Ice racing the old Opel.....

[RallyBob]

As mentioned previously, I'll be running my friend's Ascona in some ice racing time trials near Albany NY on Feb. 1st. Just wanted you to see the tires we'll be running. The fronts have 90 grade-5 bolts per tire, and the rears have 196 bolts per tire. Should have pretty good grip, huh?

[JGard18]

I'm more worried about those tires killing me

But I will be Ice Racing my Opel with BMWCCA up at Newfoundland Lake in NH. Maybe I'll see you there some time.

[RallyBob]

That would be pretty cool. Two Opels ice racing on the same day? some kind of record I'm sure....

Bob

[Mach1Tom]

Bob,

Are you still planning on ice racing Feb 1st? Is this just single car time trails or will there be actual racing? After seeing those tires, it sounds like it would be something cool to watch. Where exactly is this & are spectators allowed? Admission cost?

Thanks
Tom C

[RallyBob]

Yes, I am. But the venue has been changed due to insufficient ice thickness. It's no longer going to be in Albany, but rather in Wells, NY. Lake Algonquin I think. The course will be somewhere around 1 to 1.5 miles long, and will consist of two laps per car, per run. The following day, on Sunday, is the actual wheel-to-wheel racing. I will be running the time trial only, on Saturday.

No admission cost for spectators as far as I know, after all it's a public lake. I'll see if I can dig up the link to the club running the event for times.
Edit: http://www.icerace.com

Bob

[Mach1Tom]

Bob,

I've been checking the AMEC website for updates on the Ice
Racing time trails (Sat) and racing (Sun). It looks like all of this
will be done at Warners Lake in East Berne, NY near Albany.
I guess you are in the "All 2WD Bolts 'X-perimental' class" that
will be running on Sat. Are you staying to watch the races on
Sunday too?

Tom C

[RallyBob]

Yes, the venue has been moved back to Lake Warner in East Berne NY. They have over 16" of ice now. I am running the time trials on Saturday, but I want to spectate the wheel-to-wheel racing on Sunday. Last word was the course would be 1 to 1.5 miles long, and each car gets TWO laps per run.

Bob

[Mach1Tom]

Bob,

How did the Ice racing time trails go today? I thought about driving up BUT an 8 hour drive seemed kinda long. Figure I'll wait till a spring or summer race to see instead.

Tom C

[RallyBob]

It went pretty well considering. I had troubles with the tires, over the course of three runs two tires went flat. I borrowed some others from my friend Tim, and we all got to finish out the day.

There were only two cars entered in the 'unlimited stud' class, which was my friend Tim's rally-prepped Sentra, and the Opel Ascona my friend Gregg owns. Tim won the class, I placed second, then the owner Gregg third, and Travis in fourth place. However, overall, we were the fastest true 'street' car, and al of us beat all the unstudded cars, and also the 'street studded' cars...2wd and 4wd included. My times would have been mid-pack for the 'Menard' class, which uses a spec racing studded tire on purpose-built ice racing cars.

Overall, the course was pretty fast. It was 1.2 miles long, and I ran the entire course in 3rd gear. At two places on the course the car was at about 6300 rpms in 3rd gear. My best time was a 1:20xxx (can't recall exact times) from a standing start. Ironically, I feel the car was horsepower limited rather than handling limited. There was plenty of traction. Another 50 hp would have been nice, as I could have gone faster in many places had the car been capable of it.

[RallyBob]

A photo from Saturday's ice race time trials. Note the body roll on ice.....there were some pretty significant G-forces going on here.

Bob

[RallyBob]

The Opel got a nice mention on the ice racing website today, along with a few photos. Here's the link: http://www.icerace.com/Studs-on-ice.htm

Nice to see a 32 year old car kicking butt!

Bob

[Gary]

Here's another LINK to a great series of photos from the race.

[JGard18]

Kinda related, kinda not...

But I'll be up at NewFound Lake this Sunday with BMWCCA and my Opel GT for their ice races. Last I heard, they're still on, but the final decision is made Saturday at noon. I can't wait! (Oddly enough, I never ice raced when I had my Subaru, but I'm going to try now)