The Iggblog

yeah. went to ice race. fun. words are behind cut.

Went to my first ice race yesterday. Wow. Not at all what I expected. I didn’t compete this time around, but Andrew twisted my arm and got me to come along. I figured I’d work the course, watch (and learn from) the drivers, and maybe take my car out on the practice course. I am in the process of making “screw tires” for this season, and I haven’t finished them yet. These would be spent tires which are given a second shot at life by shooting 150 or so hex-head screws or bolts into them to make them into ice tires. I figured that with just snow tires my car would plow all over the place and generally be miserable to drive.

We got there at around 8-ish in the morning. The lake was like a fresh ice-skating rink. the snow had blown off the previous week, leaving a surface which was nearly perfectly smooth. the ice was around 14 inches thick. This is a nice shot of our “racing surface”. thanks to Kris for hosting the pic (check out his page to see how hot screw tires are). notice the small fissure in the ice, that crack goes all the way to the water. It’s deeper than it appears due to light refracting and other physical silliness. still, it was daunting to be able to see through what I was parking my car on.

I ended up going around the practice course 20 or so times throughout the course of the day. I could not have been more wrong about my car. like most of the others, it was slow to get started, but once it got up to speed it really held its momentum. I got a number of people asking me how many years I had been at this. I found myself catching up to the cars that went before me on the course (usually 2-3 were running at a time). I guess lightness really does count for a lot. turning the car was easy. it would pitch very predictably, and I didn’t go wide on turns too often. I only had one spinout. All in all I was surprised with my stupid little car’s ability, and mine as well.

I’ll be at most of the races this season, I think. the next one is Feb 8th and I’ll be competing in that one. yay.