RICK @ the RACES (4th MARCH 2007)

LAKE OTISCO . Marietta.NY

Following my Florida tour, I took it easy last weekend, catching up with stuff at home, and gave racing a miss.

My original plans were to do the ice racing events at Lake George NY on Saturday and Sherbrooke QUE on Sunday, but things did not materialize.

By the time this weekend approached, I was getting hungry for some action, and planned to visit Round Lake (near Malta NY) for some AMEC ice racing.

After the ice was found to be unsuitable the event was called off, and that idea got scrapped , until the CNYIRA ( another NY ice racing group) came up with a late fixture at Lake Otisca at Marietta .

This was a ‘first time’ for ice racing on this lake ( one of the smallest of the Finger Lakes) and also the first time the CNYIRA has ran races for quite a long time. ( there were no races held last year due to insufficient ice thickness)

I left Maxville Ont, at 5-30am and had crossed the border into the USA by 7-15am only to run into a big snow storm between Watertown and Syracuse.

After a pitiful excuse for a breakfast, at a restaurant near to Central Square ( the one slice of bacon that accompanied my French toast was wafer thin and only about two inches long! ) I got to the track just before 10-00am.

There were , about twenty or so cars present, with many of them from the AMEC club.

I was able to meet up again with racers, Claude, and Claude Jnr Hutchings aswell Mike Kamm who organized the Euro Style RallyCross at Corinth last September. Claude Jnr, who was diving one of their familiar Saabs, told me he plans to be racing a DIRT SPORTSMAN at the FULTON SPEEDWAY this year.

According to one of the orgainizers the, road-course style track, was approximately 1.2 miles in length. This tended to make the races last quite a while, so after seeing two completed, at about 12-30 , I decided to head for home to avoid any, weather related delays.

This was my TRACK # 159