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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
That’s all for this week, thanks for reading. If you have any comments or questions, please email me at crevelle@ripnet.com |
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