Monday Mar. 02, 2009

I am feeling a bit bummed as I write this today because I am thinking about the fact that was the last weekend of ice racing until next year even though I had a fantastic time of racing. Oh well, it's time to store the cars and equipment and make a list of stuff that needs repair and/or tweeking for next season and hey, I am look forward to the ice race banquet. Don't forget to get your tickets right now from Sharon Feeney - it's the first weekend in April and I will look forward to seeing you all there.

Thank you Twin Lakes Motor Club for hosting this weekend. Since it was a Twin Lakes event we all were looking forward to the use of the anti bank running purple barney flags and sure enough out they came! But guess what guys and girls? They were banned at the annual driver's meeting Sunday morning !! Yea! Also from that meeting I hear we will have a virtual Christmas Tree of lights on top of our cars next year with the addition of strobe lights! And they will have to be mounted such that they clear the roof mounted number boards! Get out yer welders and start fabricating!
 

First off I want to thank all who were a part of the success this season.
My wife Judy for encouraging me to "Go have fun".
Obviously my sponsors whose giving helps lessen the financial cost of the sport: Gord and Leslie from The Minden House B&B, Brooklin Concrete Products.
The Minden Kinsmen once again for providing the venue and building of a most excellent track and all the volunteers and club members who came out to run each weekend's events.
My pit neighbours Steve Drysdale, Ian MacIntyre, Homer, Homer's wife (love your chili), Jimmy McGlade (official SACocrapher), Ian Lok, Leon Lok, Erik Chapman (instant Volvo diagnosis), all those Class 1 people who harassed me to come back to race in RWD Class 1 rubber-to-ice with the Silver Bullet (some of the best and most fun racing I have ever had). Jim Feeney for all the hard work on the first motor in the MR2, Gianni Biral for all his hard work installing the second motor (20 valve swap) in the MR2. Last but not least I thank both my good friends Mike Evans and Rick Creuzburg for coming up and helping out tirelessly in the pits whenever they could.

Looks like that wraps up the Street Stud championship for yours truly thanks in large part to the flawless performance of the "Silver Bullet" - I can't believe what a difference a new fuel pump and filter makes :-) and consistency of finishes on track. Overall it was a hard fought championship with lots of really competitive driving between the front runners, Tom Prentice, Leon Lok and Jerry Oosterholt albeit at times a little too hard when it came to car contact.

The MR2 performed flawlessly in Stud class this weekend placing 1st in all four RWD races and I believe a third overall in the last race Sunday - yea! "I beat Steff Haas" !!!! I think he slowed down though so he could have a bit of racing with me as there was no one else around but he and I. I am posting video from three of the four races and the Saturday qualifier to YouTube so enjoy and make sure you choose the "High Quality" option once you start viewing the video.

The weather was brutally cold for a last weekend event as historically we have the big meltdown and resulting "boat races" to contend with. Not so this weekend as we awoke to -25 C temps Saturday morning! The high for the day was -11C reached around noon but on the bright side the sun was out for both days and felt very strong. Fortunately both cars fired up immediately although the geni required a thawing out in front of the propane heater before it started. Rick Creuzburg helped out all weekend and a good job too as the last weekend means a lot of packing up and towing of vehicles to the pits and it's nice to have help when it's so cold. Sunday got up to a high of -8C and sunny.

There was lots of madness and mayhem in just about every race as a "last weekend of racing free-for-all" mentality seemed to take over. There was lots of bank managing, a couple of rollovers, a Car-B-Que and in general way too much contact.

Saturday went really well in both studs and street studs winning quali and both races in Stud and I think maybe a SACond in street studs if not a couple of thirds (I never checked the points this year so have to wait until they are posted on the CASC web site for confirmation). In street studs Tom Prentice and I had really good races this weekend and Jerry Oosterholt kept me on slippery footing, and that's putting it mildly, but gentleman racer (his opinion) I am not. I had a fair bit of car contact from Jerry in one race with me being the meat in the sandwich between him and the AWD Subaru in front of me on a couple of corners in the first couple laps. The stud races were for the most part uneventful Saturday with the odd bit of give and go with Lee Watterworth and Andrew Majik in their FWD Hondas. I never got to race with any of the RWD cars just FWD as that's where the MR2 would wind up after the great starts it would get.
My parents showed up Saturday afternoon for a couple of hours and caught both stud races.

The first stud race Sunday involved a car fire which resulted in two red flag restarts. The first red was because of the "Car-B-Que" and the second red, after less than one lap of the restart, was because our medic, John Sullivan, was not back in place as he was still attending to someone who fell on the ice and hit their head trying to get to the car fire to put it out. I got great starts at the beginning and in the first restart but the second restart was not as good. The street stud races Sunday got quite rough in the first race and rougher still in the second race. I felt like a target in the second race as several RWD cars had a go at the Silver Bullet with each contact resulting in me being knocked around enough to be shunted down another position. By the third sh** kicking I had had about enough and, determined to regain my lost positions, began a hard driving payback campaign. Turns out I only had to deal with two while the third took himself out. "Gentlemen", don't think for a split second that I am going to pull over and let you by or don't assume just because you succeed in passing me by use of brute forceful hard contact and physically aggressive driving that the same hand won't be dealt right back at you with a swiftness that will surprise. I had a passenger in the car who was, before that race, thinking of doing street stud next year but after that ride - well I don't think he got a very good first impression.

This was the weekend to pack everything up and clear out so after racing was over we dispatching the trailer and Ovlov to Tom's pit. By around 7 pm Rick and I returned to load the MR2 on the car dolly and head home . It was getting fairly dark and the ground where we were loading was a glare sheet of ice as was the case anywhere in the pits this weekend. I use a couple pieces of 2x6 four foot long boards as a

small ramp onto the dolly's steel ramps to aid in clearing the front valance on the MR2. So, like I have done many times this season, I prepared to drive the MR2 up the ramps but the bottom end of the wooden 2x6's were sitting on the glare ice and the weight of the car hitting them as it was driven forward onto the dolly caused them to behave like skis under the front wheels and slide right up and past the pockets where the front wheels of the towed car are to land. The boards carried the front wheels up and over the front of the dolly and with a sudden and solid clunk the car came to rest balanced perfectly but entirely on top of the dolly. I don't think I could have done that if I had been trying. Now how to rectify the problem without a magical sky hook to lift the front up while the dolly is pulled forward? Turns out we were able to put the planks under the front wheels and in front of the pockets then place a jack underneath the plank and centered on the front wheel, jack the front wheel up and place a jack stand under the front end of the plank then drive the plank back towards the dolly until it rested just in front of the pockets creating a ramp sloping back down into the dolly pockets. Once accomplished the car just basically rolled back into position on the dolly but the whole thing took about an hour.

On a sad note, I just received notice via email that Peter Taws has passed away. Most of you will know of his daughter Ashley who has ice raced a few seasons in Minden. Peter helped tremendously with his daughter's progress in other forms of racing as well from helping wrench to marketing her career. Peter was a gregarious and giving person and many are familiar with his good nature and humour as you would know if you were ever at the Rockcliffe with him after a day of ice racing. Peter was also SAC President for the last year. My condolences to you Ashley and your family and from all of the racing community as well - Peter you will be missed. I have no further details at this time.

Until next year ... SACEWE!