The only good thing about the season starting to wind down is the fact that the upcoming races are mostly major events. The final two weeks of the regular season are approaching, and each track will decide their track champions on Labor Day Weekend. After that, many teams will begin traveling to Super DIRTcar Series events, and hit up major events in their respective divisions before the season comes to a close in mid-October. This past weekend my schedule consisted of events at Brockville Speedway Kart track on Wednesday night, Mohawk International Raceway on Friday night, Brockville Speedway on Saturday and Cornwall Speedway on Sunday.
My adventures this week began on Wednesday night as Brockville Ontario Speedway hosted their weekly Karting program. Kids from the age of 5 on up to teenagers take part in the racing action. A record number of Karts were on hand as 62 racers has signed into the pit area. Rain had been the story of the season for the most part, but finally a nice clear day was in store. It seems with each race night there are more Karts in the pits, and that bodes well for the future of our sport as many of today’s stars on the big track got their start racing Karts at a very young age.
Friday nights always come down to a tough decision each week between Chapman’s Can Am Motorsports Park and Mohawk International Raceway. Ever since I have been old enough to walk, I have been a regular at Can Am, and have a lot of great memories going to the track each week with my family. Mohawk International Raceway is also a great track and with many Finish Line Web Design clients racing at both places, as well as doing both track’s websites, I do my best to split my time between them both.
This week, we went to Mohawk Raceway to watch a full program of Modifieds, Sportsman, Pro Stocks, Bandits and Mod Lites. Todd Stone, of Middlebury, Vermont took home the win in the 358 Modified division over Gage Morin, Dale Planck, John Lazore and Chris Raabe. Dylan Evoy who entered the night undefeated through the month of August continued his torrid pace capturing the feature win in the 30 lap Frenchie’s Built Ford Tough Sportsman Series. The win also clinched the 2011 Sportsman Track Championship for Evoy. Dave Bissonnette won the Pro Stock main event, Daniel Desnoyers won the Bandit feature and Matt Meuten won the Mod Lite main event.
Next up was the usual Saturday night visit to Brockville Ontario Speedway. The 358 Modified division had the week off in favor of the Ontario Dirt Late Model Series. Greg Oakes of Franklinville, New York took home the feature win in their 30 lap main event. Oakes held off a late race charge from Dale Planck, who was making a rare appearance in the Late Model division. Chris Ross, Carey Terrance and Dale Glassford rounded out the top five. Mike Mainse won the Sportsman main event battling through the field from the tenth position. Chris Herbison, who won the Sportsman Dash for Cash earlier in the evening finished second over Dylan Evoy, who climbed from the rear of the field after a mid race wreck. Brian Copp and Steve Barber completed the top five. Jean Marc Larose won the rookie feature, Brian Comeau won the Vintage main event and Kevin Fetterly Jr. was the Street Stock winner.
A persistent day long rain forced Cornwall Speedway track officials to cancel their racing program early on Sunday. The Ontario Dirt Late Models were scheduled to finish their eastern Ontario swing at Cornwall. With the rainout at Cornwall the series is now over and Greg Oakes is the 2011 Series Champion.
This coming weekend will start out a little different as I travel to Humberstone Speedway, located near Niagara Falls. Humberstone is hosting the first ever Ontario Topless Sprint Car event, and I will be on hand to cover this inaugural race. On Saturday morning I will be making the long haul back to Brockville Speedway for their full racing program plus the Patriot Sprints. On Sunday I will continue on to Cornwall Speedway for their racing program, plus the 25 lap Sprint Car main event held over from last month.
There are plenty of big events on the horizon, beginning with Labor Day Weekend as Mohawk Raceway kicks off their weekend on Thursday, September 1st for their final night of points with a 50 lap feature. Can Am and Brockville will also end their points, while Cornwall will host the next round of the Mr. DIRTcar 358 Modified Series. The following weekend, Chapman’s Can Am Motorsports Park will host a full racing program on the Friday night, and it was just recently announced that the Empire Super Sprints have been added to the schedule with a special Saturday night show. Mohawk Raceway will host the 358 Modified and Sportsman Mr. DIRTcar series events on September 16th then I will be heading to Brighton Speedway on the 17th for the first annual Great Crate Race. The $5000 to win event for the Late Models will offer a $20000 purse and will be a great show. After that, the 40th annual Super DIRT Week will be looming, and then the season finale at Brockville for the Northeast Fall Nationals in mid October.
I hope you continue to enjoy my weekly column, as always, any comments or suggestions can be sent to [email protected]. Please feel free to check out my website, www.finishlinewebdesign.ca. You can also follow my live up to the minute racing coverage via twitter right on the main page of my website, through Facebook at www.facebook.com/crevelle or by following the link on the main page of www.dirttrackdigest.com for full coverage of racing events throughout the DIRTcar racing community. If you would like a website for your race team or small business, send me a message and I will get back to you.