I pull away from a Saab in the last race
The track itself is plowed out on the lake by pickup trucks. On Sunday, the course was approximately a mile and a half long, vaguely L-shaped, with two fairly long straights, an infuriatingly tight hairpin, and some challenging esses. You might think that the racing surface has some packed snow on it, or perhaps a uniform covering of loose snow. This is not the case. The primary racing line is a sheet of smooth ice that is roughened by the dedicated (and viciously studded) ice tires of the more highly modified classes. On either side of this bare ice is snow of varying thickness and looseness, making for a very uneven and unpredictable traction surface. Run-off is plentiful and snowbanks stop you quickly.
The cars range from the mundane–my Protege with its duct-tape numbers, required fire extinguisher, and Green Diamond snow tires–to the wild. The cars are divided into two major divisions: Those running on street snow tires and those running on specialized studded ice tires made by Menard. Within, they are further subdivided according to the degree of modification and according to the drivetrain. For instance, in Street Legal (SL), where Chris and I raced, it is illegal to modify the interior of the car and to remove most stock components. However, Class A cars are custom-built tube-frame racers that in many ways resemble sprint cars: short wheelbases and large roof wings. In classes B-E, we saw stripped out Saabs, a CRX that was partial tube-frame, and all sorts of other cars that you would not expect to see racing: Older VW Rabbits were popular, as were Ford Probes and other mid-90s economy cars.
The races brought out a large number of spectators. The event is very laid back, so people were walking all around the track, parking, taking pictures, and talking to the racers. On the one hand, it was a little odd to see spectators not 10 feet from the track as the Class A cars were flying past at nearly 100mph, but on the other hand an out-of-control car stops so quickly in the snow that it is relatively safe to be close, provided that you stay out of obvious crash zones.
Our performance in the races did not exactly bring shame to the Pansy Patrol, but they did not bring great honor either. In our first race we were awarded surprisingly favorable grid positions. We took advantage of these by lodging ourselves in snowbanks. Chris did so on his 3rd lap, and I followed a few laps later. In total, I counted 8 cars who did not complete the full race. I expect that many of them, like me, were new to ice racing and that, like me, many of them did not have the discipline to enter tight corners slowly enough. Unlike in regular asphalt road racing, going in too fast while ice racing all but ensures that you’ll nearly have to come to a stop in order to regain traction and any sort of line. It is critical to enter slowly–in some cases, 20mph would have been too fast.
Our second race was an improvement. Chris and I both completed the race and finished 19th and 18th out of a field of 27. Nothing to brag about, but it was our first race and we intend to get better. The second race showed me another oddity about ice racing: the corners change not only race to race, but lap to lap. I expected as much, but actually trying to compete on such a fickle surface is hard even when you expect it. If a car strikes a snowbank and throws snow all over the apex of a corner, he’s just changed the line for the entire field: there is now a tractive patch at the apex, where there had just been pure ice.
In our final race Chris stuck himself in a snowbank promptly on the first lap. Traction was very low and the SL cars in general were sliding sideways for most of the corners. I finished, but lost position to a VW Rabbit. We’ll have more in the coming weeks, including (we hope) some stories on some of the ice racers themselves.
on February 14, 2007 at 3:03 am JM wrote:
This is so not what I would have expected from the term “ice racing.”
Well done ol’ chap.
Well done.
PS: Bring back the Pansy Patrol flower pot! Or else.
on February 15, 2007 at 1:25 am Clint wrote:
Heh, what did you expect from the term “ice racing”?
A new, improved version of our old flowerpot is in the works.
on March 23, 2007 at 12:57 am JCook wrote:
I live in upstate NY, close to Wells. I used to go tubing there in the summer. I had no idea that there is ice racing up there. You reminded me of my beloved beater Mazda 323. I both learned and polished my snow driving skills in that automobile. I used to target practice with shopping carts in the ice covered, mostly vacant, parking lots of our local grocery store. I would drive past a cart and pull the emergency brake, swinging the rear out and tapping the cart. Eventualy I became brave enough to hit them head on, instead of using the emergency brake. I can not describe the glory of watching a plastic shopping cart soar 15 or so feet into the air, tumbling in slow motion, while trying to avoid hitting the landing zone. I extended my e-brake drifting technique further in my 1989 Z24. I decided to try the manuver on dry pavement by increasing my speed to reduce traction. To my delight and longevity it worked. The latest snow storm that we had this year, I was passing 4WD trucks and Jeeps in my 3000GT. I was only going about 45-50 mph. Usualy the trucks and Jeeps go 55-60 mph even in snow storms. I know because I drove a 1990 Pathfinder for a few winters. Well mabee you guys will have one more competitor next year. Perhaps I will resurect the Renault.
on March 23, 2007 at 11:55 am Clint wrote:
Hey, glad we’ve inspired you. The season was very short, unfortunately; we’re hoping to enter a lot more races next winter. Look forward to seeing you there.
As for shopping carts…somewhere in the PansyPatrol archives we have video of Chris ramming a shopping cart with me in it–though he didn’t ram me hard enough shoot me 15 feet in the air, of course.
I know what you mean about passing people in the snow too. During this last storm, I was out in my Protege (snow tires still on, of course), doing the speed limit on the highway. It’s kind of a weird feeling when all you see on the road is plow trucks and SUVs, and you’re blowing them away in a POS FWD beater.