Saturday:
My club, DAC, was our host club and thanks to all our volunteers for a well run weekend.

I will try to be more brief this week as time does not permit for much rambling (I hear an audible sigh of relief). All classes were permitted to run again but as was wit last week stud classs were limited to 8 laps instead of 12 and there were no practices either day. DAC saw fit to reimburse some of the stud fees and I don't see why this should not be the case for every weekend that there is a reduction in the number of laps run. If we paid for 12 laps and we are only allowed 8 then the entry fee should be adjusted to reflect this otherwise we are simply subsidizing the rest of the classes which is, simply put, not fair. Weather was on the chilly side due mostly to dampness on both days even with temps around -3C. The big storm Friday and Saturday did not have the impact in Minden as it did around the GTA there was only around 4 to 6 inches of snow but around 12" at my house in Whitby. The track held up very well.

First thing I had to do Friday was replace the leaking rad in the Ovlov. Did this in blowing blizzard like conditions that started up as soon as I lifted the hood on the car. Thankfully I brought up the snowblower this weekend again and put it to good use clearing all the pits around my end of the track.

I basically had a perfect points weekend in the rear wheel stud class S1 scoring maximum 100 points with a win in all four races. However the success came with a price in the form of even more contact than last weekend (who said there was hardly any contact in stud???!!!) The biggest calamity occurred in the second lap of the qualifier first thing Saturday morning. Basically I lifted in the corner to avoid Kiyo's car ( we made contact anyway) and in so doing the car immediately rotated, caught the inside of the snowbank and proceeded to turn around facing the wrong way. As I was rotating Ian Lok had no chance to clear the passenger side of the MR2 and wound up hitting pretty hard. It's best to watch the in-car video (click HERE for the stud qualifier video). The damage to the MR2 was limited thanks to the extensive cage work installed by "Hank's Tanks" (Steve Drysdale et al). Fortunately I only had to pry the front fender forward to clear the door opening and punch out the dent in the door skin just forward of the side cage on the passenger side. However Ian's car had the front bumper break clean through at both mounts.

Stud:
 

Again more bashing and crashing as will be evident from the videos (see below) posted to Putfile. If you listen to the sounds on the videos I think there is the grinding noise of metal on stud tires in all of them. I would come in and bend back out the fenders just to have them smashed in again the next time out. So I decided to cut away the fenders by about 1 1/2 inch - they still seem to touch but not as much. l will have to work on that later. As I drove in the last race Saturday the "check battery" and "charge" lights came on on the dash when the car was revving above 4000rpm. On Sunday I checked the battery with the car running and it showed no charging happening so I looked for ground faults. I found one suspect stab connector which after I pinched tighter the battery now showed charging around 14.62 volts. Thought I had it fixed but in 1st race Sunday the lights came on at 4000rpm again and I noticed the dash voltmeter was way over charging. I ran the car like this for both races Sunday and then removed the alternator and the battery. Testing on Monday showed the battery was pooched and the alternator has since been rebuilt.

Stud Race In-Car Videos:
1st stud race Saturday (smaller video 360x240)
2nd stud race Saturday (smaller video 360x240)
1st stud race Sunday (larger clearer video 640x480)
2nd stud race Sunday (larger clearer video 640x480)

Had lots of great racing battles with the Hyundai front wheel drive car of Jonathan Rashleigh. Was hit up the inside of the last corner before the straight and spun up on to the snow bank (fortunately recovered without losing position) by the number 54 Honda Civic in the last race Sunday. Not sure why, he came down and apologized but it still doesn't make any sense as we are not racing each other.

Street Stud:
Had a real heavy hitting race with Remi Klichta in the black Turbo Ovlov good race but very heavy on the hitting. Results should be posted on the CASC web site. I know I got at least one win in the last race Sunday.

The Hankooks began to perform better in each subsequent race with the shaft of the studs protruding more.

This was also the DAC awards banquet which was held at the Grill On The Gull this year. A most scrumptious meal and top class surroundings made for an excellent event - I highly recommend the restuarant to anyone desiring a fine dining experience whilst in Mindenhammer. Thanks to my wife for selecting the venue and making the necessary arrangements, to Rick Creuzburg for MC'ing and Gianni Biral (club President) for handing out the goodies. Hey they handed me the Beaver award again! I did not know prior to the ceremonies that I was to receive this and I had forgotten to bring the trophy with me and was pretty bummed by that because it is really nice for the recipient of the award to actually get the physical trophy in their hands at the moment of presentation. So it was with some relief when they announced I was the recipient after dishing out some ribbing about "last years winner" forgetting to return the trophy. The only one downside to the weekend was having an ambulance come and pick up the clerk of the course Rainer Brezinka. Unconfirmed reports are that he had a stroke and is in hospital in Peterborough . Our thoughts and prayers are with you Ray.