BEMC - February 26th & 27th, 2011
(Story, photography and video- Scott Miller)
Ice Race Journal Index
BEMC - February 26th & 27th, 2011
(Story, photography and video- Scott Miller)
Ice Race Journal Index
Read the disclaimer if you are prone to believing everything you read.
|
This Report brought to you by
Support These Sponsors!
|
That's it until next year, the last weekend of ice racing is done and I am already suffering withdrawal. The season seemed to have rushed by with six weekends in a row - no postponed weekends. Looks like a repeat of last year's championship results with another Street Studs RWD win, Studs RWD win and Studs Overall win. Thanks to all who helped make this season a success: my sponsors Minden House B&B, The S/\Ctionizer, University Werks Landscape Construction, my friends and fellow racers, the organizing clubs, the Minden Kinsmen, the town of Minden for having us, and all the volunteers who donated tons of their time and energy and of course my wife who kicked me out of the house each weekend.
Friday
Saturday
Off the start of the stud race I had to cross over the rut
that had developed from the previous weekend and that unsettled the
rear end enough that I lost some grip and had to lift a bit to relaunch
my car. That allowed Andrew Majik on my left and Lee Waterworth, behind
and to my right, to get a bit better start than me. I did manage to stay
alongside Andrew but
Lee had a run on me and decided to try a pass between me and the outside bank just before we turn into the 1st corner.
The problem was that during this time I was continually being squeezed
over to my right towards the outside banks by Andrew so when I saw Lee coming up the right side I
thought "there's not enough room there" and a couple seconds later I found myself
slamming into the banks and sitting facing the wrong way on track. The
car had stalled and it took me a couple seconds to realize this. Once
restarted I pulled a u-turn and tried the car out to see if
it was good to go. I could hear the right front fender rubbing against
the tire studs but the fenders are so flexible by now that I knew it was more
making noise than damaging anything. I then proceeded to drive the best I had in a
long while (watch this
VIDEO of the
stud race) in a mad bid to catch and eventually pass
both Andriy Levin
in the turbo Toyota Supra and then Richard Walker in the Chevette - the
other 2 cars in my class - for the win. Lee's car had hopped
up over my right front wheel during the squeeze play and in so doing bent the wheel rim. They
are hard-to-come-by vintage 1980 BMW aluminum alloy rims and so was very nervous about
attempting to hammer them back ono shape without them breaking. However,
using a piece of oak hardwood block against the shoulder of the rim and
hitting that with a 10 pound hammer, the rim slowly came back to close
to original shape. I really didn't know exactly what had happened to
cause the crash until later that evening. Upon reviewing my in-car
downloaded video of the incident on my laptop I concluded that Lee had
made a bad call trying to make it by my right side between me and the
snowbank - there just wasn't enough room to complete the pass and the
gap was being narrowed as I was being pushed by Andrew towards the bank.
Lee's left rear wheel got snagged on the front right corner of my car
bouncing his left rear tire over my front right wheel which caused my
spin to my right and into the bank.
The second incident happened in the following street studs race - my last race of the day - on the 1st lap halfway through the 1st corner. I was just about finished making a pass on Tim Pennwell for 2nd place in a very tight gaggle of cars when I was spun from behind by the #230 blue Corolla which launched me up and over the frozen little "curb" bank that was formed to keep us out of the trough between it and the bigger inside snowbanks. I was definitely stuck and looking at another unwanted DNF. I sat there not moving for another 7 laps, just furious, while everyone made it past me wth no problem for SEVEN laps except the very same blue Corolla #230 who used me as the apex of that corner every lap and on the eighth time slammed into the driver's rear corner of my MR2. (watch the VIDEO). I got stiff neck and trap muscles from the hit that stayed with me
through to Monday and another dent in my car. What kind of driver does
it take to hit a parked car that's been in the same spot after SEVEN
laps?
Sunday
Misc.
- Dave Fleguel, brother to Tim Fleguel arrived from the far north tundra for a
visit.
Video: Results: Pics: Bunch of pics from this weekend (courtesy Jimmy McGlade):
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)