Autodrome Drummond

THE EVENT

Today’s undertaking was just one of more than 2,000 trips that have taken me up, down and around the long and dusty trackchasing trail. If you would like to see where I’ve been and experience those adventures here’s the link:

Randy’s Complete Track List

If you’ve got a question, comment or whatever please leave it at the bottom of this report.  It’s very easy to do.  I’ll try my best to respond.  Thanks!

My history with Autodrome Drummond.

First of all, I didn’t begin writing my famous Trackchaser Reports until I had seen about 430 racetracks.  I made my trackchasing visit to the Autodrome Drummond on Monday night, July 12, 1999.  Drummond was the 387th lifetime track I had seen at the time.  

I was following the D.I.R.T. Modifieds on this trip.  Jimmy Horton won the feature driving the #M1.  My stepfather Bill and brother Mark joined me on this trip.  We had a lot of fun and saw some great racing.  I first met the U.K.’s Rick Young, now a resident of Canada, on this trip at the Cornwall Motor Speedway.  Here’s a list of our track visits during this particular trip.  

Of course with the Autodrome Drummond racetrack located in Quebec the language in almost exclusively French.  As a matter of fact the track’s website is in French only.

Drummondville is a city in the Centre-du-Québec region of Quebec, located east of Montreal on the Saint-François River. The population as of the Canada 2011 Census was 71,852.  As the table below shows you had better speak or understand French or you might have a hard time.

Wikipedia lists these sports activities/teams as being prominent in Drummondville.  Note the Autodrome Drummond rates a mention.

Drummondville is home to the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL)’s Drummondville Voltigeurs, founded in 1982. The team plays its home games at Centre Marcel Dionne. Drummondville also has another arena, Olympia Yvan-Cournoyer.

Drummondville and Victoriaville co-hosted the 2013 World U-17 Hockey Challenge.

Prior to the Voltigeurs, Drummondville was home to the Drummondville Rangers of the QMJHL from 1969 to 1974.

Drummondville also was host to several baseball teams in the Quebec Provincial League in the 1940s and 1950s. The Drummondville Tigers in 1940, the Drummondville Cubs from 1948-1952, the Drummondville Royals in 1953 and the Drummondville A’s in 1954.

The Autodrome Drummond, holds various automotive races throughout the summer season.

La Courvalloise is used for tubing, skiing and snowboarding.

In researching facts about the Autodrome Drummond I found this interesting fact.  Kevin Ward Jr., who was killed in an auto racing accident with Tony Stewart at the Canandaigua Speedway, won his first career sprint car feature at the Autodrome Drummond.  The date was June 4, 2011.

Without having a complete set of notes my memories of the track are a little dim.  Granted I have seen nearly 2,000 tracks since my last visit to Drummondville.  However, at the time I did note their were 22 laps of caution in the 100-lap D.I.R.T. main event.  I guess I didn’t like that.

One of my all-time favorite announcers Brian Mulligan interviewed me that evening.  I’m sure he was asking me questions in English and translating everything back to French for the crowd.  I would go onto meet Brian at other Canadian tracks after our visit at the Autodrome Drummond.

I picked up some additional information about Autodrome Drummond from a fine article written by Dean Reynolds who works with the Empire Super Sprints organization.

Autodrome Drummond is about 45 minutes North of Montreal and this dirt track can boast the history of being Quebec’s longest running dirt facility.  For well over 50 years, Drummond has been playing host to some of the finest racing Quebec fans have known and since 1984, the Lucas Oil Empire Super Sprints (ESS) have been a part of that history.

Modifieds have been the main class for most of the years like its Friday night partner Granby.  But, in the 70’s and early 80’s full blown late models used the trek these parts as well and for the past two seasons the management of Drummond has brought back some history with the booking of the World of Outlaw Late Models.  The trek up north by WoO comes one week after ESS’ first visit in June.

Some of the local drivers of interest all come from the French speaking province.  That includes probably the best to ever come from Quebec modifieds and defending ESS champion Steve Poirier, 2006 ESS champion Alain Bergeron, 2006 rookie of the year Michael Parent, who hails from Granby, 2007 rookie of the year Normand Beaudreault, Daniel Lampron and Quebec City’s Jake Langlois.  As you can see, the last two champions and last two rookies of the year have come from Quebec making ESS a true tour of two nations.

Drummond had gone through many changes and facelifts to the track surface and size in the past 6 or so years.  It went from one of the biggest 5/8ths mile ovals that you would ever see with frightening speeds to a small 1/3^rd mile oval for two years before finally settling in on its current 3/8ths mile size.  It has fairly long straits with tight turns and makes for a tricky oval.  The grandstands run the entire length of the front stretch and can hold upwards of 5,000 people.  The pits used to be in the infield with the original size, but now are located off turns three and four.  Ironically, they would still be INSIDE the original track!  One of the most unique aspects of Drummond is their sound system with actual stereo speakers that cost plenty making for a wild atmosphere.  The speakers have to be taken down after each event and stored.  Drummond also has a mascot that is very popular with the kids along with a special victory lane that is on the grandstand side of the front stretch wall.