Tragedy in Brantford, Ontaio, Canada Over the weekend-RACECAR FOUND!!

[MikeF9]

Okay, no one got killed or anything but if you knew these people, you would understand that this is a tragedy.

I have talked about Matt Tanner from New York State, and how he races with ESS. We've known Matt and his family for a while and they have bought some parts from Lonnie and Anthony, including an engine, I think, over the years.
Saturday night, Matt and family had raced at the Canadian Sprint Car Nationals in Ohsweken, Ont. Afterwards, they stopped in to the Days Inn in Brantford to stay the night.
During the night, their rig was stolen. As in, the truck, the trailer with the race car and everything in it. It happened between 1am and 2:30 am.
Here's some pics from Facebook:









The #90 is a family race team and are really good people respected in the pit area. everything they had for a racing operation is gone.

Matt posted this on his Facebook page Sunday night:
''By now everyone knows my entire racing operation was stolen from the Days Inn in Brantford ON. Everything from motors and my car to tools and firesuit are gone, along with the truck and trailer and alot of my crews personal items. Glenn Styres has posted a reward and him and the Brantford Police are doing the best they can to find everything. If anyone has any information on it please let me know, me and my family put everything we have into that race team and really would like to salvage anything we can. I would like to thank everyone for everything they have done for me today. The outpouring of generosity from the racing community has been overwhelming. I would like to give a special thanks to everyone from ESS, PST, Glenn Styres and Oshweken Speedway, Angel Taber for posting on the social media, Anthony Cain, Lonnie Lacillade and my family and friends for all the help they have provided today."

This is not the first time a racing operation was stolen at a motel. A couple years ago a DIRT Modified hauler from New York was stolen from a motel in Drummondville. The trailer with a partial modified was found a couple weeks later in a wooded area.

[MikeF9]

WOW!!!

Got this off Mike Lauterborne's sprint41.com.

2011..............LAST YEAR

Brad Flory column:
 For auto racer Ben Rutan, biggest loss came off the track in Canada
 By Brad Flory | Jackson Citizen Patriot The Jackson Citizen Patriot
 

Twenty years of racing Sprint cars on dirt tracks did not prepare Ben Rutan for his crushing loss at the Canadian Nationals in September.

“It’s the toughest race for us all year,” said Rutan, 39, a building contractor who lives near Lake LeAnn. “Only the guys with good equipment get into it.”

Driving a car owned by a man from Ohio, Rutan did well in two days of preliminary racing at Ohsweken Speedway, near Brantford, Ontario.

“On the morning of the big race, we got up, went outside the motel, and everything was gone,” Rutan said.

His Ford F350 truck and an attached trailer containing the race car, tools and car parts were stolen. The loss totaled about $140,000, he said.

A motel clerk had a telling reaction when Rutan reported the brazen theft.

“You could tell in her eyes she was not surprised,” he said. “It was more like, ‘Here, we go again.’ ”

Until then, Rutan had no idea he stumbled into what is called the car-theft capital of Canada.

Brantford, a city of 125,000, reportedly had more than 900 stolen vehicles in 2009. Stripped cars are discovered abandoned in wooded areas of the nearby Six Nations Reserve at the rate of almost two a day.

“Car theft has the hallmarks of a small industry, with stolen vehicles being dumped in quantities that can only be described as startling,” the Globe and Mail, a national newspaper, reported in 2008.

Six Nations Chief Bill Montour was quoted in the Brantford newspaper as saying many tribe members were frightened by the rampant stripping, dumping and burning of stolen cars in their communities.

To Rutan, it all seemed a racket.

His stripped trailer turned up on the Six Nations Reserve about three weeks after the theft. It was towed to a holding area that charged almost $4,700 for 20 days of storage. He abandoned what remained of his truck after it was found.

“Everybody was making money off the deal,” Rutan said.

Rutan hopes his experience can be a warning to others traveling in Canada.

“It looks beautiful around there,” Rutan said, “with great big stores and nice streets. To find out the amount that is stolen was totally unreal.”

Rutan still has no truck capable of hauling a race car, and he is not sure he can race this year.

“It’s really iffy,” he said. “I raced for 20 years and lost 20 years’ worth of stuff.”

It’s a loss worse than any he experienced on a racetrack.

[MikeF9]

The truck and trailer were found Monday. Not sure where. Sprintcar and 4-wheeler gone.

Matt posted this Monday night on Facebook:

"The latest update is the truck and trailer was found today. All the contents of the trailer were gone though. Should have the truck and trailer back home soon though. Thank you to everyone for the support over the last few days."

[MikeF9]

Nothing new yet.

Matt posted this on Facebook Monday:

"Thanks to the generosity of Lonnie Lacillade and Anthony Cain I will be driving the Lacillade Masonry 15c saturday at Fonda for the last ESS race. Huge thank you to everyone for providing support during the last few days it is greatly appreciated."

I will not be attending. I have dialysis. I wish Matt and everyone the best of luck on Saturday.

[MikeF9]

Matt Tanner posted the following on facebook Wednesday night:

"Latest news is that the car and alot of the other contents of the trailer were recovered today. Dont know exactly how much was recovered or who had it or where it was. Big thanks to everyone who has helped out, especially Glenn Styres. Me and my family greatly appreciate everyones support."

Earlier in the evening, Kelly Hebing reposted Dirt Dog's following post:

THEFT ALERT CANCELED - Please Share
 Super Styres the the Rescue - Tanner Racing Gear Recovered!
 (Score one for the good guys!)
 
Ohsweken Ontario, CAN | Sept. 19, 2012 - Ohsweken Speedway owner, Glenn Styres was not about to let his or his track's reputation be tainted by another racing team losing their equipment to thieves after the Canadian Nationals. So when Matt Tanner Racing told him about what had happened in the Days Inn parking lot in Brantford on Sunday morning, Styres went to work finding the stolen #90 sprint car, spares and tools. According to Matt, Glenn recovered EVERYTHING except a generator and some tools Tuesday evening. Details are sketchy at this point and we're not sure how many cans of "whoop ass" Glenn needed, but there are rumors it was the same guy who stole a race trailer last year! NICE WORK STYRES!
 

[gasman353]

Hopefully the pos will get some jail time, but probably not.

[MikeF9]

Matt finished 6th in the heat race Saturday in the 15c to qualify for the A-Main. Unfortunately, the rains came and washed out the rest of the show. It was rescheduled for Sunday at 2pm. However, Anthony had other plans and they needed to come home. Matt and family were able to get his own car going for the A-main. Not sure what transpired, but I am guessing he drove a few laps then parked the car. He finished 18th.