Edited 2/27/2001 4:31 PM
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Some email from
the participants
I will address some of the
viewpoints presented in these emails at the bottom of this page in the near
future.
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Clark,
Given whatever amount of water is standing on the
lake, do you have any idea how likely tomorrow's event might be? I am asking
because I'd have to leave home between 5:30 and 6 tomorrow morning to arrive by
8am, so it might be too early to receive your email.
Thanks,
Chris Franson
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First, my wrap-up article
mailed with the results and in MoHuds’s regional newsletter, the Knock Off:
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Greetings! Another year's Ice
Trials into the record book!
Saturday's event was canceled due to too much water on top of the ice
and warm weather in the 40's! A large group of Ice Trials fanatics were
there at the pavilion at 7AM to see what the conditions were and make a decision
to run or not. We (Mark Elworthy)
drilled holes in the lake with an Ice Fishing auger and let a LOT of the water
go under the ice. The lake ice floated up to equilibrium and what water
that was left (still a lot) was left for nature to deal with. We decided to let nature do its thing and
see what Sunday gave us. As Saturday
progressed the wind was gusting to 50+MPH and temperatures plummeted.
Sunday at 6AM the temperature was 5 degrees F and slowly rising.
Winds still gusting over 20MPH. The lake was totally dry and pretty
smooth except where some of us (and others) had been driving in the water and
slush on Saturday. The first 100 yards from shore were a disaster. Bad idea!
Our main problem was keeping the 1.1 mile (measured Monday with my Jeep)
course defined when the pylons blew out of position. Dave Kosla and crew
of helpful entrants mapped out a fairly smooth course around the bumps and we
got timed runs started around 10:30. Possibly a record.
We shut off registration at 75, then 85 then 90 and finally at
100. There were a few sour faces from some of our regular entrants until
we relented and apparently we did send some entrants away. We did what we had
to and opened registration at 7:30 as there was a pile of entrants that believed
we wanted to get going early (perhaps a lesson for the Solo2 group). You
can check the results sheet. Numbers
were given out in order of arrival at registration. A lot of previous entrants have low numbers and newcomers
later. Past years always had a rush at
10:30. I expect in the future that if you arrive after 9:00 you'll easily
be out of luck.
There are several reasons for early
registration and a limit and no pre-registration this year:
·
We need to get
the event going ASAP.
·
You need to be
here to see what's going on and what the special requirements of the day are.
·
We need to get
the registration data into the PC (pre-registration is good for this, but then
you don't show up on time or at all. I know. We used to allow
signing up Saturday for Sunday and found the same problem, although this later
idea may be implemented again, giving your number away at 830AM).
Limit 100? The bad part is that 100 is really an unwieldy number.
We hardly had any interruptions of runs, had 2, 3 or even 4 cars on course most
of the time and still had only 3 timed runs. Figure it out; if the
conditions hadn't been so good we would not have had the 3 timed runs. I
don't know what to say or how to give us more runs other than lowering the
entry.... Note we only really had 99 entrants since I couldn't run.
Admittedly, the limit isn't good for the long distance entrants, but
what do you suggest? The history of the
Ice Trials (which is a Pittsfield Winter Carnival event) is for the local
people (no offense to our distant friends). Local participation for the
last decade or so was fairly constant and now long distance entrants have burst
our ranks from a typical 30-50 cars and 6 timed runs (on a good day) to present
day 100+ and 3 runs. Be honest, which would you prefer to attend?
Last year was a record with ~110 on Sat and ~90 on Sunday. People
were camping in the parking lot and staying in local motels, driving 3+ hours
from here and there. It's a great event that just can't take the
popularity it now enjoys.
There has been mention of requiring entrants to have a Berkshire County
residence. There has been mention of
eliminating bolts and other than standard studs in the tires.
Frankly I think what we need is competition/availability from other
events. Why no one in Vermont or east of Springfield or even elsewhere in
the Berkshires? The Pittsfield Parks Department is not interested in more
events here at Onota and frankly neither am I (the facility is booked up with
fishing derbies and the Winter Carnival Family Day) and now costs a pretty
penny to heat. After their last event Feb 18th the plumbing
comes apart and the pipes get drained and the heat turned off. Plus, the
chances of pulling off an event late in Feb, early March is a real crapshoot (I
know, we've done it. Both yes and no). Why not an event the same
day as an Onota fishing derby somewhere else? I have a mailing list you
can use.
Please submit your ideas/thoughts. I don't fully buy the
pre-registration idea because then we'd be filled months before the
event. We could do pre-registration and then go by residence. Another thought is to have pre-registration
for, say, 30 spots. Entry fee would be
a bid basis. Send what it's worth to
you (this event's entry fees help support the Pittsfield Winter Carnival) and
see how you fare. You're registration
will be held until the prescribed entry limit is reached the day of the event
and until 8:30 at the least if this occurs prior to 8:30. At that point you loose your
pre-registration, including entry fee, and your spot will go to the next entry
at registration. We may re-instate the
practice of registering for both days on Saturday. Same thing as above, you better be there by 8:30 Sunday. Or maybe we should limit non-Berkshire
entrants to 1 day? Just ideas/thoughts…
I must quickly say "Big Thanks" to the help of many of the
entrants. I won't name names in fear of leaving someone out. The
years have gone by and more and more entrants are willing to help. We had
several people implementing a grid/staging system of their own design. I
think (I was tied up timing the event and missed what was going on.) they lined
up groups of 10 cars and sent them to the start line in numerical order. Great help! I think we now have enough
help-oriented people that we'll need a meeting before the next event to map out
a work plan. We do need to organize several specialties and get some more
worker participation still.
