RICK @ the RACES ( 29 Jan 2012)

29 January                         Tupper Lake, NY (AMEC Ice Racing)

This past Sunday morning I was out of bed at the crack of dawn, for a trip to Tupper Lake in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. The AMEC Ice Racing group were making their annual visit to the frozen Raquette Pond in the town . For the past four years they have raced there, and this was my third visit.

When I left my home in Cornwall, Ontario at about 7-30 am it was a dry wintery day, with no fresh snow, and things looked good for a pleasant journey . I crossed into the USA at the local Cornwall border point, and travelled down via Potsdam where I’d drive up into the Adirondacks.

Not long after leaving Potsdam, the weather changed, and once in the ‘boonies’ I was driving through the ‘white out’ conditions of a winter storm. It was at this point, I started questioning my sanity as I struggled to drive through the snow, but by taking it easy, I got through eventually .

About 20 miles before Tupper Lake, the snow stopped falling and the sky got brighter.

When I pulled into the Raquette Pond  parking lot at just after 10-00 am the sun was peeping through the clouds. There were already a pits full of race cars, and the first person I bumped into was friend Claude Hutchings, the AMEC organizer. His son Claude Jr would be racing while Claude took charge of things.

It was a two day event, and after problems with their car on Saturday, he’d driven back to his home near Utica ( about 100 miles away) to get their Saab ‘back up’ car # 74c.

They were just getting ready for practice when I arrived, so I didn’t have to wait long for the action.

The Tupper Lake Ice event has to be one of the most ‘civilized’ and ‘human friendly’ ice races I visit, with heated toilet facilities in the parking lot and a McDonalds , for refreshments just opposite.

You can see the action from the warm of your own car as you park beside the bay. I watched the first batch of races before making my way home, with the hope that the snow storm in the mountains would now be over.

I was wrong, it was still bad up there and the drive home was just as treacherous as the outbound journey.  As I reached Potsdam, the weather, once again  cleared up, and I was back in Cornwall around 3-30pm.