PMSC - January 27th & 28th, 2007
(Story and photography - Scott Miller)
Ice Race Journal Index
PMSC -
January 27th & 28th, 2007
(Story and photography - Scott Miller)
Ice Race Journal Index
I think you should read this
disclaimer if you are
one who is prone to believing
everything they read.
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Dropped trailer off on Thursday. Temp
was -17C. Track very wide, wind blowing strong, skies clear,
banks small looking but legal, Tom flooding with tanker truck. First I just want to say, it was really good to back in Mindenhammer, to be with friends, to be in a part of the province where winter looks and
feels like winter ought to, and thank you in advance to all my sponsors: Swedish Motors, Brooklin Concrete Products, Minden House Bed & Breakfast, University Werks Landscaping and The SACtionizer , to all series sponsors: Magnum Fine Printing (Icerace Series), Tirecraft (Street Stud tires), Nick Majors (LTB shootout), to all car club race organizers and volunteers and last but not least to all Kinsmen and individuals who make the track happen and without whom we would have no ice racing at all. Friday - I had decided to flat tow my ice racer this year with the street stud tires mounted that I used last year in order primarily to heat treat the rubber so that the studs hopefully would stay in the tire better because the rubber would harden and the pocket therefore grip the base of the studs better. The outer layer of the studs are aluminum, about an eighth of an inch in diameter, and therefore wear away rapidly upon being driven/towed on asphalt or concrete roads exposing the very centre pencil lead sized carbide core pin. On inspecting the studs after a couple hundred kilometers of towing I was somewhat surprised at the result. I wondered if this would be a good thing on the ice and pondered the "more-pound-per-square-inch" versus "larger-surface-area-to-grab" theories. In practice the result was indeed dismal to say the least - I figure about half the level of grip as the tiny pins just "rip" instead of "grip" the surface of the ice. The larger size of the original aluminum sheathed stud provides a larger leading edge surface providing therefore more grip. As a result my Saturday Street Stud results were not good - most of the field lapped me. Also I was not shown on the grid sheets for street stud class - again (read other years icerace reports). All in all a very frustrating first qualifying then first race in the afternoon. That's when Ian Lok showed up with his street stud tires from last year in the back of his pickup! Both Ian and I drive Volvo 240's so the rims are the same. Ian was only there to watch and drag his racer out of Tom's pit in preparation for running some other weekend so I asked if I might borrow his tires and he readily agreed. Big thank you to you Ian for that as it turned my weekend around 180 degrees!!! I went out in the next race (last race of two for the day) and from 18th overall on the grid finished 2nd in class behind the MR2 who was well ahead and mixed in with a pack of AWD cars. Awesome!
Results for Sunday's two Street Stud races were both 1st place finishes. The first race was interesting as I mixed it up a bit in the first corner with some new entries, one a nicely prepared Corolla and another a BMW 325 with a limited slip differential. The second race I got a good, clean start and soon led with no real challenges except for the new BMW 325 entry of Tim Fleugal (Dave Fleugal's brother- Dave was up on Sunday) catching up to me for the last few laps but he appeared to be struggling in attempts to pass me and I just drove my line and kept the car smooth. Big thank you to Steve Drysdale, Ian McIntyre, James McGlade, Ian Lok and all the rest who helped me with tire swaps for the several times I had back-to-back class one and SS1 races. As far as the rubber to ice class-1 races I entered, the fact that the full stud races were not run this weekend meant the track surface remained unfriendly to my locked diff RWD car and therefore my results were not really worth mentioning.
Having said that though there was a lot of fun had at the expense of one DNF and a last place during the weekend. It appears that I am still under review by Kent Missions for the position of "bank manager" but Kent, seriously, I believe that's the best I can do. Several times I chewed into the rather soft fluffy banks with the results varying anywhere from totally stuffing it to the stuff-and-spin-back-onto-track maneuver to the back-bumper-to-the-front-bumper bank slapping maneuver.
All pretty entertaining for the spectator but somewhat embarrassing for the driver. It is good though to get that kind of thing out of your system right up front and on the first weekend. Oh yeah, note to self: never have Todd McCall SAC#118 ride shotgun with you if you don't like a passenger that never stops giving driving tips: "faster, faster !" ..... "run the banks, run the banks!!!" ...... "you should try the banks at the other end too!" .... "just rock back and forth really hard and we'll get it unstuck!" LOL There were a few people missing this weekend some of course because full studs were not running, Tony McGrath, Richard Walker? Leon Lok, I thought you were going front wheel rubber-to-ice!? It was good to see Nick Majors was there keeping the grandstand seats warm even though there were no Stud races, thanks for being there and continuing to sponsor the LTB shootout! I am really looking forward to seeing your new Datsun 240 turbo Stud rocket perform this upcoming weekend! There are a lot of rookies this year so I didn't go out in rubber to ice practice, thought I'd keep some of the new paint on the car. The mock grid entrance has been moved to the extreme far west end of the fairground and since my pit is at the other far end I found some of the back to back race tire changes to be tough. The Rockcliffe was empty Friday night so some of us wound up in the Dominion for a few libations and excellent chicken wings. Saturday night saw the Cliffe packed with iceracers. weather
Saturday: -12C then warmed up to -5c as snow fell for most of the day. Sunday: - 5C and sunny for most of morning then clouded over mid afternoon with temp dropping to around -7C
track conditions
Sat. - since no stud cars were allowed to run, the perfectly prepared and virginal ice stayed super slippery all weekend and indeed became more slippery as it was polished to a high sheen each subsequent rubber race. Even street studs seemed to do little to improve grip for rubber to ice races. Add to that a continual addition of snowfall all day and the track just got even more slippy. Sun. - a little better grip with the snow on the outside of the line starting to stick to the ice a tad. Overall the track is really wide giving more opportunity to recover. Banks were very soft and sucked you in if you put the front wheel even slightly up the bank. Results Street Studs: Rubber-to-Ice, Class 1: Pics:
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