Despite a delay caused by warmer weather, racers tore up the ice on Saturday at Mission Bay, in preparation of Sunday's Thunder Bay Auto Sports Club’s racing competition.
The frigid temperatures were just what the ice needed after unseasonably warm weather hit Thunder Bay earlier this month. The setup of the track was almost complete on Saturday but organizers kept a diligent eye on the ice.
John Kelly, vice-president of Thunder Bay Auto Sports Club, said the ice on Mission Bay was about 20 inches thick and the warm weather didn’t affect the track’s conditions that much.
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“What happened was we had a really good deep freeze right at the beginning of December,” Kelly said.
“So we got a good quantity of ice out here but then we had that thawing and freezing back and forth. What ended up happening was that we lost some volume of ice out here.
"We were supposed to start this event last weekend but we ended up postponing it by one weekend and thank the Lord we had some good cold temperatures. We got a lot of ice production this week.”
He said they wanted to test out a number of different tire studs to see what kind of impact they had on the ice.
Traditionally, the auto club used the Maynard studded tired because it made less wear on the ice. Kelly said it’s important to make sure the ice is kept in good condition.
“Our club runs on one track for the entire race season,” he said. “We got a few guys trying different things, trying different combinations to see what’s going to work. We are worried about ice wear conditions."
The club first formed in the 1950s and has had held a race ever since then. There were a few years when conditions on the ice made it impossible to race but for the most part ice racing has become a tradition for car enthusiastic, he said.
“Basically, what do you do in the winter time,” he said. “A lot of us are car nuts. We all enjoyed playing with hot rods, playing with racecars and what not but unfortunately, in the Thunder Bay area we’re down to no form of racing anymore. This is it.”
Kelly said the numbers go up and down every year but expected about 80 participants at this year’s race with a few coming from the United States.
He added the club has now started doing more events during the summer.
“It’s not just a winter event anymore,” he said. “We got a lot of members coming out with their supped up Honda’s and they are fun summer cars. We race through cones at a parking lot and it’s a time event and we give out prizes to the club members who finish in the top five.”
The race starts on Sunday at noon out on Mission Bay.
