Jan 13 & 14th, 2001
Race
results for the Ovlov
Awesome and weird would best describe this
weekend. Racing was awesome and off track adventures were weird!
Friday:
Mike and I arrived at the track on the Friday (Jan 12) at 7:30 AM
to do some car prep and tire testing (we hadn't done anything to
the car accept haul it out of the gravel pit up here on Monday).
It remained a beautiful day - the temperature went from -15C to a
high around -5 C and the sun stayed out for a good portion of the
day. (Click the pic at your left for a 2MB Realplayer panoramic
view of Mindenhammer in early evening. Look for the thin line of
smoke cutting across the picture).Tom Prentice built a beautiful
track this year, very very wide, 4 foot high banks, reportedly
11" (26 cm) of ice depth. At around noon three guys from the
Ministry of Natural Resources drove up and a Bell Chopper landed
right next to our tool trailer to take these three guys moose
counting. That's right, flying around counting moose!
Click the Pic to hear Dave Watson
(S/\C#10) sum up the feeling.
We now have ( thanks to our sponsors - Brooklin Concrete Products and
The Klondyke Food Rush ) three sets of tires to choose from! Two
sets are from last year, a set of no name winter snows that have
been tractionized and a set Blizzak ws-02 winter ice tires also
tractionized. This year we have a new set of Blizzak ws-50 winter
ice and snow tires.
Mike Evans put in several hot laps trying
various tires and compounds but testing fell apart slowly over
the course of the afternoon as the excitement of being at
Mindenhammer and the anticipation of tomorrow's race day crept
over us. The arrival of Raul Backstrom, his brother Mark and
their friend Dave Battlefield with "the house" 
in tow and copious
amounts of various libations did nothing to keep a cap on the
festival-like atmosphere that was developing. By 5:30 the wheels
had pretty much fallen off the wagon and events began a long slow
slide downhill. At 6:00, those still legal to drive, moved people
and carcasses to the Rockcliffe for more "fun and
frolick". Outside the Rockcliffe I climbed out of the back
seat of my truck and asked Mike Evans for my keys back. He
refused to do so - a shouting and pushing match ensued with the
net result - me throwing a punch at his stomache! Not a good
start to a racing partnership and season. But things just
deteriorated from there as the "festival" climbed the
front steps of "the Cliffe". In an attempt to salvage
any remnant of selfrespect I purchased a pitcher of beer for each
table in the Cliffe. From then on the memories are few but the
stories plentiful (you'll have to ask others for those). I think
Terry Dalton drove me back to the Minden House. The next thing I
know is Mike stumbles into our room wheezing and moaning in pain
and said he was on his way to the hospital that he was having
difficulty breathing. He took a cab, I went back to bed. I woke
up sometime later and looked over to the next bed to see Mike had
made it back. Later in the morning he told me that the xrays
showed a cracked rib and a partially collapsed lung. Mike was in
a lot of pain. The hospital refused him tylenol because he had
been drinking. If I thought I felt bad earlier that was nothing
to the way I felt now! But wait there's more...Mike then told me
he couldn't get a taxi back from the hospital, no one could find
Minden's only cab driver at 4 in the morning, so he walked. On
his way back he got lost and thought a short cut would be to
cross the river...so he did! Yes the main river that cuts through
Minden. His cloths and boots were completely soaked of course and
at the cold temps of the water and the width of the river its
lucky he didn't suffer hypothermia! I loaned him my extra boots
the next day his were still soaked. Next day we could see the
hospital was only 4 blocks away and on the same side of the river
as our accomodation! That was Friday.
Saturday:
We are still best friends and now
race day faces the battle weary and worn pair. The temp. was just
below freezing for most of the day. Our Ovlov passed tech no
problem, our 3rd year of racing the old beast. Our numbers are
drawn for the 8 lap qualifier and I pulled 14th on a mixed grid
of 12 class 1 cars (rear wheel drive) and 6 class 4 cars (all
wheel drive). Pretty unlucky as my main competition, Ian Lok
(#95), Tom Prentice (#90), Terry Dalton (#70) and Larry Kovaks
(#11) drew far better positions. But sometimes its motivating to
start from further back and a feeling of relaxation and
nothing-to-lose driving style combined for a result of pole
position for the first race. I finished sacond (a SACond is as
good as win for a SAC member!) in both of the following races on
Saturday just behind Tom Prentice in his Skoda. I was all over
his bumper but couldn't dislodge him from the inside groove he
had clung to for most of each race. Both races saw Ian Lok (#95),
who managed to pass me in each race (he was really fast!), DNF
with electrical problems: the car would just stop.
