Ferd's Ice-Racing Stories |
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Once again the date of the F1 season opening race at
Melbourne conflicted with the running of the Western Canadian
Ice-Race Championships on March
2nd & 3rd, 2002.
The McLaren F1 team had to cope without me for another year. Hopefully they'll handle the disappointment a little better than they did last year. Mika Hakkinen missed me so much, he moped around all year and finally quit altogether. And Ron Dennis was so distraught over not being able to sign me up, he went and hired some girl named "Kimi" to replace me. Ron will be doubly disappointed when he hears that I finished higher in the standings at the Ice-Race Championships than his "Kimi" did in Australia!
Can you believe it? Ron
Dennis invited me to join his McLaren Formula One team!
Here I am in the team photo alongside my new teammate Mika Hakkinen and test driver Alexander Wurz at the official launch of the 2001 McLaren F1 car.
Shortly after this photo was taken, I had to confess to Ron that I'd already accepted a better offer elsewhere. As it happens, the season opening F1 race in Melbourne, Australia, coincided with the 2001 Western Canadian Ice-Race Championships held at Lac la Biche, Alberta, on March 3rd and 4th.
Despite the fact that I rolled it in 1999, and crashed it in 2000, my generous and long-suffering friends in Edmonton once again offered to let me drive their car! Sorry, Ron. F1 is for sissies. Real men drive Chevettes on Ice!
Read the stories of Ferd's 2001 Ice-Racing Adventure.
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This Green Chevette #79 carried me to near victory in the 1999
Western Canadian Ice-Race Championship (Chevette Class) held at scenic
Lac La Biche, Alberta.
See Ferd's 1999 Ice-Race Adventure for the full story, with pictures and video clips including in-car video footage of my rollover (oops). |
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I drove this car in the 1998 Western Canadian Ice-Race
Championship (Chevette Class) held in Leduc just south of Edmonton, Alberta.
See Ferd's Excellent Ice-Race Adventure for the full story, with more pictures, and analysis of a first corner 'incident'.... |
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This 1976 Chevette was the first car I owned.
It had no power, no grip, and useless brakes, but it was FUN to drive! I learned a lot from this car. It tolerated my abuse for twelve years and 210,000 miles before it finally broke in half. It wasn't much of a performer, but the 'Vette had a big heart. I loved this car! I once almost blew up a gas station with this car. |
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The 'Vette was a great chick magnet. Girls couldn't keep their hands off it.
Here's a picture of my wife and me. I've got my arm around her, but note she's hanging onto the car. |
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This Datsun 510 was my first real "race car". It was saved from
the scrapyard when I purchased it for $100 to compete in the Motorsport
Club of Ottawa Ice-Racing Series.
I won the Series Championship with this car in 1988 and the Class Championship
in 1988 & 89 (see Newspaper Article).
This car was also once driven by Davey Jones (IMSA GTP, leMans, Indycar),
but that's another story.
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My VW Rabbit initially cost me $50 more than the Datsun. I never
really got along well with this bag of dirt and the experience has forever
soured my opinion of front-wheel-drive. Can you spell u-n-d-e-r-s-t-e-e-r
?
You wouldn't believe how many people asked me why I would paint a Ford
logo on the side of a Volkswagen. They just didn't look closely enough.
For a hint, check the logo at the bottom
of my homepage.
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