| I have good news, and bad news. First the BAD news. My
video camera crapped out on me again so I'm missing a lot of great
footage. The tape-eject mechanism died, so after filling up only
one tape I couldn't pop in a fresh one. The GOOD news is that
there is plenty of good footage on that first tape!
There was a small change made to the Lac la Biche track layout this year. In 2002, the back straight was broken only by the left-right kink followed by another long straight (red section). In 2003 the kink was followed by a further right-left turn sequence and a much shorter straight. |
| I heard this change was necessary to re-route the track around a particularly rough section of ice. The new track layout was much trickier than in previous years, and the addition of the new tight curves with shorter straightaway effectively negated much of the advantage usually enjoyed by the front-wheel-drive cars. |
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This is Don Pohl's #79 Chevette which I drove in the previous 4
annual Western Canadian Ice Race Championship events. For a
change, Don [the tall guy in this photo] will get to drive his own car this
year.
The other guy in this shot is Colin Lolacher, previously the pilot of the #3 Chevette which was painted in Dale Earnhardt colours. Sadly that car got trashed and Colin now drives his dad's yellow #36 Chevette. |
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This is Jim Graham's new "Fast 78" car.
Jim stayed home in Edmonton this weekend anxiously awaiting the birth of his child. In his absence I've been entrusted with driving his car. Jim was in constant touch via cell phone so everyone could be immediately informed of any late breaking news. No, not baby news. Just news about me breaking his car... |
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Here's an interesting quirk of the new car, besides the tach being held
on the dash with duct tape. There is no inside rearview mirror!
Jim says it fell off during a previous race. He never bothered to replace it because he found he liked the car better without the distraction of knowing who was following him. Jeez, I'm not so sure I like that. Luckily it still does have an outside mirror on the driver's door. Unluckily I wiped that one off during the first Rubber race, prompting another news report back to Jim. |
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This is Jim's old #78, now rebadged as #77 and driven by Craig Assenheimer. Note the red triangle in the rear window denoting Craig's rookie status. |
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The yellow #31 is Landon Goudreau's car. Landon was
Champion last year, and the year before, and the year before, and...
The #81 car belongs to Trent Hamp, rookie last year and already then a strong contender. |
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The #54 car, as you can see, is a seasoned veteran of one too many seasons. This crooked car is driven extremely well by Terry Bressmer. |