Sandi's (and our) first time at the Georgetown Ice Races (20110116)
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While waiting in line for bfast, I noticed this house (or whatever it is) up on the mountainside in the light of the rising sun It seemed like a nice place to be.
Here are a few shots at registration time. In both of the first two images, you can see people out there practicing.
To get going for the day, I had to walk around and find the 'tech' guy in order to get my vehicle inspected first. Once that was taken care of, I went and stood in line here at the registration camper, went in, gave them the validated tech inspection form - including my 'tech number' (there's a $5 charge for the tech inspection; which is good for the entire season) and my racer number (for my position in the race for that day), paid the $20 per/driver per/race fee (though there were two race sets for the day, I only participated in the first). They then told me that I could go out and practice on the tracks (the track for my race would be announced later), and to make sure to be back at the registration area for the 9:30 drivers meting. This is a good page for more general info on these races.
While waiting for things to get going, I recorded a few videos of the windy
conditions outside on the res. that day...
In this one, you can see someone fall on the ice,
just to the left of the driver side mirror,
as I'm rolling up the window and getting set to step out onto that same slippery
surface...
This one shows people getting pushed across the ice by the wind...
This is while waiting in line to get out onto one of the three 'tracks' available for this day. As it turned out, this was the one that the class of racers that I joined ended up racing on. It's their 'Dog Bone' track (see all of their tracks here).
Later,
while we were waiting in line to race, a car very similar to the blue
one on the right in this image drove off of the ice and got stuck in the
snow. At first, a Jeep and a big truck of some sort went over, parked
near them and chatted for a bit. They looked around, and it wasn't clear
what they were discussing. So, I asked one of the officials if it would
be OK for me to leave the line to go help them...it was OK.
When
I walked over there first, I asked if they need help. They said that
the Jeep was first thinking of helping, but seemed like it wouldn't be heavy
enough to do the job. Then, the big truck guy thought I'd have a better
chance than any of them. So, I drove Sandi over and got in place
to help. They already had a strap, but weren't sure how they were going
to hook it up. So, I got out my receiver shackle for my end and a Warn shackle for the car end. hooked it up, pulled a couple times and it was out.
I didn't get any photos or anything of that, but someone did....hopefully I can get a photo from them sometime.
In
this image, you can see two different races. The car in the foreground
is racing on the track that we raced on, and the other race in the background is on a track they referred to as an oval.
In
order to get everyone lined up in the order of their 'driver number'
for the day, they held up a number on a flip-sign to call each driver
to the lineup area. You can see this sign being held up by the
lady in the blue suit and red hat near top left of this photo. At this
moment, it had the number 46 on it. Mine was 49. So, I was just about to go get in line for my first ice race.
Here
are my 'tech' sticker (the round one on the left - telling them I've
been cleared by the tech inspection crew for the season), and my 'driver number' sticker for this race to the right.
Here are a couple videos I recorded of others racing as we were waiting for our
first heat...
In these, you can see the general idea of how it works.
What you can also see is...well....when it's purely, glare ice like it was out
there this day,
it's really not all that exciting to watch.
It was very hard to get going, and then to turn or stop when needed.
waiting in line for one of our heats, watching another one in progress.
Here are a couple videos of me racing (recorded by JammerGirl, sitting in the
passenger seat)...
I won both of these heats, but also lost a couple that day.
Later, waiting again. This is how the races start.
As you saw in the videos above, there are two drivers/vehicles in each heat. They start on opposite sides of the track, and race around the same track. The heats are a one lap illimination; the first one to cross the line wins the heat, and the other one is out. The winner of each heat moves on to the next round until only one remains. One interesting note (just for the sake of vehicle ability, not about me as the driver) is that, while practicing, I went up against the white bugy on the far side of this image and beat him. So, that just shows that any of us can get out here and have a chance.
It was hard to resist taking a shot of the sheriff's rig out on the ice.
Again, just for vehicle notes, I also beat this guy in a practice round (did not run against him in the races).
All in all, it was a smashing success as far as I'm concerned. Like the Visa comercials... 70 miles from home? = $$ for gas An hour and a half each way just to get there and back? = good time spent talking with my best friend. $5 for inspection? = whatever $20 entry fee? = Well worth it even just for all the fun we had during practice time on the ice.
We will definitely be going back again for more of this kind of fun. Hopefully, we can get our calendars lined up and figure out a weekend when more of us can get out there together. I will start a thread about it, and we will be looking forward to it.
As for the inevitable (though perhaps not so interedting) question, "So, how did you do out there today?", here's a hint......
Yep, somehow, I managed to come away with fourth place (which includes a certificate and prize). I so totally never expected to place at all. Of course, the other 30 vehicles weren't all FJs. So, we can't really say how much was me and how much was Sandi, but I think we (including JammerGirl as copilot and cheerleader) make a pretty good team. :-)
