Ice Racing School Mania!

The talk around the club in January and February was the Southern Alberta Solo-sport Club Winter Driving School given by award-winning Solo and Autocross driver Reijo Silvernoinen. Our first participant was our fearless Motorsport Director, Gary Spicer.

Here's what he had to say: "We had a great time on Sunday (Jan 22), and although Paul (Cartwright) was in another group, I was able to see enough of a sideways Hakuna to know there was some fun being had. I've attached a couple of photos of Richard (Dear) in the cone-eating WRX. My Suzuki was OK, but without the ability to turn off traction control (without pulling fuses which I wasn't willing to do), it was impossible to use power to control slides or to help otherwise steer the car. Frustrating, to say the least, but fun nonetheless.
 

As of Jan 22nd, there is an average of 22 inches of ice on Ghost Lake and with the amount of snow blowing around and drifting, there is surprisingly good traction until the courses become polished. Give it a go - you'll learn something and have a great time with your car!"

Paul Cartwright was at the school on the same day and concurs: "I can verify that the school is a blast.  I was with my son, John, and so we went in the “rookie” group.  Hin (Lee) was also in our group in his Mini.  We turned the Dynamic Stability Control off and had a blast sliding around the three courses.  I can sympathize with Gary’s permanent traction control.  I let Hin do a few laps in Hakuna and he couldn’t believe the difference between the Miata and his front wheel drive Mini. It was a real challenge to follow the course with DSC off.  A touch too much gas or a little too much brake led to many 360s!
The hardest part was remembering to leave the seatbelt undone as John and I swapped seats.  The rules for ice driving is to leave the belts off to facilitate escape if you go through the ice.  The ice was a good two feet thick so it wasn’t a worry. The coolest part was the “Ken Block” course where we attempted to  dance around the cones.  I was one of the few in our group that was able to pull it off on occasion, thanks to rear wheel drive. At the very least, I will be much more confident driving Hakuna on icy roads. The weather was perfect and I recommend this course to all.  Thanks go to Reijo and the other instructors."

Richard Dear also had similar observations: "I think Paul has hit the nail on the head! The biggest thing about the school is getting to know how your car/tires handle on the ice. Because of the large runoff areas you can focus on the dynamics without fear of hitting anything. The speeds are so slow that things seem to happen in slow motion so you have time to analyse everything in real time. It really makes you more confident on the road - the best $50 you will spend!"

Perhaps our keenest and most prepared Miata driver appeared to be our new president, Gordon Choate, who purchased tires for the event: "I made it out to the February 12th Ice Driving School, and as reported by the others, really had a fabulous time!  I had done it last year in our Audi (AWD) on performance winter tires, which were not as good on ice as regular winter tires like Blizzaks or Michelin X-Ice2.  This year, I took the 95 M Edition Miata, with studded Hakkapelliita tires.  As Gary predicted, I was giggling like a little girl!
The school was on the northeast end of Ghost Lake, and had several courses laid out on the ice – a “Ken Block” drift course, two road courses with varying corners, a G Circle of about 300 feet in diameter, a G Square, and an emergency lane change and braking test course.  The Miata on studs was pretty easy to control in a slide or drift, but several of the instructors drove it and commented that it was trickier to control than other RWD cars with longer wheelbases.  Reijo had no issues, but then he’s a US National Autocross champion… ;)    You could actually get it to slip angles that needed full steering lock, then control it further with the throttle.

It was pretty cool to discover that the Miata was quicker than pretty much any other car out there!  The only other car in my run group with studded tires was a Mustang GT, and if I gave him a half lap head start on the G Circle I could catch him in 2 laps.  On every other course where we ran multiple cars at the same time, the Miata could quite quickly close up the gap to cars ahead – that included FWD, RWD, AWD, including a few STi Subarus and Mitsubishi Evo X cars.  It was great fun to see if I could hold a drift the entire way around the G Circle, at around 70 km/h, and I did manage it a few times.  Those studded tires were really amazing, there was one exercise designed to have you practice making the car spin backwards and then recover… but the Miata wouldn’t spin more than 90 degrees sideways!"

Great fun indeed! More details about this event can be found by clicking here.

Aside from in images provided here by Spec-R Tire Services you can find more fun in their photo album by clicking here.