC 7 JOEY LADOUCEUR WINNER OF THE PROSTOX FEATURE AT THE FROGTOWN INT SPEEDWAY
PIC 8 PAT O'BRIEN CHASES BRETT HEARN AT THE BROCKVILLE ONT SPEEDWAY
PIC 9 PAT O'BRIEN WINS THE BROCKVILLE SDS RACE
PIC 10 PAT O'BRIEN IN THE BROCKVILLE VICTORY LANE
PIC 11 FIRST THREE IN THE BROCKVILLE SDS RACE L TO R 3rd BILLY DECKER, 1st PAT O'BRIEN, 2nd TIM FULLER
RACES ATTENDED In 2007
1 14th Jan Brockville Speedway (Ont) Winter Enduro
2 27th Jan St Edouard De Lotbiniere (Que) Ice Racing
3 4th Feb Laviltrie, (Que) Ice Racing
4 11th Feb Beauharnois (Que) Ice Racing
5 14th Feb Orlando Speedworld (FL) Legends, Bandolero's
6 14th Feb Volusia Speedway (FL) SUPER DIRT SERIES
7 15th Feb Daytona Speedway (FL) NASCAR Gatorade Duel
8 15th Feb New Smyrna Speedway (FL) Asphalt Mods
15th Feb Volusia Speedway (FL) SUPER DIRT SERIES/ WOO LATEMODELS(RAIN)
9 16th Feb East Bay Speedway (FL) Open Wheel Mods
10 17th Feb Volusia Speedway (FL) SUPER DIRT SERIES/WOO LATE MODELS
11 18th Feb Daytona Speedway (FL) "500" NEXTEL CUP
12 4th Mar Lake Otisco, Marietta. (NY) (Ice Racing
13 14th April Fonda Speedway (NY) ROC Dirt Modified Tour
14 21st April Can Am Speedway, Lafargeville, NY (regular show)
16 27th April Thunder Alley Speedpark , Evans Mills, NY (RAINED OUT)
17 29th April Cayuga County Fair Speedway, Weedsport, NY (regular show)
18 3rd May Virginia Motor Speedway, Jamaica, Va. SUPER DIRT SERIES
19 4th May Williams Grove Speedway, Mechanicsburg, Pa (regular show)
20 5th May Can Am Speedway, Lafargeville , NY, (regular show)
21 9th May Capital City Speedway,Stittsville, Ont, (regular show)
22 11th May Autodrome Edelweiss, Cantley, Que, (358 Mod Vic 200 QF)
23 12th May Frogtown Int Speedway, Hogansburg,NY (regular show)
19th May Cornwall Motor Speedway, Ont, (RAINED OUT)
24 25th May Autodrome Edelweiss,Que, (regular show)
25 26th May Peterborough Speedway, Ont, (regular show)
26 1st Jun Autodrome Edelweiss, Cantley, Que (regular show)
27 2nd Jun Shannonville Motorsports Park, Ont (Circuit Racing)
3rd Jun Cornwall Motor Speedway ,Ont (RAINED OUT)
28 3rd Jun Ca Am Speedway, Lafargeville, NY (Five Star Modified Series)
4th Jun Cornwall Motor Speedway ( RAINED OUT)
8th Jun Autodrome Edelweiss, Cantley, Que (RAINED OUT)
29 9th Jun Fulton Speedway NY , SUPER DIRTCAR SERIES
30 10th Jun Cornwall Motor Speedway, Ont (regular show)
31 15th Jun Autodrome Edelweiss, Cantley, Que (regular show)
32 16th Jun Sanair Racing Complex, St Pie, Que, (Road Course)
33 16th Jun Frogtown Int Speedway, Hogansburg, NY (regular show)
34 17th Jun Cornwall Motor Speedway, Ont (regular show plus Sprints)
35 22nd Jun Autodrome Granby, Que (regular show)
36 23rd Jun Maxville Fairgrounds, Ont ( FIGURE 8 and Demo Derby)
37 24th Jun Cornwall Motor Speedway, Ont, (regular show)
38 27th Jun Frogtown Int Speedway,Hogansburg,NY (Midweek Special)
39 29th Jun Autodrome Edelweiss, Cantley, Que, (Syracuse QF)
30th Jun Brockville Speedway, Ont RWYB (RAINED OUT)
40 1 Jul Cornwall Motor Speedway, Ont (regular show plus ProStox Special)
41 3 Jul Rolling Wheels , Elbridge NY (SUPER DIRTCAR SERIES)
42 7 Jul Frogtown Int Speedway, Hogansburg NY (regular show plus Prostox Special)
8 Jul Cornwall Motor Speedway ,Ont (RAINED OUT SUPER DIRTCAR SERIES)
43 10 th July BROCKVILLE ONT SPEEDWAY, Ont SUPER DIRTCAR SERIES
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