Mike got second in the qualifier and finished
3rd in each of the two races on Saturday.
Sunday:
Much warmer temps. plus 2 C and
racing did not start till 12:30. Got 12 hours sleep last nite,
much needed after Friday/Saturday 1, 2 combo. Track much more
slippery as oxymoronic as that sounds warmer temps do that and as
a result much paint was traded by all.
At 11 am Dave Battlefield (now S/\C member
#108) brightened up the skys over Mindenhammer with a 20 minute
airshow flying a 5 foot wingspan remote controlled model airplane
launched on skiis from the main straight!!! What a show , can
this guy fly!!! Hammer heads, reverse stalls and spins, double
inside/outside loops, barrel rolls - simply astounding!!!! It was
non-stop and had everyones attention riveted for like 20
minutes!!! I was so happy Super Dave showed up.
Again Tom Prentice (#90) won the race opener
and I finished 3rd. Ian Lok was leading on lap 10 and I was 2nd
when I came around the last turn and saw Ian parked. I hit a very
slippery spot and had to turn harder than I wanted to avoid
hitting Ian. I lost control and slid sideways allowing Tom
Prentice and Larry Kovaks (#11) to slide by into 1st and 2nd
respectively - way to throw away a 1st place gift Scoty! Kind of
bummed by that and trying to keep up the so far clean racing (no
hits for the entire weekend!) I was coming into the last turn
(clockwise) way to fast behind Ian Lok in the next race. I hit
the brakes , locked up the wheels and had to turn right into the
snowbank to avoid rear ending and launching Ian, I spun badly and
couldn't regain traction until I had dropped to somewhere around
8th and fought hard to finish 5th. (PS Ian Lok again stopped dead
later on lap 10 so maybe I could have hit him anyhow?).
Mike finished 2nd in both races Sunday. One
reason was this in the first race...
That's Sacsty (Terry Dalton) SACin' the car in
the snow bank and Mike slidin' by in the background.
Video Version (Realplayer
200kb)
After the finishing SACond in the Second race he had to push
the competition off the track...
Video of Mike in lead after
stud race
(Realplayer 630KB)
OTHER NEWS:
The Stud people....
Steffan Haas (SAC#14) had lots
of car trouble all weekend with his VW Rabbit but managed to keep
it running and placed fairly well I think in at least one race.
He got to the track friday at 5 pm and had to replace a drive
shaft right away and then all weekend had the injectors in and
out of the car several times but in the end the car ran great.
Had a really wild and funky looking wing on the front part of the
car roof 
Video of Sunday's First Stud
Race
(Realplayer 1.2MB)
These are a two stills from the above video
clip of
Sunday's first Stud race showing the S/\C tape logo...
Both Kurt and Paul Gyger were back racing the VW in Stud...
Mike Zenon S/\C#69 in the studly Turbo Omni...
Mike Jensen (SAC#3)
spent four of the wee hours
of Saturday morning in a
ditch outside of Minden
More random people pics:
Jan 10, 2001
Getting ready for this weekend. Monday we towed
our tool/shelter trailer to the track in Mindenhammer then dug
the car out of three feet of snow, a snow drift and a plowed snow
bank! Then towed it from Tom's pit (that sounds funny) to the
track about 1.5 kms. away. Had trouble opening the hood I think
the release cable got frozen or rusted so had to cut it open with
the trusty gas cutoff saw! Yeah! :-) The car started right up
after sitting since last February, of course the battery had to
be boosted but it actually fired up. I then took it for a few
quick laps (oh yeah, the hood has no latch - oops!). The new
track is very, very wide. I had trouble finding the snow banks
because of that and the overcast sky and lack of light.
Blizzaks again this year.
We still need to tractionize with THE
TRACTIONIZER so will be going up early
Friday Jan 12th to put some finishing touches on the Ovlov.