Yeah, it’s a van. A free one to boot. Well, almost free. Except for the $150 tow from Nashua. Okay - it needs a little work, but what isn’t breaking around here? She’s an 87 Ford 150 - Conversion “The Avaitor.” She’s got a 351 Windsor V8 and a tow package. Besides the coolant leak spurting from the intake manifold… “It’s totally good!” I say.

We headed up early to the lake on Sunday. I’m glad we had the extra time. I was planning a fantastic camera rig that worked - but I was unable to get the camera powered up. The kinked CAT5 cable that was “candycane” hard, probably had something to do with it. Everything ran much smoother this weekend. We had around 60 people, plus a new FM transmitter rig that made communications much smoother. So much smoother that I pushed for a fifth run. This was a hell of a lot better then the 2 timed runs we got last week.

The course was the same as last week, although Stan widened it a bit. There was now a layer of crunchy snow on the sides of the track. I noticed the first group of times were a lot faster then last week. I pushed the Neon hard for a quick 1:03.6 first run.

Stan Sr. had plowed a new practice course that had a lot more grip then the one from last week. Both of them were open in the morning, but after numerous cars had gotten stuck, and a poor Audi had crunched up the front bumper on an icey hard snow bank, Sean closed the old course. This became “The Monster” practice course. I took a few quick laps around, and found my rhythm. I took this and applied it directly to my timed runs.

I got a quick start down the first straight, crossed over to the inside of the left hand long sweeper, and kept as close as I could to the snow banks. Into 3rd gear down to a jog right - then pitch the car hard at full speed into the left hand turn. I made short work of the final hairpin right and crossed the finish line. “That was quick!” I said to my passenger Brian. “You kicked it’s ass!” he replied. I pulled back into grid and called over to James who was working the starting line. “How fast was that?” “58.4 seconds!” Steve had called out over the FM that I had broken the 1 minute barrier. I was able to break it again with a 59.4 - but I was unable to better that time on my final 2 runs.

Who wants a snow cone? This was the snow found on the back of the Neon. I should bring some cherry flavoring next week!

With 100 entries I knew early Sunday morning that it was going to be a challenge. Around 10:20 stuff started going wrong. Worker radios died. Confusion about worker stations (as the wind knocked over some of the flags). Communication breakdown. We drudged on - Sean kept the practice open all day, save for the few cars (including me once) that got stuck.

I ran a 1:06 as my fastest time taking 1st in Modified. James ran an amazing 1:24 to take not only class G but the group FTD in his Honda Civic. Andrew was also quite fast with a 1:17 on his first run in class Z. I was pushing the Neon hard right out of the gate. Full throttle 3rd gear. Setting up the car for corners, and straight-lining as much as I could. I continue to practice my left foot braking technique.

Video is up:
“Groove Back” - BMWCCA Ice Race Teaser #2
Movie is 31MB - DIVX Encoded. Go to divx.com for the free encoder / player.