I always enjoy the BEMC run weekends, they are so precision like in their efficiency. Thanks for a great job this weekend. Well, the word for this weekend was snow, too much blowing snow on Sunday resulting in the day being cancelled but more on that later.

Mike Evans came along again this weekend - thanks for your assistance. I installed the rebuilt alternator and new battery on the MR2 Friday afternoon when we arrived and tested the car - everything worked fine. I dropped Mike at the Cliffe  to warm up and went grocery shopping. I then returned to the cottage and spiced up a beautiful rib steak. After a couple hours marinating it was S/\Crificed  on the BBQ. MMMMMMM mmmmmm yum! Found some old fireworks in the pickup truck and fired them out the cottage window at Ahmod Khodcar as he tried to unload his baggage into the cottage next door - fun eh? Went to my AA meeting again at 8pm and hung out with a really great bunch of people from all walks of life.

Saturday:
Generally I had a good day with another clean sweep of the stud class in the Brooklin Concrete sponsored Toyota MR2. Good clean racing as well (for me, not so good for others) accept for a little clipping in the kink by the yellow rabbit (very fast car but in need of more courtesy from the driver). I have lost about 5 studs from each of the front tires on this car from the previous 2 weekends of "bash and crash" with a fair amount of tread block missing having been carved away by the bent in front fenders. It does not seem to be affecting the handling of the MR2.

Street stud was fairly clean and good with me coming second to Graham Lobbam for most of the racing. It seems the Hankook 409 street stud tires are steadily improving their grip level as more of the shaft of the stud protrudes from the tread pockets.

I had a really uneventful time in street stud racing Saturday compared to some people. For Remi Klichta it was anything but uneventful. He came back from one race with pretty much the whole driver's side of the car destroyed with lots of blue paint streaks on the black finish of the Turbo

Ovlov wagon, broken motor mounts and tranni mount. This was a street stud race but many of the same cars are prepared for and driven in the stud class. Again, I was under the impression that at each level of ice racing (progressing from rubber to ice through to street stud and on to the full stud class) the level of grip improved therefore street stud was safer than rubber to ice and full stud safer than street stud. With the increase in grip at each progressive level the cars become faster and therefore it becomes more dangerous to have contact while at the same time the degree of car control resulting from the increased traction should by default yield less contact. That the time, effort, money and pride one put into the preparation of their stud car for example far exceeded that of a rubber car such that no one would want to "bash and crash"! Apparently this just isn't the case. Watch for yourself as it is best summed up by this video from Remi's street stud race this Saturday (keep an eye on the rearview mirror as they pass through the kink - turn up the sound)  ... VIDEO .
 

Nick Majors was missing in action in studs so Tony McGrath filled in piloting the Nissan 240 but was having trouble coming to terms with some of the peculiarities of the car. Like why the wiring harness was run through the top of the wheel well where it eventually came into contact with the studs in the tire which shredded it. Afterwards Tony demonstrated the new "remote starter" - when he squeezed the bundle of frayed wires with his hand the car would start!

It was good to see Tony Trevor and his wife drop by Saturday. Tony is a former stud class champ having driven a Ford Pinto to victory in S1. When you coming back? He says he's gonna spend his resources on summer racing - can't say I blame him given the weather on Sunday.

Sunday:

 

We arrived Sunday at the track to blizzard conditions with the wind strong enough it almost knocked me over once. Thank God I had brought along the snow blower! We got both cars started fueled, fluid levels checked and ready to go. You could hardly see the track from our end of the pits but the organizers set off to run the first event anyway. The LTB shootout proceeded but even we on the snow banks could barely see the participants. On the first lap at the corner by the quanset hut the lead car mistook where the inside snow bank was and plowed right into it at full tilt. The visibility was nil for any cars behind him and they simply had to follow the rearward facing amber fog light on the car immediately in front of them.

Of course this was a recipe for disaster and like lemmings off a cliff it netted a pileup and a red flagged race with four cars being totally destroyed and various non-life-threatening albeit painful injuries resulting (Click HERE for an in-car video of the event on You Tube ). At this point BEMC called a halt and announced a 1/2 hour storm delay with a reassessment of conditions at the end of that period. A half hour later and another 1/2 hour postponement was announced. Mother nature had other plans and the day had to be cancelled. BEMC dutifully began the arduous task of refunding Sunday's entry fees. We began packing back up what we had just finished unpacking and getting ready for the day's events. Some of us dropped into the Chalet restaurant on the main drag to have something to eat and trade stories before heading home in the still raging storm.

The drive home was entertaining to say the least with slippery ice covered patches and blowing and drifting snow all the way down to just south of Cannington.