Border Patrol – A weekly look at racing from both sides of the 1000 Islands
Craig Revelle – April 18, 2011
After a long cold winter the racing season finally returned this week with openers at Brewerton Speedway, Chapman’s Can Am Motorsports Park and Cayuga County Fair Speedway all on my agenda.
I arrived at Brewerton Speedway early on Friday afternoon and watched as the pit area and the parking lot began to fill up. It is no secret that Brewerton, along with its sister track, Fulton Speedway are both near the top of my favorite track’s to visit, and Friday night’s racing action proved once again why it is one of the best tracks in the area.
A strong field of Big Block Modifieds were on hand, with 28 cars signed into the pit area, including Peter Britten, driving one of the Troyer house cars. Britten, from Australia has dabbled into the Big Block Modified ranks the past couple years, is at the top of the open wheel Modified ranks in his native land. With Britten, Canadian star Stewart Friesen, and strong show of talented racers from the United States made for a great story of international racing at Brewerton.
While much of the talk these days is about the youth movement in the sport, with Stewart Friesen and Matt Sheppard winning much of the bigger events the past couple years, the veterans aren’t about to give up, and when the 35 lap feature at Brewerton took place on Friday night, Sheppard and Friesen had to contend with long time veteran Pat Ward through much of the race. Ward looked to have the best of the younger generation, until Friesen made his move on lap 23 to take the lead, and eventually the win. Ward did manage to hang on for second, with Sheppard, Billy Decker and Ryan Phelps rounding out the top five spots on opening night.
Saturday was the much-anticipated opener at Chapman’s Can Am Motorsports Park, the first of my weekly tracks to open up. After last weekend’s practice everyone was ready to get the new season started, but Mother Nature had other ideas. With the rain coming down, and a forecast of heavy rain through the entire day, track officials made the call to postpone the opener to the following Saturday, with a MR. DIRTcar Sportsman event, and a Pro Stock/Street Stock challenge race highlighting a full show. Race time is at 6PM.
With rain scheduled into Sunday, I really didn’t give a lot of thought to my Sunday plans to attend Cayuga County Fair Speedway in Weedsport, New York. However, when I awoke on Sunday morning, the sun was coming out, and suddenly turned optimistic that racing would take place. I had made plans to travel to the race with Matt Billings and his team, and was looking forward to the trip. Unfortunately, at 11am, the track made their decision to cancel the days events, and will try again next Sunday.
While much of my weekend was washed out, I am thankful that Brewerton managed to get their program in on Friday night. Hopefully this weekend will provide us with much nicer weather as we try once again to get the season opener in at Chapman’s Can Am Motorsports Park. The rest of my weekend is still undecided, but will hopefully include either Brewerton or Cayuga County as well.
Coming up in the next few weeks is the Empire Super Sprints season opener at Chapman’s Can Am Motorsports Park on April 30th. Brockville Ontario Speedway opens for practice on Saturday, May 7th and then gets the season underway the following Saturday, May 14th. Cornwall Speedway opens for the 2011 season on Sunday May 15th, and the Mohawk International Raceway will get their season started on Friday, May 20th.
On the local pavement racing scene, Thunder Alley Speed Park in Evans Mills, New York gets their season underway this coming Saturday, April 23rd, while Oswego Speedway opens on Saturday, May 7th.
I hope you continue to enjoy my weekly column, as always, any comments or suggestions can be sent to crevelle@ripnet.com. Please feel free to check out my website, www.finishlinewebdesign.ca. If you would like a website for your race team or small business, send me a message and I will get back to you.