DAC - February 3rd & 4th, 2007
(Story and photography - Scott Miller)
Ice Race Journal Index
DAC -
February 3rd & 4th, 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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Cold, snow and high winds provided for rather harsh conditions with wind chill factors well down in the minus 30s range for the Deutscher Automobil Club hosted weekend. It seems that the DAC weekends are developing a reputation for being very cold. Thanks to all DAC volunteers for hosting the ice races. Our SACographer was not at the track this weekend so I will have to make do with whatever pics I can scoop from others. I did have a friend of Rick Creuzburg's, Luciano Pomella, ride with me in a rubber to ice race and he has some really fantastic footage I'm sure that will eventually be posted on YouTube.
Friday
- This was the "Girls Weekend"
up so my wife Judy joined me and Terry's wife Paula. We were all
"treated" to yet another fabulous weekend in the main house at our
sponsor: Minden House B&B. If you have never stayed there in the main
house you have to treat yourself at least once! Saturday - Ok, I'm an idiot, I confess. Here's why - the starter I had installed the day before appeared to be frozen so Ian Lok dragged me through most of the pits before the 240 reluctantly fired. I drove back to my pit and while I opened up the tool trailer and got out basic tools the Ovlov warmed up and then it started to cough and sputter and then die. I thought wet wires as I had left the hood open the night before for a couple hours while I chatted with a few friends who dropped by and a couple centimeters of snow had accumulated in the engine bay. After spraying the wires with water repellent the car still would not start in fact the starter would not even engage. So I hot wired the starter, got it to crank over but still it would not fire. I notice too while inside the car the usual loud whine of the fuel pump could not be heard and so I immediately thought - "the fuel pump is shot". I tested power feed at the pump and did get 12 volts but still felt the pump was faulty because of the lack of noise. I felt somewhat defeated at this point in time as replacing a fuel pump on the Ovlov is a pain. It is exposed under the car but all the fittings are usually corroded. So I asked Steve Drysdale if he would do the job for me and I would pay him. He agreed and got to work. Once the pump housing frame was lowered we were faced with the difficulty of undoing the fittings and most likely having to cut the lines and cobble the new pump back together with rubber hoses and screw clamps. So we stopped and thought. Then Steve goes - " have you checked the gas gauge?" I turned the key on and waited and waited and waited but the gauge wouldn't budge - DUH! I had put gas in the car last Sunday in the morning but had to let the car run all day as the starter was not functioning last weekend so I guess it used it all up. Once gas was in the car and the starter was bypassed the car fired no problem. As a result I missed qualifying for the rubber to ice class 1 race but just made the grid for the Street Stud qualifier. After all this I was still faced with studs ripping out of the tires issues so did not do well all day Saturday in SS1. Ian Lok was racing all weekend so couldn't borrow his tires. After the last race Saturday afternoon I only had 12 of 110 studs left in one of the front tires on a RWD car! This issue will have to be addressed and a solution found or the Street Stud class will die. I also continued to fight for last place in rubber to ice races with Kent Missions but actually had the most fun of the season to date trading places back and forth with him! More of the back-to-back race tire changes on Saturday and again lots of help from the boys next door, much thanks Ian, Steve et al.
Sunday - I went out for Rubber-to-ice practice and seemed to be doing well keeping to an outside line on the berm of packed snow. I noticed that the green "Hickster" Chevette of Josh Taylor SAC#320 was having some trouble and he managed to crawl around maybe another lap albeit slowly but then finally stopped off the line on the outside of corner 2. A few laps later, as I was coming up on the same corner, I noticed that the yellow light had just come on. I figured that it was to signal the end of practice as at least 10 minutes had passed so I hauled up quickly behind the Chevette to push Josh in off the track. As I went through the next couple of corners I noticed that the other yellow lights were not on and by the time we got to the straight I knew that indeed practice was not over that the yellow light had only been a local but had not been on for several laps prior to. Now I'm pushing the Chevette down the racing line on the straight so I did not want to leave him there and so continued to go around for another lap hoping he would drive off line to a safer place. We finally had to abort at the east end after almost clipping another car as we were indeed going at a good speed. On the next lap I was black flagged and after practice summarily keel hauled by the clerk of the course et al. Boy, what an idiot (didn't I already say that?).
Turns out that
the Josh toasted his motor by tossing a rod (and piston) right through
the block! As they say in ice racing: "Today's toasted motor is
tomorrows ballast." He's going to put another motor in it this weekend
and be back on track Sunday. I had a Rubber to Ice race after a stud race today but the grip levels only lasted for what seemed a couple laps and then they were gone. I'm not sure how I finished. The Street Stud races saw me finish down in the grid in the first race then after replacing a whole bunch of studs (40 in each tire) placing a respectable 2nd in the last race just behind the BMW 325. I got close to the BMW a couple of times but would have to say never really had a chance to get past. Steff Haas lost all but 2 studs in his FWD Rabbit and declared that as soon as those went he would simply switch to rubber to ice class 3 using the same tires sans studs. In other news ....
Terry Dalton says that the AMEC ice racers (they race on lakes in northeastern NY state) have had to cancel all races to date. He suggested to them that they should drag their cars to Minden with all the money they've saved from not racing.
They apparently only race once over
the course of their weekends, so they would certainly have a
blast at our event! Can you imagine the beast pictured hauling
around Minden? .... Sweet… Ryan Clumpus and Mark Swain loosened up a stuck rear brake caliper and seemed to find a lot more grip from their Mobil 1 740 Ovlov. Weather Saturday: -18C then "warmed up" to -14C as snow fell for most of the day and high winds causing wind chill factors well into the -30C range. Sunday: - 14C and overcast with light passing flurries temps dropping to -18C by late afternoon Track Conditions Sat. - track was really built up over the last week with really cold temps aiding the effort. Andy Hughes reported some lower spots on the field having 18" of ice depth with a minimum of 12" in thinner spots as confirmed by a test drilling of the ice. There was a noticeable grade change at the east end of the straight into the first corner and the east end slightly off camber tilt. Sun. - track remained pretty much the same as the spec Menards didn't seem to groove the ice anywhere near as much. Results Street Studs: Rubber-to-Ice, Class 1: Pics:
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