Did my first ice race yesterday

A three hour enduro with the Motorsports Club of Ottawa. Track was laid out in a field and groomed over the winter. Three drivers. Three hours. Total laps minus penalties to win.

We might have won, had we not screwed up timing (car had to pit for a minimum of 18 minutes -- we thought times were being kept by a scorer, turns out we were wrong and had pitted for only 13 minutes).

Such fun. Such bumping. We were driving a Saturn coupe SOHC. No studded tires allowed. Three classes (AWD, FWD, RWD -- no RWD cars competed). The Maxima in the pic was purchased Saturday by cold calling dealers looking for a FWD, manual transmission car, with snow tires for less than $500.

I am driving the red Saturn coupe, coming up the middle, to pass the Civic, Jetta, and Maxima.

Looks a lot like our Street Legal class. Three 20 minute heats every week, as long as there is ice.

No manufactured ice, only what mother nature gives us.

Many of the cars are driven to the lake, change tires, race and afterwards drive home.

All of this under the supervision of the Adirondack Moter Enthusiast Club Inc.(AMEC). www.icerace.com

Stay tuned for a report on the "Algonquin Mile-------on ice."

...and here I was about to complain that the grass is growing and I will have to start mowing again.

mguar wrote: In reply to JoeyM: lakes are too thin this year to race on.. (warm winter)

That just seems like a bad idea to me...regardless of how warm/cold the winter is/was/will be.

But y'all have fun and keep posting pics.

SillyImportRacer wrote:

mguar wrote: In reply to JoeyM: lakes are too thin this year to race on.. (warm winter)

That just seems like a bad idea to me...regardless of how warm/cold the winter is/was/will be. But y'all have fun and keep posting pics.

I suspect you live somewhere warm all year,up here with a normal winter the ice is as safe as the ashpalt you drive on.Its what makes us Northerners some of the best drivers imho.

In reply to SillyImportRacer:

You would have a problem with the ice bridges they used to build across the river east of Ottawa. Truckers could haul heavier loads of pulp wood across the frozen river than they could across the old bridge at Hawkesbury. They plowed a road across at ferry crossings and then repeatedly flooded it to build up the ice . I've seen it 2 feet at our cottage without any build up.

JoeyM wrote: ...and here I was about to complain that the grass is growing and I will have to start mowing again.

I was thinking the same thing!

The only white stuff at my house is the shaded driveway.

We have a few lakes with lots of ice, others not so much. Lack of snow helped. the ice freeze.