The days are long gone of running and get back in line. I had planned that the starter would keep track
of each entrant's run # with severe penalties for running out of order, but
weather and organization eliminated this.
It looks like some people took more than 3 runs (or gave the wrong
number to the starter) and slowed our scoring of the event. We will try to enforce this better next
event. Also, car numbers were somewhat
confused again. Next event we will have
buttons to pin to your self with your car number on it. No button, no start. I'm trying to avoid the
final solution of writing the number on your forehead with a magic marker.
On another note, we did have neighbor complaints to the Police about
speedy driving on Lakeway Drive leading to and from the pavilion. I've
warned the entrants about this repeatedly over the years and we must drive painfully
slow along this street. This could cause the end of the event and our
problems over. We also will be requiring mufflers/noise limits on all
vehicles from now on.
I'm glad our friends from Skip Barber and the other open cars were
treated to a dry day!
I recommend everyone with email get subscribed to the ice-trials Email
list. Send a message "subscribe
ice-trials" (without the quotation marks) to majordomo@digest.net and reply to the authentication message
you'll get back. It's the way I
communicate to everyone on a timely basis as to conditions of the lake, etc,
before and after the even. There are
few messages posted, if you're worried about flooding your inbox, and virtually
nothing for 10 months of the year.
Also, visit us on the website: http://members.aol.com/pwintercarnival where there's some feedback and pictures of
this and previous events.
Anyone with photos or videos, please send me a copy.
You need to realize that the only enjoyment I now get from this event
is doing it well and providing everyone with a fun time. I haven't been able to enter in many of the
recent events and that doesn't add to my pleasure. We need a few volunteers that don't want to enter but have a
basic understanding of what's going on and are willing. The more help we get the easier it is for
everyone. Anyway, it was an adventurous weekend and I'll try to recover in the
next 11 1/2 months to do another one!
Trophies were awarded after the event and many of you weren't there to
get yours. They will not be mailed and
will be available from me by appointment or can be picked up at the Parks
Department on North Street (let me know first) or at Lime Rock Park at certain
(many) events. This includes trophies
from last year.
BTW, the Boston BMW club has an event every possible weekend (Sundays)
at Newfound Lake in New Hampshire. Email for info (there is a mailer
also): inxces@cyberportal.net (Stan
Jackson Jr.)
Clark
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Clark,
Thanks for your efforts on the trials. By the mailer, it sounds like you
had your hands full last year! Our three runs and tire inflation issues were
tough last year and we left after only one run per driver (FTD Sat.)!
Above is the email address.
I don't know the actual number, but I anticipate
five tomorrow. If you could reserve? I got a voice mail from the
leader and he said we'd certainly try again.
Bob Green
Skip Barber instr.
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Clark,
Thanks for the excellent organization and your hard
work.
I was glad I and my friends Tony and Tom from CT
were not turned away, would have been a long 2-2.5 hour ride home...
I understand you need to limit entrants and want to
make it easier for locals to run. But it's our only chance for competition in
the long winter.
I redeemed myself from my 2nd to last overall finish
2 years ago, the new Blizzaks really helped. If I knew the ice was going to be
that good I might have towed up my Carrera RS, will have to get some bolts
stuck in some old race tires next year just in case ;-)
See you at Lime Rock in a few months!!!
Regards, mike piera AnalogMike@aol.com
'72 911S (gone!) '73 911RS Clone '93 SE-R
my racing pages - http://members.rennlist.org/analogmike/
~^v^~ aNaLoG.MaN ~^v^~ vintage guitar
effects www.analogman.com
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Hi Clark-
We'll, I was right about the road to hell &
all... my RF caliper seized Friday afternoon and the rally car wasn't up for
the trip so - another year missed. Only the 3rd year I've missed it out of the
about 14 years I've been running it ;}
This letter is in response to your requests for
input:
I think that reducing the # of entrants would
somewhat serve to keep the crowd more local because people from far away are
less likely to make the trip if they think they'll be cut-off. Also starting
earlier might serve the same purpose, as people with long trips might not make
it.
The only other comment I might make is about running
order: I do think that if you just allow everybody to run when they want
keeps the line moving - just make a rule that if you exceed a preset # of runs,
your disqualified. Period. I know this was something of a sore point
between us with the event I chaired a few years back, but I think it can
work. Turnout that year was really low because nobody thought we had any
ice, but if I remember correctly, we got 6+ timed runs in with 40+ entrants and
finished early. Deb said she didn't have a problem with it - but I don't
know if she was just saying that to be courteous.
