What Wisconsin motorsports enthusiasts do in the winter

**Lane** · February 4, 2015, 11:20 PM

A lot of people seem to consider winter to be the off-season, but not in the part of the country around me. Check out this short vid clip from coverage of an ice racing event. If you're not familiar with what it takes to get grip, it's worth watching this just to see the "state of the art" in ice grip tire technology. Funny way to look at 50 lbs of drywall screws, I know.

The venue that runs this holds the world record for fastest 1/8 mile on ice. ET of 5.431 @ 141.6 mph. Now that time may not be a huge deal on pavement, but on ice it's absolutely insane. Here's a clip that conveys the feeling a bit. Skip to 1 min 23 seconds for the action.

No VHT is used for this - they get out the big snowbrush to prep this track.

I've had friends urge me to take the Atom out for things like this (assuming I'd prep a proper set of tires, of course), or for my local car club's events that are more of a rallycross style. The temperature wouldn't be a deterrent for me as I grew up riding snowmobiles and have the proper clothing, but all it would take to ruin my day would be a chunk of ice to the exposed lower part of the radiator...

**Norm** · February 5, 2015, 07:06 AM

That is crazy. How many runs do they get before they have torn it up so much they have to move the cones over? Odd to see no flexible sidewalls, but, I guess you would not want flex in this situation