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Last Updated: Nov 28th, 2010 - 10:22:29 |
It’s hard to believe that World Championship ICE racing is already back. Those of us who attended Saturday night’s Opening Round in Roanoke, VA got a serious, frozen dose of reality when a stellar field of riders showed up to do battle, and I do mean battle!
The first round of Heat Races were full of excitement as riders worked hard to secure points to secure good starting positions in the finals later on. Heat 1 saw Jeremy DeRuyter from West Bend, WI take the early lead from the second starting position. He held on until the last lap when X-Games Dirt Track and ICE phenom JR Schnabel from Campbellsport, WI made a pass for the win. Heat 2 also went down to the last lap when the leader recently crowned Grand National Dirt Track Champion and ICE 2007 World Champion “Jammin” Jared Mees from Clio, MI faltered and went down allowing hard charging Tom “Freight Train” McGrane to blow on by for the win. Heat 3 was a wire to wire win for Clio, MI’s Mark “The Ice Man” Cheza chased hard by ICE 09 Rookie-of-the-Year “Sideways” Sammy Wiggins from Coatsville, PA. 2010 Rookie contender Tyler Phillips from Gap, PA crashed in this one, painfully pulling a groin muscle.
Round 2 Heat Race winners were Schnabel, Mees and Cheza. The Heats were scored by points: 10 for a win, 6 for second, 3 for 3rd and 1 point for last place. The front row of the Main was settled putting Schnabel on the pole, the Cheza, McGrane and Mees on the outside. To fill the Main’s back row an 8 rider, 6 laps LCQ was run.
DeRuyter took the lead and never looked back followed closely by Kenny Mohler from Reamstown, PA and Wiggins. The real race was for the 4th and final transfer spot going on between “Captain” Kirk Cheney from Hastings, MI and Phillips. They swapped the 4th and 5th spot twice with Cheney ending up 4th on the lap that mattered.
This 8 rider, 8 lap Main Event was stacked with talent and had excitement written all over it. The field blasted out of the gate with Schnabel taking the early lead. As JR extended his 3rd lap lead on McGrane, Mees cut down the Clio neighbor Cheza to take 3rd. On lap 4 the “Jammin” muscled his way through the “Freight Train”, not an easy accomplishment. Then determined Mees set his sights on Schnabel a good 4 bike lengths ahead. By lap 7 Jared was within shooting distance and that’s just what he did with a banzai slot from below. BOOM! JR went flying and Mees rode on for another lap and the checkered.
Wow! These two started off this year exactly the way they raced each other last season-Rough!
JR was none too happy about this one. Mees won the battle-who will win the war! The World Champion ICE Racing Series and all of its superstars now head to the West Coast for the next 6 Rounds of heart stopping excitement.
“HITMAN” WINS THE RACE – “HARLEY KID” WINS THE FANS!!!!
A perfect sheet of ice greeted the world’s fastest Unlimited Outlaw Quad racers for their season opener at the Roanoke Civic Center in Roanoke, Virginia. A stellar full field of riders that included two 3-time World Champions, 3 WC Runners-up and even a 3 man team from the New York “Quad Mafia” showed up to compete.
After an awesome Veterans Day Military Tribute, organized by the Roanoke area Military Recruiters Offices, the racing action got underway. The first race was won by a very fast Zach “The Maniac” Thomas from Cedar Rapids, IA over the always tough Ryan Kaufman from Table Grove, IL. Het 2 was a shocker to say the least! In his first ever ice race, first time riding Chuck Calvert’s Gutterridge Harley-Davidson “Thunder Quad”, hired young gun Shane Wright from Durand, IL gated the field and never looked back. The former motorcycle road racer did the unthinkable by winning his first ice race on the big ole Thunder Quad and beating 3-time World Champion “Dangerous” Daniel Bergquist from Burlington, IA in the process. Maybe Wright’s win was just a fluke? Heat 3 was won convincingly be the New York “Wild Man” Tom Kuhn from Halfmoon.
The first Heat of Round 2 saw the Gutterridge Harley-Davidson machine and Shane Wright draw World Champ Bergquist for a re-match of their first Heat. Also in this mix was Shane’s boss Chuck Calvert from Madison, WI and Windsor, NY’s Dan Hawk. The crowd was definitely up for this one and as the starting tape went up the Harley launched baby! Another wire to wire win for the rookie Shane Wright. In the process the “Harley Kid” made history by putting the first Harley-Davidson powered machine on the pole of an ICE Championship in 34 years of competition. Heat 2 was won by Jeff Brodil from Grandy, NC who returned to action after a two year absence. The first attempt to start this one saw a big wreck going into turn one that threw Tom Kuhn flying through the air and his Quad end over end down the track like we’ve never seen before. Fortunately Kuhn was able to walk away and actually re-start the race. Heat 3 was won by Kaufman.
Not accustomed to starting many LCQ’s “Dangerous” Daniel took no prisoners and won this race going away. He was followed by Iowa team mate Brock McLeland from West Burlington on the GXR 1,000 “Insanity Quad”, Kuhn and Calvert to make up the back row of the Main Event.
The Main was now set and ready to roll. The front row, from the pole out, had Wright, Kaufman, Thomas and Jeff Brodil. Referee Robert Arms released the gate and the 8 Outlaw Quads blasted off the line! Wright and the Harley out gated the field again to take the lead. The fans were on their feet going wild! This time, almost as if he had done some homework, the “Hit Man” was dogging him big time just waiting for the opportunity to pounce. On lap 3 the “Harley Kid” bobbled ever so slightly coming out of turn 2 sending him up the track 2-3 feet, just enough for Kaufman to squeeze under and along side Wright. By the next corner Kaufman was clear with the hammer down. Meanwhile behind the leaders Bergquist had come from the back row to pass Brodil for third place. But time was gone and in what seemed like an instant this 6 lap feature was history.
Kaufman wins the first WC Round of the season followed closely by a surprisingly fast Wright and Bergquist to fill the podium. They were followed in order by J. Brodil, Thomas, Calvert, McLeland and Kuhn. Tonight’s racing was excellent and just a preview of what fans can expect this season when the 34th Annual World Championship ICE Racing Series reaches “Quadvilles” out West and in the Midwest. Big fields with lots of fast local guys to challenge the ICE Stars. Should be fun!
Hats off to the New York “Quad Mafia” Tom Kuhn, Dan Hawk and Sean Neal for making the trip down to Roanoke and giving it a game go against the best. They will be tough to beat when the Series reaches their home turf in February. Also an honorable mention goes out to 3-time World Champion Mandy “Wild Child” Brodil on the first step of her comeback from racing injuries and starting a family. She hadn’t raced for over 4 years and tried her new state-of-the-art 450 Honda for the first time on ice. Without any practice the “Wild Child” went out there and gave it a good try. Her fans need not worry. The question isn’t if she will ever be back to her podium ways, it’s just when! Mandy has signed on to race the whole season. It was good to see Mandy, her 16 month old “Wild Child II”, hubby Tito and mom and dad Sheri & Jeff back at the ICE races again!
Abbotsford, BC here we come!! It’s the first Round of 6 making up ICE’s Big Go West 2009.
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