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Chris Raabe Gets His Marching Orders
By Jim Clarke, Clarke Motorsports Communications
If he were a football player, he’d a be a running back looking for a hole in the defensive line that would allow him to pick-up an extra yard or first down. In hockey, he’d be the slick, playmaking centre. Always knowing where the puck was and just waiting for it to touch his stick, before depositing the game winning goal. But Napanee, Ontario’s Chris Raabe is a racecar driver. Every weekend, he pilots a DIRTcar sportsman modified at Evans Mills, New York’s Thunder Alley Speed Park and Brockville Ontario Speedway.
After an uncharacteristic 8th place finish just a week earlier, Raabe and his Scott Industrial Services/Tyroute Communications-Telus/Kingston Hyundai/Kingston RV Centre/Waste Management/CanadianTire/Brunet Plumbing/Kwik Load Products/McColman Media/Len Corcoran Excavating race team was back at the Kirkland family promoted 3/8th mile Brockville Speedway for a regular night of action.
Wheeling his personal favourite – a 2006 TEO Pro Car, while the 2008 model sat in the shadows of the race hauler – Raabe started 8th in his qualifying heat race. By the end of 1st lap, he’d advanced to the runner-up spot and once the field had put a pair of circuits into the scorer’s log, he was leading the way. As the qualifier wore on, ‘The Teenage Tornado’ had built-up more than a straightaway’s advantage over Dylan Evoy and Peter Stapper, the cars finishing in the 2nd and 3rd place positions respectively.
When the DIRTcar sportsman teams took to the track for their feature event, Raabe’s #01 ride was slated to start from the 12th position. Again, he was marching toward the front. It wasn’t a bull in a china shop mission, but smooth and calculating. Looking for a spot and seizing the opportunity to advance just one more position. He was 4th by the end of lap 6 and in the runner-up spot, just 4 turns later. When the field took the green flag following a lap 8 yellow flag, Chris launched his race rocket from the outside and into the lead. When the back was slowed again for Tabatha Murphy’s stopped car on the backstretch, Raabe was working his way through the back markers and had nearly half a track’s advantage on Stapper and Evoy, who finished the feature race 2nd and 3rd.
Chris Raabe scored his 14th DIRTcar sportsman modified win of 2008 Saturday, August 16th and built a bigger cushion between himself and Cole Dingwall, who was involved in an early race incident and credited with a 23rd place finish.
For more information on Chris Raabe’s career and his 2008 racing season, see www.chrisraabe.com
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