2012 Race Report 3

Ice Racing January 22, 2012

Sunday turned out to be a good day for some ice racing in southern Wisconsin. I was going to head over to Lake Sinissippi but saw a post that due to the construction being done in the river in town the dam is being opened and closed thus affecting the lake level.  Water is pushing up through the cracks causing slush that is not freezing even in the recent temperatures. I had seen some posts about Buffalo Lake racing today and I had not been there for several years so today would be a good time to revisit The Call of The Wild Campground where you can view the races from your car along the shore or even from the restaurant & bar at the campground. The track is about a quarter mile oval on the ice of Buffalo Lake that is marked with some tires placed around the inside of the turns. Only a flagman and an assistant were on the ice the pits and spectating were done from the shore along the front straightaway. We have not had much snow so only about three inches are on the ground but they plowed the grass along the shore so you could park and watch from the comfort of your car. The races started at 12:30 with heats for the 10 rear wheel drive cars, 16 front wheel drive cars and the 5 lady racers that use the front wheel drive cars. After the heats they took an intermission and set the lineups for the semi in the FWD class and the features in all 3 classes. The semi transferred the top 4 to the back of the FWD feature. Jeni Paul started third and won the 10-lap run for the women over Amy Richards. Kenny Richards started 4^th and won the FWD feature over Nick Rahn. The RWD cars rounded out the day with Marky Mark coming from 7^th to capture the feature race over Jim Rhode who tried the last few laps using the snow “cushion” on the outside where he was faster but fell a few car lengths short at the finish line. All the features went non-stop and the races were done about 3PM.