RICK @ the RACES ( 27 JAN 2008)
Sun 27 Jan Lac Morin, Notre Dame De Mont Carmel (Que)
Sun 27 Jan St Eulalie ( Que)
Since returning to Canada , from my recent trip to the UK, I was eager to kick-start my 2008 ice racing season this past weekend.
After a slow start because of insufficient ice, things have now moved in to full swing and I had plenty of choices of where to go. I chose two tracks I’d been to before that were close enough to each other, to make it easy to attend both on the same day.
I decided to visit the Lac Morin track located at Notre Dame De Mont Carmel , between Shawinigan and Trois Rivieres, and the Ste Eulalie track between Trois Riviers and Drummondville, both in Quebec
Like many of my ice racing ventures up into Quebec, I planned my day to commence following a hearty buffet breakfast at the Flying J Truck Stop at Vaudreuil on the outskirts of Montreal. From here I traveled east to Trois Rivieres and on then to Notre Dame De Mont Carmel.
Racing here goes under the name of ‘DRIFT MANIAC’ and takes place on a small lake on the grounds of a campsite. The campsite has it’s own bar and restaurant, but after my big Flying J breakfast I settled for just a coffee.
In the middle of the lake there is an Island, where the control tower is situated. I watched the action from the shore-line as well as the Island, where I bumped into a buddy of mine from the DIRT tracks, Autodrome Granby’s resident photographer, Sylvain Buisson.
The program started at mid day and first on to the track were the VTT’s ( quads) followed by the four-cylinder’s known as ‘Kamikazi’s’. I missed the eight cylinder Semi-Pro’s which were the last to race, as it was time to move on to St Eulalie.
St Eulalie is about a 45 minute drive from Lac Morin, across the Laviolette Bridge that spans the St Lawrence at Trois Rivieres. This has to be one of my favorite Ice Racing tracks, as it reminds me a little of UK Banger racing. The track is located on a snow and ice covered piece of land behind a bar on the St Eulalie to St Wenceslas road. There are two divisions, four and eight cylinders, and it was the eights that stole the show for me. They were very spectacular. I spent about an hour at the track where I saw two races from each division. So, with just a few days left in January I’ve netted my first two ice races of the season and hopefully the recent cold weather will allow me to add a few more before the regular racing gets under way.