Rick Young's 'Rick at the Races' for July 8 through 15, 2009

PIC 1  Maple Leaf Cookies in the Byward Market (Ottawa)
PIC 2 to 5   Scenes from the Brockville SuperDirtSeries Show
PIC 6  Brett Hearn wins the Brockville Super Dirt Series race
PIC 7  Vintage Mods at the Brockville's Saturday races
PIC 8  Tabitha Murphy wins a SPORTSMAN race at Brockville on Saturday
PIC 9  Carla and other music fans also get wet in Montreal
PIC 10 to 13 Scenes from the rained out Cornwall SUPER DIRT SERIES
PIC  14 to 16  Scenes from the latest rain out at the Capital City Speedway (15 Jul)

RICK @ the RACES (8 to 15 July)

8 JUL  CAPITAL CITY SPEEDWAY (OTTAWA, ONT)  RAIN

9 JUL  BROCKVILLE ONTARIO SPEEDWAY   DRY !

11 JUL  BROCKVILLE ONTARIO SPEEDWAY  RAIN

12 JUL  CORNWALL MOTOR SPEEDWAY (ONT)  RAIN

15 JUL   CAPITAL CITY SPEEDWAY (OTTAWA , ONT)

Oh what a rotten summer this is turning out to be as once again wet weather dominates this report. Out of four events I'd planned to see, only one survived.

To brighten things up, I had my daughter Carla visiting me this past week, prior to a working trip to the UK. For the past couple of years she's been living in Austin, Texas but has decided to return to her homeland for a while. Before flying back , she's been spending some time with 'Dad'.

On Wednesday my plans were to attend the regular weekly show at the Capital City Speedway in Ottawa, so the two of us spent the afternoon in the nations capital. We visited the Byward market, a tourist attraction, that's within walking distance of the Houses of Parliament. It's the place where on his presidential visit, Barack Obama stopped off to buy some cookies for his daughters. He stunned onlookers when he took time out from his cavalcade and walked to the market bakery to buy some some of their delicious maple leaf short bread. It was here he made the comments 'I love this country'. If they are good enough for Barack, they were good enough for me, so we bought a couple.

After Carla and I had supper in an excellent Italian Restaurant (called 'Stella' ), we both went our separate ways. She went to meet some friends in Ottawa while I drove to the Speedway. As I got on to the 417 Queensway and headed west , the sky on the horizon looked pitch black and as I pulled off at the Stittsville exit, I spotted race cars on trailers coming away from the track. Not a good sign ! As I pulled into a gas station to 'top up' I met 'Dentman' Dave Watchorn, a friend and long time CCS racer. He confirmed that the big storm I'd seen in the distance had wiped out the nights races. So far this year the track had managed a 100% record with no rain-outs, but this time their run of good fortune had came to an end.

The following night ( Thursday) Mother Nature decided to co-operate for my trip to the SUPER DIRT SERIES for Big Block Modifieds at the Brockville Ontario Speedway. It was the first stop on their four night Great Canadian Tour. From Brockville they would be at Autodrome Granby, Que (Fri) Autodrome Drummond, Que (Sat) and the Cornwall Motor Speedway, Ont (Sun).

There were about 35 Mods in attendance which included most of the big names. The big 100 lap race was a bit of a disappointment, with New Jersey's Brett Hearn getting a flag to flag, rarely challenged win.

A late finish at work on Friday prevented me from going too far, so Carla and I went to Cornwall's 'LIFT OFF' a summer spectacular beside the banks of the St Lawrence Seaway ( Live music, fun fare and hot air balloons)

So, I missed seeing Billy Decker taking the Autodrome Granby SUPER DIRT SERIES race.

On Saturday the weather forecast looked diabolical, with rain predicted almost everywhere. Autodrome Drummond's SUPER DIRT SERIES was my first choice but it looked certain to get rained out, so I chose to visit Brockville again for their regular weekly show. While I went to the races, Carla went to a concert in the Jean Drapeau Park ( next to the Gilles Villeneuve Circuit), Montreal for the "Vans Warped Tour' that featured a band called Bad Religion

It was lovely and sunny  when I arrived at Brockville but just after the heats had been run, the skies opened and within minutes the night was over. It was good to see one of my facebook friends Tabitha Murphy get a long awaited win in the SPORTSMAN class. I'm glad I didn't gamble on the long trip to Drummond as it got rained out before it even started , as did the Airborne Speedway Plattsburgh ( ACT SERIES race) and Autodrome St Eustache ( Canadian Tire Series race). The latter two were rescheduled for the following day (Sunday). Carla's concert was also a 'wash out' and was home early.

The weather looked very promising for Sunday, so I was looking forward to a pleasant day at the Cornwall Motor Speedway. I said goodbye to Carla soon after breakfast who was driving down to Baltimore, Maryland to see her mum, before her flight to the UK on Tuesday.

I arrived at the Speedway at about 1-30pm ( I'm always there early) and sure enough, the weather was good, with just a few clouds and some warm sunshine. It's always a good move to be there early when it's a big show, and the SUPER DIRT SERIES is always a crowd favorite. As it got nearer to start time the skies became darker as some black clouds started to tease us. The time trials went ahead, and were followed by the heat races for the other divisions. Just as the opening heat for Modifieds had been completed, it started to rain. A little bit at first, and then turning into a full blown rain and hail storm. It only lasted about twenty minutes but was enough to put an end to the night. Cornwall became another casualty of this years rotten summer.

Late News...Normaly I like to get my weekly report out no later than Wednesday night, but a power outage in Long Sault prevented me doing this. I had to leave home for the Wednesday nights Capital City Speedway races before it resumed. It started off nice and sunny, and you've guessed it ! another bout of wet stuff ended the show after the first feature... When is this rain going to end?