Rick Young's 'Rick at the Races' - Aug. 20-24, 2010

Rick Young's 'Rick at the Races' ... www.rickattheraces.com

Aug. 20-21      Mohawk International Raceway, Hogansburg, NY

Aug. 24    Cornwall Motor Speedway, Ont  (Karting Club)

For the third week running Mother Nature has reduced my racing intake, and regular readers will be surprised to learn that one of the two events attended was a Friday night show. A medical appointment that day, meant I'd booked time off work so was able to attend the opening night of the Mohawk International Raceway's two day World Of Outlaw Late Model spectacular.

The 'Outlaws' were joined on the program by the 358 DIRT Modifieds , Sportsman, four cylinder Bandits as well as DIRTCAR Pro Stock's competing for a Series Race. Friday nights program consisted of qualifying heats for the Late Models, plus a full show for the Modifieds, Sportsman and Bandits.

I crossed the International Bridge from Cornwall, Ontario in to New York mid afternoon and was there in time to join my buddy Roger Aubin for a buffet supper at the Ponderosa in Massena. Roger had gone over to the track earlier in the day with his motorhome and had plans on staying for the two days. After we'd eaten we returned to the track for the nights action.

I had my usual pre-race wander around the pits and chatted to my many driver friends. Todd Stewart, Billy Cook, Steve Barber and Chris Raabe all agreed to have a RICK at the RACES decal on their car. Mike Raabe ( Chris's dad) told me of their plans to race at the Autodrome Drummond, in Quebec, for the first time on Saturday. The Raabe Team were also hoping to make history at the MIR by winning their 25th Feature of the year. The current record for SPORTSMAN Feature wins in a season is (and now was) held by Tim Hindley in 1996 who got 24 that year.

The track was in great shape, after having several loads of new clay added during the previous week. I understand the new stuff came from the former Fort Covington track, located just a few miles away.

This was my first visit back to the MIR since my long time friend, and track photographer Mike Watts had sadly passed away. For many years I'd spent my night taking photos with him, and I knew it was going to seem strange with out him. On arrival, I was pleased to find, Mike's youngest son Andy was there following in his fathers footsteps and taking over the photographic duties. Not only that, but his oldest son Mike Jr was there, as well as Jane (his widow) who was still running their souvenir booth. That's really good to see, and I'm sure it's just what Mike would have wanted. I joined Andy on the center along with two other photographer friends, Rob Mortier of Rochester NY and Race Pro Weekly's Mike Petrucci from Connecticut.

After a prayer and a traditional Mohawk dance performed by the children of the local St Regis Mohawk tribe, the racing got under way.

The WoO took their time trials and Pennsylvania's Chub Frank set the fastest time.

The program moved along quickly with all divisions running their heat races with very little delays.

Dale Planck went onto win the Modified Feature while Chris Raabe took his record breaking 25th victory in the SPORTSMAN. The WoO Late Models were scheduled to have their Feature as the headline event the following night.

The racing was over nice and early, and I was back home across the bridge in Cornwall, by 10-30 pm. After having time off work on Friday, I thought it would be a good idea to volunteer to do a Saturday morning shift to make up for lost hours. I was up at the crack of dawn and had clocked in at 7-30 , with an easy trip to Kingston, Ontario as my dispatch for the morning. There were no hiccups, I was in Kingston, by 10-30 and back at the terminal in Cornwall by 1-30 pm. The weather had been overcast for the journey down but by the time I arrived home a bit of rain had started to fall.

My original plan for the evening was to miss 'part two' of the MIR show and visit the Brockville Ontario Speedway. The reason being, is that Modifieds are my favorites and they would not be at MIR on the Saturday.

The rain got heavier with plenty more expected, so it wasn't long before I got the news that Brockville had canceled. Things didn't look good for anywhere, but I remained optimistic. I later learned that many other tracks in the North East were canceling. Airborne, Fulton, Drummond to name a few.

Friends across the St Lawrence Seaway had contacted me via Face Book and said things weren't so bad at MIR and the racing was going ahead as planned. Even though it was still raining in Cornwall , with this news in mind I drove towards the bridge. As I approached , I saw my buddy Roger coming back through the Canadian Customs with his motor home, so waited to get his verdict. He'd decided to leave the MIR and come home after they had an early brief shower, as he didn't expect the racing would take place. In the meantime, as we chatted, we watched as the Joey Ladouceur and Roch Aubin Pro Stock race car haulers headed across the bridge towards the USA .

What do I do ? Risk paying a bridge toll for an event that might not happen, or take a gamble ? Well, after waiting for a while to see what the weather would do, I decided to gamble and set off across to the bridge. There was no big line up at the US Customs and I was soon at the track ( It's less than 4 kilometers from the border). Sure enough things were dryer over there and it looked like they'd only had a brief shower.

Joining the World Of Outlaw Late Models on day two were the DIRTCAR Pro Stocks for their Mr Dirt tour races. The track wasn't too bad as both the Outlaws and Pro Stocks did their warm up laps. I was on the center with Andy at the time, when he received a cel phone message from his brother Mike Jr . It was a 'ten minute warning' ! , apparently the weather radar was showing a big rain storm on its way. No sooner had he relayed the news to me, we felt a few sprinkles. With in minutes it was coming down heavier, as I made a quick dash to the shelter of the Tech shed. The evenings race action was put on hold until the decision to cancel was made about 30 minutes later. The complete show will now be held on Wednesday 1 Sept.

So in the end , it turned out to be a Saturday night at home for me.

The weather forecast for Sunday was much the same, as the rain continued through the night. It was raining when I awoke and still doing so at lunch time when inevitably the Cornwall Motor Speedway pulled the plug on their evening show. This was the third week in succession where rain has forced a cancellation at my local track.

By Tuesday night the facility had dried out enough for the Karting Club to have it's weekly races. I decided to go along and check out the youngsters in action. The first person I bumped into was Modified and Sprint Car driver Kayle Robidoux who's young son was competing. Another Modified driver in attendance and accompanying his daughter was Brian McDonald. As well as kart racing they were holding lawn tractor races, which was a 'first' for me. It was a beautiful night for racing and very welcome after all the wet weather recently encountered.

PIC 1    WoO Late Model, Rick Eckert during Fridays warm ups

PIC  2   Todd Stewart

PIC  3   Billy Cook

PIC  4   Steve Barber

PIC  5   Chris Raabe

PIC  6   MIR Track photographer Andy Watts

PIC 7/8  Traditional Mohawk Dancers

PIC  9    Modified action, Pierre Dagenais and Ryan Helm

PIC  10  Modified action, Billy Cook and Pat O'Brien

PIC  11  WoO Late Model Josh Richards

PIC  12 WoO Late Model Rick 'Boom' Briggs

PIC  13 The nice looking Bandit of Trevor Jones

PIC  14  WoO Late Models Shane Clanton and Austin Hubbard

PIC  15   Dale Planck, Friday night Modified winner

PIC  16   Chris Raabe's record breaking 25th Feature win

PIC  17  Saturday pit scene, of the Gill George WoO Late Model

PIC  18  Saturday pit scene of the Steve Francis WoO Late Model and hauler

PIC  19 Pre Race ( and 'pre rain') Saturday WoO Late Model autograph signing

PIC  20  The Pro Stocks of Claudia Tarbell and Ghislain Valade before Saturday's rain

PIC  21   Kayle Robidoux giving his young son some advice at the CMS Karting

PIC  22  Brian McDonald's with his lawn tractor driving daughter at the CMS

PIC  23  Karting action at Cornwall

PIC 24   Two of the winners at the Cornwall Karting Club