| 24th July 2005 |
| What A Weekend! |
| This weekend saw the biggest annual event in Canadian Speedway, the Canadian National Championships held at Welland. Preceeded by the usual Friday night's racing at Paris it meant a very busy weekend for the many riders that "doubled up" and rode in both. |
| Starting with Friday night's action, the Paris track had undergone some major "surgery" midweek. In need of a levelling for some period of time now, Dave Havill having just returned from his UK trip with wife Carol brought in a full sized grader to level off the base. Alex Wilson, now retired but formerly a grader driver, did a great job of getting the base super flat. |
| "Chiseling" off the high spots produced a good deal of extra surface material and this was correctly spread evenly over the now flat base. |
| Unfortunately, with the continuation of the very dry weather, it was impossible to sufficiently wet and pack the loose surface prior to the Friday night's racing. |
| The result was a less than satisfactory race surface on which many riders struggled to show their capable form. Nevertheless, the action that took place was still very entertaining and sometimes heart-stopping for the spectators and pit-crews alike. |
| The good news is that the Paris track should soon be back to the best it has been for a couple of years, as for the first time in that period, Dave Havill now has a flat base on which to work his "surface magic". I'm sure for the remainder of the season, the Friday night action will be top class as a result of Dave's very hard work. Thanks Dave! |
| I'll provide you with a link to the CSRA web page at the end of this report for results and fuller information on this weekends racing. |
| Two highlights personally for me Friday came as a result of both myself and Aaron Hesmer choosing to save our best machinery for the Saturday night's Welland action. My Weslake machine was used by both my son Michael and Aaron Hesmer for the meeting. |
| It was great to see such young talent on this classic machine, and in Aaron's capable hands in particular it proved to be as competitive as anything out there. His comment after one heat, "this thing pulls like Jack Bear" had me jumping for joy. "Long live the Wessie!" |
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| The real action this weekend was of course the Saturday night's Canadian National's at Welland. |
| I'll once again refer you to the CSRA page for all the intricate details, but I can say it was a fantastic night. |
| Duncan Luke's clever format, which sees riders progressivly pitted against riders of similar ability based on their previous round's results once again proved a hit. |
| At the end of the night, the winner by virtue of the most points scored throughout the evening (and coincidentally the winner of the final race) was the "Flying Frenchman" Nick Fafard. |
| On a personal note, after three years of trying to ride the Welland 1/4 mile unsucsessfully, I finally cracked it and together with my long standing adversary "Big" John Perry, we pushed each other through every heat to new heights. |
| Only a dissapointing final heat race which saw my GM bike markedly slower than earlier in the night, put a damper on it for me. Carburation problems and a totally shot tire combined to produce a terrible ride, but overrall it was a tremendous step in the right direction. |
| My views on the Welland track have turned full circle over night and I vow to be back there to race much more often in the future. |
| As mentioned above, for David Hensby's details of this weekend's action, please visit the CSRA's webpage and don't forget to click their "Results" page once you are there for Ducan Luke's official results and race reports! CSRA WEBSITE LINK. |
| I'll sign off there. Thanks for your patience over the past week or so with the website and it's lack of updates. I've been so busy I had to take an afternoon off work to get the bikes ready for this weekend! |
| Let's hope this coming week will be less hectic. I look forward to seeing all of you once again at Paris Speedway this coming Friday night for a "super smooth" night's racing. |
| Bye for now, |
| Phil #21 |
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| 9th July 2005 |
| Paris 8th July |
| Last night's racing at Paris Speedway took place for the first time without the presence and hard work of Dave and Carol Havill. "Mr & Mrs. Paris Speedway" are currently in the middle of a trip to the UK, so the promoting body, the CSRA, was left to rally the troops to put on a show themselves. |
And it has to be said they did a good job. The night's racing was spectacular in front of a great turnout of fans. |
| The relative inexperience of the CSRA's working party was evident in the opening heats as "enthusiastic" watering of the track surface left it slightly over wet. Any rider not in front, and I can bear testimony to that, was left totally filthy and "filled in" with Paris dirt! |
| After a few heats though, the track dried enough to allow trusty Alex Wilson to perform his magic with the grader and thereafter the surface was greatly improved. |
| Division 1 saw "Birthday Boy" 20 year old Aaron Hesmer run out victor over "Jumpin'" Jeff Orosz and Nick "The Flying Frenchman" Fafard. |
| Division 2 was dominated on the night by Doug Beaumont who seems to have found a real turn of both speed and consistency and looked inspired as he took the chequred flag in the main event. |
| Division 3 for the second week in a row was won by newcomer and Paris local boy, Sean Trendell. In only his second week of speedway competition, he dominated the field and looked quick, if not slightly unorthadox at this early stage in his career. Michael Small looked super smooth but opted to stay out wide consistently to avoid the ruts down low. Unfortunately, this proved to be just too far around, resulting in a second place finish on the night. |
| I was enjoying my riding last night, although with the added workload involved as one of the CSRA working party, it ultimately proved a distraction from my racing. A couple of poor starts left me with too much to do to even make the consolation final. Even the added support from my Mum and Dad visiting from the UK up in the stands could not gee me up. Give me a couple of weeks and I promise much more. Look out Big John! |
| Next Friday we will have to manage without Dave and Carol once again, but if this week was anything to go by, another good team effort should result in another great night's entertainment. Many thanks to everyone involved in putting on the show. |
| See you all next Friday night at Paris Fairgrounds for more great speedway racing action! |
| Phil #21 and Michael #2.
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