by Ken MacIsaac SYDNEY, NS – With a Covid capacity crowd on hand, Sydney Speedway held their second off-season race on March 13th. The March Madness Winter Enduro had 68 racers sign in to compete in the afternoon activities. The day’s racing included seven heat races, an A and B feature, a Mini Van and SUV heat and feature, and a blindfold race. Local Street Stock racer Brennan MacInnis pulled off the win in the A main. “I helped Kody (Quinn) with the February event and I saw a lot of good racing, so I decided to put a car in for this one. This Chevy Malibu was headed to the junkyard last week, but I checked it over and it was solid. I took the windows out, welded a door bar on it, and ended up winning.” Antigonish County’s Dennis Nickerson matched his February results with a strong second place finish. “I almost didn’t come up. I was up all night and didn’t leave home until 9 AM. I went out in my heat and the car wouldn’t shift, or steer. But I managed a third. My wife changed a couple of outside tires before the feature, and the car worked a lot better. Had a good battle with Richard Salter for a few laps. I tried Brennan on the restarts but couldn’t get him. The slipping and sliding on the wet track is a lot of fun. It was pretty cool to be on the podium with young Josh Rozicki. It was 17 years ago that his father Curt and I stood on a podium. Congrats to all the other drivers and to Sydney Speedway on such a big turnout.” Third place finisher in the A main was popular youngster Josh Rozicki. The son of multi time street stock champion Curt Rozicki, Josh showed up with a very familiar paint scheme. “I got this 2007 Grand Prix from Alley Ley. I thought it would be fun to do a throwback paint scheme for one of my dad’s cars. For the most part, these were always his colors. Growing up, the night before the races were called ‘race-mas eve’. That’s when we painted the car and dad didn’t even know I was doing it.” With so many cars in the pits, a B feature was added to the program. Port Hawkesbury’s Kenny Snow pulled off a popular win. “I bought this 2010 Ford Fusion for scrap and decided a few days ago to get it ready to race here. I got hit twice and managed to avoid a good accident in front of me. I kept it to the rug and straight as I could to get the win….even with a broken subframe. All the people beside me in the pits who I never met before were all great. It’s like we raced forever. I want to dedicate this win to my little cousin Victor McGuigan from Ball’s Creek who died in a tragic accident just before Christmas. Anyway, they put on an awesome event down here and I hope it keeps going. I already got one car started for the next race, and I plan on having three.” A popular second place finish in the B main was David Webb. “Well the car couldn’t have worked any better. I had the most fun out there that I could’ve had. I’m just glad we all made it home safe and sound. I’ll be looking forward to doing another one soon”. Due to popular demand after the February event, a Mini Van and SUV class was added to Saturday’s card. Donald Campbell Jr., who’s family owned auto junkyard faithfully supplies several vehicles for the track’s enduros, scored the heat win. “This is a 2003 Ford Explorer, and it’s the very first time I ever won a race. Pretty exciting.” Veteran Glen Cooke was an unexpected entrant in the feature and came through with the win. “I had a left front tire go down in my own car and didn’t finish my heat. A guy from Reserve owns this van and he asked me to drive it in the feature, and here I am.” Fans were anxious to watch the Blind Fold race, but unforeseen problems abruptly cut the race short. Organiser Kody Quinn commented “Here’s what I thought was going to happen. It was going to be a slow race with lots of laughs. But there was trouble with getting people to keep their blindfolds on. Once the green flag fell, everybody’s foot was to the floor, and the only people that wrecked were the people that were blindfolded. It just got to be too dangerous. We’ll try this again in the future with better rules in place.” Like February’s event, March’s Enduro was organised by Quinn and track owner Greg Dowe. “When we planned February’s event, we were expecting 10-15 cars, and we’d be happy with that,” said Quinn. “We were overwhelmed with the turnout in February, and there was not one issue. Everyone stayed within their bubble and the event went off without a hitch. I thought we could have these once a month. So I announced the next race in March and we had over 200 shares on Facebook alone. The attention the track has gained from these races is amazing. So many new faces showing up.” While there’s a lot of interest in having another enduro in the coming weeks, the track plans to prepare for regular racing in May. “There’s a lot of maintenance to do here and we want to get ready for the race season. The grounds, the pavement, the grandstands all need repairs. Depending on Covid restrictions, we’re planning a full season of racing and we’re excited to have the cheap 6 cylinder and 4 cylinder classes too”. Photo Gallery
