2012 Race Report 7

More Wisconsin Ice Racing February 18 & 19, 2012

Saturday I was off to check on Park Lake in Pardeeville but the warm weather had caused cancellation of the races again for this year. I then drove over to the south side of Fox Lake off Wedges Bay where they raced last week behind the Boat House. It was a warm and sunny day but there were 7 front wheel drive and 13 rear wheel drive cars on the ice for today’s races. (16 of these cars would also run in the open class.) The track was the same from last week with only one light snow during the entire week so the only change was they added a few tires along the inside to better mark the turns. However the outside walls where there was plowed snow last week were pretty much hard ice this week. After some dragging with the special ice digger that the club has made the track was roughed up a little and ready for some races. They had two heats in RWD and two open heats with one FWD heat before a short intermission to set the feature lineups. Dan Roedl was running fast slamming against the outside berm in the final heat when the right rear axle broke and he needed to be pulled to the pits. He had a spare at home and sent someone to get it as we had our intermission entertainment watching Dan with help from other crews take apart the rear end and remove the piece of broken axle and install the new one in time for the feature races. During this time they did some track maintenance as some water was coming up some holes along the outside “wall”. They plowed snow from beyond the track onto the wet area thus putting the hole outside the track but making the track a bit narrower. The RWD feature was first and Roedl with few points from the heat started 4^th. The yellow flew on the 5^th lap for another car losing the wheel and axle on the track as the rough ice was taking its toll. There was one more yellow for a stall as Roedl held the lead and got a good jump on the restarts. There was some 4 wide racing through the turns as they raced to chase down the leader but Roedl won with Jeff Rechek and John Schantz finishing right behind. Rechek took over the wheel of the yellow 88 for the FWD feature and took the win in a non-stop race. David Hillman took off from the front of the open feature and had a big lead when the only yellow appeared with just a couple of laps left in the race. Hillman kept the top spot on the restart and took the checkers to end the racing for the day. The water was also coming up a hole in the ice in the pit area and some cars had to move as the ice started to sink but with the weight off that spot the water retracted through the hole and the ice was floating again. Sunday I headed for another visit to Hustisford Wisconsin for the ice races on Lake Sinissippi. The ice was in good shape with a little slush on top in a few places and a good field of 19 rear wheel drive cars, 5 front wheel drive cars, 20 entries in the open class and a modified with studded tires all ready for some exhibition laps. The program here is for a first set of heats by draw then a second set of heats with the front runners together and the slower cars together. After the 10 heats they set up semis and features to finish the day on the ice. (With only 5 FWD they ran two heats and a feature with all in each race.) Carey Leemon dominated the FWD class and won all three races. Scotty Tiedt came from 7^th to take the RWD semi and John Schantz came from 4^th to win the feature over Jeremy Klewer. In the open feature Schantz started 7^th and quickly moved to the front using the outside and held off Travis Ottesen from 10^th for the win with Leemon bringing the FWD car home in third from 9^th.  There were some spins but no one stalled on the track so that the whole day ran without any restarts. The races were over by 3PM and the ice held up well on a bright sunny day that was so warm I watched from the pits without even putting on my gloves.