Anyhow, that's it Clark, except for I'd like to thank
you for your efforts and I hope to see you next year!
Regards-
Brad Martin
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Clark
I was wondering do you have any
times easy to be e-mailed of Sunday's event, as I had to rush away that
evening. The event was very good and
very well run thank you look forward to it next year.
Shane Mitchell
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Thanks for a great event! I
never did it before, and would love to go again. PLEASE put on more
events. Even if you charge more I'd go. I'm hooked. Here are
a few pics I had:
http://images.honesty.com/imagedata/h/801/69/28016916.jpg
http://images.honesty.com/imagedata/h/801/69/28016918.jpg
http://images.honesty.com/imagedata/h/801/69/28016919.jpg
Fisher, Jake
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>If anyone took photos or video's
please contact me, I'd love to borrow or
>view what you have. I'll put what I can on the website.
I'd second that motion but I'm
looking for pictures of my car from a few years ago! Yeah right, you'll
be able to find it.
I drove the Red Subaru Legacy GT
that had its air dam torn off and held on with bright green duct tape.
This course had a long front straight; I was bouncing off the rev limiter in
3rd (80mph) and getting some really good drifts leading onto the front
straight.
Thanks!
pZ -- Paul Cezanne (formerly Czarnecki)
oblique@alum.mit.edu (Paul Cezanne)
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Clark,
Thanks again for a well run event! I
should have pictures posted within the week; Tim also is working on video
footage. With all the entries in the
event it is a miracle we got 3 timed runs. One thing that comes to mind when
talking about limiting entries is perhaps making it a "one car-one
driver" event. I don't know how many people it applies to, but maybe
preventing a car from changing tires and running 2 classes. I entered 2 classes
myself, but after seeing how slowly we were moving through the line up, I made
only one run with my snow tires and stuck to the bolts. Lastly, I don't know
how much more work it would be for you but what about pre registering and
raising the entry fee? With this being the only ice race I attend, I would be
willing to pay considerably more. Compared to a hill climb, $20 for the day is
peanuts. Just a few thoughts I had.... Once again thanks for a great time this
weekend. I will let you know when I get my pictures back.
Blaine Anderson
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I was rather disappointed to find
registration had closed early after driving 2.5 hours from Cambridge this
morning. Without pre-registration, those of us who live more than an hour
away are caught in a catch-22 situation. If we leave before 7:30, we risk
showing up and finding the event was cancelled, if we leave after 7:30, we risk
showing up and finding registration has closed early. Without
pre-registration, I won't be making the trip again and won't recommend it to
other rallyists who live more than an hour from Pittsfield.
Chuck Cox <chuck@synchro.com> <cccox@fas.harvard.edu>
SynchroSystems Motorsport Computers
<www.synchro.com>
Team Artex Motorsport
www.artex.cjb.net
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Hi Clark,
Thanks again to you and Dave for working (and freezing) your butts off to make
this event.
My 2˘, A limit of 60-75 makes sense to maximize runs. Bolted cars don't spin
out so much and when they do, recover and finish faster. So maybe bolted cars
should have some priority over regular street tired cars.
I would not like to see where you live matter in being accepted. Pittsfield
area people should be guaranteed entry because it is a Pittsfield winter
carnival event for over 50 years.
The staging lines of 10 each was very good.
Alex Erisoty
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Thanks for the good time. The second and third
runs were much better going by the numbers, especially for us guys with no top
or heat.
Wayne Sedgewick
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Hi Clark,
The northeast definitely needs more ice events. It is so much fun and safe too, nothing to hit. I wish there was an easy way to come up with a site. I'll bet it would sell out every weekend!
If I go to Lime Rock it will be with a CART event. They put on two. CART also runs a nice autocross series at the old New Departure bearing plant (Bristol, CT). 13 acres of fast autocross.
Take care,
Alex
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CWN wrote: "Bolts get far away from the winter driving experience and first timers, we've even had suggestions that we ban bolts and go back to basics!"
Alex replied: It is quite different compared with first timers/street
tires. It seems to me bolts are the heart of ice trials; I know my first time
at Pittsfield seeing the bug and Fairweathers? blue bomber go I thought,
"this is too cool".
It's good that you have sub-classes so more people get trophies. I've
traveled thousands of miles to a rally, come in 2nd overall (divisional event)
and no trophies are awarded!
Even as ProRally Rookie of The Year...no trophy.
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Actually I ended up not being able
to make it. How did it go?
Is that the only one you guys do
each winter? Or will there be another one later on? On the bright side, waiting
until next winter gives me time to procure a roll bar ;-)
Sorry I couldn't make it, I guess
now I'll have to impatiently wait for spring and Autocrossing ;-)
Barbara
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Clark
I was wondering do you have any times easy
to be e-mailed of Sunday’s event, as I had to rush away that evening.
The event was very good and very well
run thank you look forward to it next year.
Shane Mitchell
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Addressing the issues:
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