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Hey
Rick,
As some old buddies, (Crud Racing), always say in September, "She
was a good ol' Haydays",so
is the World Series of Ice Drags. It is definitely an event that the
handful of die hard ice draggers of the SSRA should not miss, whether
it be to watch or compete. It was nice to see some old buddies and acquaintances
from the past years of Haydays. Mike Crooks and his son Ray, -who is
challenging Brent for Heavy Mod driver, Brent Hoag, Ian Hamilton, Jeff
Ratzlaff and Kim(his girlfriend and soon to be mother of the next racing
generation) Kiersten Duncanson, Sandy Ross and the crew of King Pin
Racing, Clay Rafferty and Walter, Denny Mousseau and Mike Pickering,
Stacey Melnychuk, and also some new and valued acquaintances, Pete and
Tiina Duncanson, Chris Riley, Chilli, Farmer Kieth, Mark Ratzlaff, Todd
Serra and many more, not to forget Wildman Dan of Wildman Racing in
Ontario(See if you can pick the pic of him) We sincerely apologize if
we left anyone out as we met so many great people on the weekend.
As
for the race there were definitely a few glitches. Testing on Friday
and also shoot out Qualifiers, pretty much disintigrated the track and
only two lanes were useable on Saturday morning, which was probably
O.K. as the Cosdra Compulink System would only work on two lanes anyway.
It turned the whole thing into pretty much a shoot out with the exception
of a card draw for who you would compete against and which lane you
ran in. It was not a good way to do it because if you had a second or
third place sled, that could have maybe finished first, due to anything
can go wrong, and you got pitted beside Crooks or Rafferty in the first
round of 1000 OM, (as did Ian Hamilton on Jeff Ratzlaff's sled) you
were on the trailer. Tiina ran Mike Crooks sled to a record 4.76 second
run @ close to 138 MPH in the first round against Ian Hamilton. The
second round for Mike and driver Tiina was perfect. She went up against
daughter Kierston on the Kingpin Team Yamaha 1000 OM. I believe they
both ran a .0600 light but Tiina handed it to Kierston by the 60 footer
with I believe a 1.06 and backing up the World record time with a 4.77
finish. Kierston finished on the Kingpin sled with a very respectable
time of I believe 4.95. The crowd of about fourteen 1000 OM's was dwindled
down to the final, pitting the Rafferty sled(piloted by Walter) against
Tiina Duncanson on the sled of Mike
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Crooks.
Walter hit a .458 light against Tiina's near .500, but with a 1.05 60
footer they were probably dead even at the lights. Tiina finished with
a slower than normal time of 4.86 against Walter's 4.89 but it was not
enough to be in front of the Rafferty sled. Congrats to Clay and Walter
for winning the 1000 OM class and also to Tiina and Mike for setting
the new mark.(She actually ran a 4.75 Qualifier in the Top Fuel Shoot
Out but I'm not sure if that is recorded or counts as a record. Tiina
and Brent Hoag were fitted with helmet and rear cameras, so if you guys
want to see a stand left behind in a hurry, go to www.mashersmedia.com
in a couple of days and click on the blog to see it-pretty cool!
The other class that I paid particular attention to was the 1000 PS
class, fielding around 19 sleds. The Fisher sled ran strong right through
to the finals, in the mid to low teens. The finals came to him and Brent
Hoag driving the new Ratzlaff Arctic Cat/Hooper powered sled which consistently
ran about a tenth and a half back of Fishers. It was up to Brent to
pull the trigger and grab a handful he did(get it Brent). He was almost
a sled length ahead by the lights but was not enough to overcome the
5.13 finish of the Fisher sled.
Another highlight for us was the 1000 HM Shoot out qualifiers that happened
late Saturday night in the dark. Brent Hoag qualified with somewhere
around a 4.95 but when all was said and done, Hamilton came back to
the trailer with a slip saying 4.892. Not to be outdone Hoag went back
to the track and finished top qualifier with a 4.891. This set the Ratzlaff
team alive again, but to no avail. They couldn't top Brent's time. Mike
took the $100.00 for top qualifier in 1000 HM and I believe it bought
supper that night. This was all done in dead dark with a few stadium
lights along the track and only one light about 500 feet past the cones.
I asked Ian what that was like at 135 plus miles an hour. He said when
you hit the cones it was like somebody put the curtains over your head
while you grab a hand full of brake, then it was light again for a split
second and then total darkness again. He was praying not to hit the
bank at the end.
Thanks to Stacy, I woke up with a bad cramp on Sunday morning, but got
up early and was ready to go, until we looked outside. It was about
30 degrees and was pouring rain. There was a half inch of ice on everything,
making it impossible to continue the race.It made for a lot of disappointed
racers and fans, but "that's racing"
Here are a few pics taken by your understudy photographer, Elaine. I
think she likes hats, A lot of the pics were really blurry because of
the darkness, lack of a good place to stand and the speed of the sleds.
We hope you can squeak them on to your website.
Big thanks to the great group of people that participated in the 2008
World Series of Ice Drags, including the fans, it was a great Time and
Gaylord MI, is a great place!!!!
Thanks,
Don and Elaine Klassen
I forgot to mention a very cool part of the series was the Lake Racers,
pretty much run what you brung. HTG had a 1600cc four cylinder in a
full body chassis as well as a team that I believe were called One Stop
who had a Yamaha turbo charged engine in an F7 chassis with a spray
that ran in the 4.60's with a speed near 150MPH. Very Cool!!!
February
20, 2008 |
