Slip and sliding away

Ice and snow are perfect road conditions for Thunder Bay Auto Sport Club’s ice racing competition.

The races were broken up into two divisions one for studded tires and one for rubber tires. The racing took place on Mission Bay just off City Road on the way to Chippewa Park on Sunday. The races for studded and rubber was three short heat races and a longer feature race. The drivers that did well in the heat races would have a better position during the feature.

Larry Loiselle, competition director, said ice racing has been going on since the 1960’s. The sport started to die down a bit but then 10 years ago it was resurrected. This is the 10th season the Auto Sports Club has hosted the competition.

"When I got involved we raced at Chippewa," Loiselle said. "We’re getting a good number of cars coming out. Almost 30 rubber ice cars and 10 to 20 studded racers."

Loiselle said this is the only racing that’s done locally for cars. The number of people participating this year was down but Loiselle expects more will come later on in the season. He said the attraction is it’s fast and affordable.

"It’s very fast competitive racing. It’s a lot of fun," he said.

Ed Fukushima, 55, is one of the veteran drivers on the course. He drives studded tires and was getting his car ready before the next heat. He has seen a number of racers in his 25 years of racing. He noticed that most new drivers go too fast around corners.

Fukushima said he started racing when a friend invited to come to one of the competition to try it. He was put inside one of the cars and was hooked.

"It’s something to do in the winter time," Fukushima said. "I’m not a skier and this gets you outdoors. It’s a lot of great fun and you get to meet a lot of good people."

David Olynick, 30, is a rookie driver and is his first year driving. Olynick was a mechanic before he became a teacher at St. Patrick’s High School. He attended the competition along with his students and their hand build cars.

Olynick said his students were interested in building a racer so they built one and it was a success. It was such a success they decided to build another. What started off as a classroom project became a something more, he said.

"That’s why I’m on the sidelines right now because they are in the cars," Olynick said. "It’s fun just to go out there and go fast (especially) if you’re competitive and you got a competitive nature in you. It’s a good team sport and it brings everyone together."

Olynick said it was a little intimidating when he was going around the track. Cars were flying by him when he wasn’t in full control but once he got the feel of the ice he said he got a bit more confidence. He said he hoped that by March they would be ok at driving.