LINKS TO THE VISITED TRACKS
 

Here are some of the cars that we raced during our Canada Tour in June.
These cars have been kindly lent by their owners for which we thank them.

 The Tour Photos

Click on the thumbnails for a full size picture

The Swings

Next batch ..

Malcolm, Lee, Trevor, Lindsey and Dave would like to thank everyone who we came into contact with during our trip. Especially Rick Young, Jim,Joanne,Josh,Jennifer and Jodie Swing, Bill Baago,Bob and Karen Ray, Terry Ladoucer & family, Ron,Denise and Carol and everyone that helped out along the way. (Including the staff at various Tim Horton branches throughout Ontario.!!)

After a seven hour flight the team arrived in Toronto on Wednesday evening, and headed downtown in search of a local hostelry.  Once installed in a local hotel, everyone made their way to the Hard Rock café for some ‘light refreshment’.  Unfortunately at this point Lee (Malcolms partner) fell ill, and during the night was admitted to the local hospital St Michaels with what turned out to be a small heart attack. After an  operation to remove an arterial blockage and insert a small tube overnight Lee was in recovery. So much so that she insisted that we carry on with the tour as planned.
A frantic change of plans was made and after meeting up with multi Mini stock champion Jim Swing and his family. Some swift reorganising of the team made it to the first race venue Ohsweken speedway which is on an Indian Reserve. We met with a very flustered Bill Baago who had encountered a few problems on the journey to the track. Due to the fact that it was close to the meeting start Malcolm was strapped into an untried and untested Ford Mustang car, on a track he hadn’t even set foot on before. However, Malcolm  managed a creditable performance coming home 7^th in the feature final after a tussle with the 'star' men in the qualifying heat.  He also picked up a special award of $125 from the night’s sponsors, where the winner Mike Evers  pulled a position from 2^nd to 10^th from the hat. It was lucky 7, so with a total of $145 tucked away we headed for our overnight stop! A unamimous decision to give the prize fund to Bill Baago for his kind use of his car was met with Bills beaming smile and surprise. (Although he did spend a fair bit of time trying to give it back.!)
We found out later that both Jim and Bill had spent many hours preparing the car as it had been in storage for quite some time and the under chassis had deteriorated to the point where it had to be reconstructed.!

 The following night we made the trip to Merrittville Speedway for the second race meeting. The track, even though it is dirt  (clay etc) was a different style altogether. Where Ohsweken is heavily banked Merrittville is more flat with built up corners. This time Malcolm made it out for some Hot Laps to familiarise with the layout.  A good showing in the heat put Malcolm on row 8 of a full grid of cars for the feature race. Midway into the race Malcolm and the Mustang were challenging for a top position when he was clipped and spun around. After rejoining the race he made good progress and finished strongly.

Ottodrome Speedway

The next outing of the tour was at the Ottodrome Speedway in Bob Rays Toyota. Bobs car is a Dirt car and we were unsure how it would cope with the tarmac of the Ottodrome. The Hot Laps showed that the treaded tyres were not going to work well against the semi slick tyres of the other cars and the engine was hitting the rev limiter. Bob had some well worn tyres on big rims so these were bolted on for the first heat. Bob commented that he would try anything to help us do well and we worked with him to make any adjustments necessary. As a visiting driver Malcolm was made to start from the rear of the field for all the races which made it hard to make an impression. Bobs car was as competitive as the others and in both the heats raced strongly with the local cars. The Feature race was slightly longer so Bob put a smaller wheel on the inside to help the car around the highly banked turns. Again having to start from the back made it hard to keep with the front runners but Malcolm didnt disappoint and made a good race of it. Bob did say that he felt the car didnt suit the tarmac and on our next visit(.!) would ensure that we raced on the dirt and showed everyone the car and drivers true talents.! An offer that we would gladly take up.
The team would like to thank Bob and Karen for their use of the car and the help and support at the track and look forward to the next visit.

Edelweiss Speedway

The team moved on to Edelweiss Speedway, which nestles in the Gataneau mountains of Quebec..  This ¼ mile dirt oval is well shaped for fast racing action.

The first heat was on a very wet slippery clay surface which had been relaid earlier in the week and was making things difficult for even the established locals. After finishing behind the pack in the 8 lap Semi-Pro stockcar heat in Terry Ladouceur’s No 71 Camaro,Terry made some adjustments to the car and in the feature race Malcolm surpassed himself with a fine charge from well down the grid to take 4^th place despite the attentions of several other drivers.! The French-Canadian fans seemingly appreciating our mans efforts, especially when he got VERY close to the wall! The team celebrated with a few well earned lemonades

Cornwall Speedway

The final outing of the trip was at Ron Morins Cornwall Speedway. This very impressive track had been constantly worked on over the previous week by a team of hard working individuals.!!
As we were in the area for this part of the trip we made a few visits to the track and got to know Ron, Reina, Denise and Carol quite well. The pit crew of Marcel and ......... looked after the car at the meeting and all Malcolm had to do was drive it.! With a few words of encouragement from Ron and the previous driver of the car Malcolm took to the track for the Hot Laps (practise). The car was very settled on the dirt track and Malcolm put up the fastest time of his group, much to the surprise of the commentator.! Especially as Malcolm had only driven the track in the track packing Dodge pickup truck at about 20mph...
The heat started with Malcolm at the back of the pack(?) and got off to a flying start, mixing it well with the the other drivers. Midway through the race and a small misfire became apparent and the eight cylinder motor began to falter. Unfortunately the car went sick and a caution was brought out and Malcolm was pushed back to the pits and the investigation found a broken distributor shaft.

The feature race was held after a 100 lap Modified race and was very hard with a big hole midway through turn three and four. Ron was out in his track grading machine trying to level out the corner but with some dark clouds on the horizon time was short.. A sprinkling of rain just as the race started made the going quite difficult. The feature got underway and Malcolm was making his mark (!)on the local drivers who were a little bit surprised at how quickly Malcolm was adjusting to the track conditions. The engine misfire was still lurking and just as Malcolm was nearing the top seven it cleared briefly and the rear stepped offline with a spin was the result. Malcolm rejoined at the back and made his way back up through the pack and with only a couple of laps and looking again at a top six placing the misfire returned. Malcolm hung on and finished the race in the top ten.

A presentation of an engraved silver plate thankyou  was made to Ron after the race and Bob Ray and family joined the after race congregation before we all returned to the hotel ready for the early start home.