PMSC - March 4th & 5th, 2006
(Story and photography - Scott Miller)
Ice Race Journal Index
PMSC -
March 4th & 5th, 2006
(Story and photography - Scott Miller)
Ice Race Journal Index
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I think this might be a short report - good for those of you who prefer pictures :-) I apologize: the icerace report is a day late this week. I awoke Monday feeling exhausted and in fact fell asleep on the couch in afternoon for like 4 hours! I tried to write something yesterday but couldn't think of a thing. I feel much better today so here goes.... This weekend completed the first of the two rainday-delayed weekends and was originally scheduled as the first weekend on the race calender. Thank you to all PMSC members and volunteers and especially Sharon Feeney for pulling off a well organized weekend (hope you found your 50-50 ticket :-) We had visitors to ice racing from as far away as Pensylvania and a guy from Windsor this weekend. Milder temps hovering around zero and lots of strong sunshine made for the most slippery conditions to date. At one point, as I passed through the kink in a Class 1 rubber-to-ice race, with absolutely no steering input and the car going straight, transmission in neutral, no braking - in point of fact what should have been a totally stable and neutral condtion - the car came unglued - all by itself - and started squirming around on the ice of it's own accord as if possessed! It was under the same conditions in a class 11 rubber-to-ice race that I watched from the bank as the outside of the kink turned into a car magnet. Lap after lap yet another hapless victim would slide off the line and into the "weeds" never to exit. At the end there were 3 cars that had to be pushed out and even the people pushing had trouble finding footing.
Again on Sunday the conditions remained very slippery and slow and resulted in a pile-up at the end of the straight during a front wheel drive race that saw at one point 5 cars stranded in the weeds. There were also several hard impacts with the parked cars as racers continued to push their luck for the conditions in the first corner. I did not make it up to Mindenhammer until early Saturday morning as my wife had a bad bout with what was finally diagnosed as gall stones which was very painfull and involved a lot of frequent vomitting. She is much better now and is awaiting surgery in a few weeks to have her gall bladder removed. Isn't it nice that she is such a supportive wife that she wanted me to race this weekend? ( I did arrange for my Dad to drop in and sit with her on Saturday.) As a result of lack of sleep through all that I did not party too much this weekend. However, after an excellent Chinese dinner at Mark's, just beside the Minden Motel, I did manage to get out to the Dominion for some Karaoke Saturday night. I sang Nation Wide by ZZ Top with Terry Dalton on backup vocals. Then we did a tune called Love Shack by the B52's. About half way through the tune Ryan Clumpus (SAC#317) came up on stage and yelled in my ear - "that's Love SAC!" I thought I would fall off the stage laughing! So the balance of the tune, complete with audience participation, was sung "love SAC, baby love SAC" etc etc etc. Too much fun!
Remember last week when the 740 got T-boned and lost the passenger side window? The guy who did that came up and apologized and that was the end of it as far as I was concerned. Well this week that guy, Rodney Schmelter SAC#303, and his friend Eric Chapman came up to Mindenhammer with a new door! That's just too much! So I said: "Now I'll bloody well have to remove the old one, install and align the new one, repaint the door - way too much work - thanks a lot guys!" :-) But seriously, thanks a million, you didn't have to do that but wouldn't it be great if all the competitors treated each other that way! We wouldn't have any need for the "wall of shame".
Speaking of
which, there is still one car left on the "wall of shame" because of the
driver's same behaviour behind the wheel this weekend did nothing to
warrant removal. And again their lack of skill netted the same damaging
results to other innocent competitor's cars.
The track did suffer from the milder temps this weekend with the full studded tires doing the damage. We got down to the dirt on Sunday at the east end so Tom Prentice went out and plowed some snow over top of the rut and also formed a temporary bank just to the inside of the turn to encourage drivers to swing wide of the area. This lasted but a few laps until someone drove over the temporary bank and then soon they were down to the dirt again. Later this week the temps are to rise well above the freezing point during the day with rain predicted on Thursday and Friday so I am not sure if we will get our last weekend of racing. On the last weekend two years ago a foot of water accumulated on the straight during an extremely mild spell and flooded inside the 740 through a hole in the floor soaking the computer (and the occupants) during the last race of the season. With this in mind I towed home the 740 Ovlov after racing this weekend as I do not want to run it in another "Boat Race" which may occur should we get even one day of racing this coming weekend. I finally participated in an LTB shootout on Sunday first thing before practices. I had not the time nor the inclination prior to this weekend even though I qualified several times. I started on pole and beat both Terry and Larry. I also beat Larry in class 1 on Saturday and Terry in class 1 on Sunday so now I can die happy: my season is complete. I did not however keep the Honda Civics at bay in the LTB shootout and they cleaned up 1st and 2nd with me in 3rd. I believe it was near the end of the shootout that Terry ran into someone and wrecked the radiator on his Corolla. We removed the rad and tried replacement donor but it was too small. So I loaned Terry the use of the 242 GLT (he has done the same for me many times) which meant there were some hectic tire changes as I was driving the 242 in the street stud races which were either immediately before or after his races. Thanks to the guys from car 98 pit for assisting, Jimmy Mcglade, Ian McIntyre and Steve Drysdale and also to James King for smooth tire changes. Terry did very well considering the 242 is a welded diff and he doesn't like them all that much. I believe he won at least the last class 11 race which was after studs and finished SACond in the other class11. Anyhow you can check the results further down for yourselves
In last week's report I mentioned that I had hoped Tom Prentice would be able to have a go at me sometime soon. Well in the last Street Stud race on Sunday he got his chance. James King in FWD got a good start and I wanted to let him through as he had spent most of the season behind me and of course is not competing against me. So as he went past me in the first turn I had to go wide losing traction on more slipery ice and sliding slightly off-line. This allowed both my RWD competitors, Tom Prentice and Richard Walker, to pass me in turn one as well. It took a bit but I did get by Richard then set my sights on Tom. Tom was really hooked up and after several side by side attempts was only able to pass him on the last lap after he oversteered it through the kink. Thanks Tom for the challenge and it was good to race with you again.
*********************************************************** Ok, so much for the less wordy report! Hopefully we will get even one more day of racing although the predicted rain Thursday and Friday this week does cause me concern.
WALL OF SHAME: This is an icerace report
feature that singles out drivers that have made a large impact (on my
car) This week the wall of shame sees cars 195, 190, and 67 removed from the wall of shame with the white Subaru remaining.
Racing: Saturday: Warmer temps meant very slippery track with many areas of the track offering up zero conditions. Had a really engaging race after street studs on Sunday finishing 2nd. For more detailed write-up see above Sunday: I had Susan Hawkins SAC#47 as passenger in the Street Stud class both races Sunday, I think she had a lot of fun. I suppose therefore it's perhaps ironic that on Sunday Steffan Haas and I would do battle. Steff didn't replace any of the lost studs in his tires this weekend as he only came up on Sunday and as a result he and I were able to have a very close race with each other especially in the corners, one of the best this year, and I have the stud marks and paint on the passenger door to prove it! Yeah! For more detailed write-up see above. Track Conditions/ Weather: Saturday:
Sunday: Results: In Class 1, rubber-to-ice, I got a 4th, two SAConds and a third. My best results again were in Street Studs : two SAConds and two firsts
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