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Border Patrol – A weekly look at racing from both sides of the 1000 Islands
October 5, 2008
Craig Revelle
The Brockville Ontario Speedway remains closed for another week, and many of the Brockville drivers, track officials, and fans made their way to Central New York, and the 23rd annual Schneider Brothers 200, formerly known as the Victoria 200.
Weather has been the issue all season long, and this weekend was no exception, as the weekend festivities were scheduled to begin Thursday evening, but a persistent afternoon rain cancelled the scheduled program of IMCA Modifieds, and Mod-Lites.
Friday evening, the weather cooperated most of the day, allowing the Sportsman, Street Stocks and Pro Stocks to get all their qualifying races in the books, but once again, when the feature events started, so did the rain. The Pro Stock feature was first up, and at lap 22 of the scheduled 30 lap event, the track was lost, and the checkered flag was given to veteran Pro Stock racer Pete Stefanski. This was Stefanski’s fourth consecutive win in the Pro Stock Mr. DIRTcar series, and virtually wraps up his third consecutive championship. Following Stefanski at the finish were Dion Oakes, Don Carlson, Jocelyn Roy and Allen Peters.
With rain canceling the rest of Friday nights feature events, Saturday’s schedule was revamped to include the features for the Mr. DIRTcar sportsman series, as well as the Mr. DIRTcar Street Stock series. Rain once again was the issue Saturday morning, and the original plan for an 11am start was washed out. After nearly a 3 hour delay, the green flag flew shortly before 2pm, and 18 year old Jeremy Wilder was the winner. David Marcuccilli was second, Jeremy Pitcher was third, Alan Fink was fourth, and Mark D’llario rounded out the top five. Brockville Ontario Speedway regulars Matt Billings and Chris Raabe qualified for the main event, and Billings managed an 18th place finish, while Brockville Champion Raabe limped his car to a 19th place finish. Raabe, who leads the MR. DIRTcar Sportsman Championship series increased his point lead to 65 points heading into this weeks SUPER DIRT WEEK events. Also representing the BOS was Sheldon Hoogwerf, who failed to qualify for the main event. 71 sportsman cars entered, and only 30 qualify for the feature.
The Mr. DIRTcar street stocks were next, and Shawn Frost was the winner. Nathan Peckham was second, Kevin Smith was third, Andy Fisk was fourth and Adam Dupuy was fifth. Brockville Speedway Street Stock Champion Steve Billings and two-time 2008 feature winner at the BOS Dominic Gauvreau made the trip to Fulton, but failed to qualify. 51 street stocks were entered, but only 24 made the feature event.
Next up was the main event, the 23rd annual Schneider Brothers 200. Paul Kinney and Dave Camara led the field to the green flag. Camara led early and often, but several hard chargers were working their way through the field. Tim Fuller was up to second place when the front end gave away on his car, sending the veteran racer to the pits on lap 51.
At the halfway point, Brett Hearn was the leader, Pat Ward was second, Dave Camara was third, Ronnie Johnson was fourth, and Billy Decker was fifth.
After a brief break to allow the cars to refuel and change tires, the race resumed with Hearn as the leader. Hearn led the majority of the next 50 laps, until Camara, Ward, Billy Decker and Danny Johnson started to mount a challenge for the lead. On lap 160, Camara took the lead from Hearn, and appeared to be the car to beat until a lap 171 restart, and Hearn and Camara made contact allowing Danny Johnson to make the race winning pass. Johnson led the rest of the way, but not after another challenge from Camara on a restart with 3 laps remaining. At the finish, Danny Johnson was the winner, taking home a $20,000 payday. Brett Hearn and Pat Ward got past Camara on the last lap finishing second and third. Ryan Phelps was fifth.
This coming week, the DIRTcar series for all divisions will be in full force. Starting Wednesday at the Can-Am Speedway, the DIRTcar 358 Modifieds, and sportsman will be in competition as well as the IMCA modifieds. Then the 358 series heads further south down Interstate 81 to the Brewerton Speedway, as the DIRTcar 358 modifieds will be joined Mod-Lites.
The series then shifts to the Rolling Wheels Raceway Park west of Syracuse for their DIRTcar series events for the 358 Modifieds and Sportsman divisions on Friday evening.
Then it is off to the New York State Fairgrounds for the biggest events of the year in all of the DIRTcar divisions. On Saturday, the DIRTcar Sportsman and 358 modifieds take to the 1-mile track for their series events, and Sunday is the Pro Stocks, and the “Daytona 500” of DIRTcar racing, the RITE AID 200 for the big block modifieds. This event caps off the busy week in DIRTcar auto racing that is known as SUPER DIRT WEEK.
If you are a fan of sprint car racing, Friday evening, the Cayuga County Fair Speedway in Weedsport, NY will host the patriot sprint group, and then Saturday evening, the Rolling Wheels Raceway Park will host a ESS/URC/Patriot Sprint Challenge.
The Brockville Ontario Speedway will conclude their season on Saturday October 18th with the Sprint Car Spectacular, featuring the Empire Super Sprints, Patriot Sprint Group and the Southern Ontario Sprints.
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