March 4th, 2009 Posted in Uncategorized |
After two warm winters of waiting, I finally got the chance to attend an Ice Racing event sponsored by the Boston Chapter of BMW CCA. Although pretty chilly, the conditions really couldn’t have been better for such an event. The course had been freshly plowed earlier in the week and, of course, right before a rain storm dumped an inch of water across the lake. As you can see, the entire course was as slick as a skating rink and it was nearly impossible to walk on let alone attempt to drive.
Even with speeds only hitting 5 or maybe 10mph in the corners, there were still plenty of spins and, unfortunately, there were a few casualties. The snow banks had frozen over turned out to be pretty hard. A couple bumpers got taken off but nothing major happened that might put a damper on the day. In general, all the drivers were well aware of the conditions and managed to keep the staging areas and practice course safe.
The XI performed beautifully in the ice - or at least as well as I could expect it to in those conditions - and being able to spin at some low speeds was more than fun. Even with Blizzaks and AWD, though, it still beached itself pretty well a couple times and needed a solid three-person push back on to the practice course once (better than the GMC truck that needed to get towed out by a Range Rover).
Thanks go out to Stan Jackson - the event organizer, as well as all the instructors who donated their time to running such a great event, and the tow truck crew and drivers who helped keep cars relatively on course. Also want to send a shout out to Stefan at Turner Motorsports who got lost with me on the way to the event and a thanks to Rachel who kindly gave me half of her sandwich and a delicious cookie.
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