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| The pace picks up as time runs out on the Rubber Practice session. |
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In the closing minutes of the Practice session, the ice is now well
polished and traction is nonexistant.
Three cars are stuffed in the snowbank at the end of the back straight. |
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In the next corner, Elysha Dowler gets her #87 Chevette just a wee bit too far sideways... | ||||
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... and spins. | ||||
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I'm still chasing the same Neon, and this is the same left-hand
corner leading onto the front straight where I nearly stuffed it
before. The ice surface is treacherously slippery now.
Note how smooth the ice is here. Not just smooth as in slippery, but smooth as in utterly flat. You'd expect a lake to freeze flat, right? But on a lake of this size the ice can heave and buckle as the ice shifts. This year however the ice surface is as perfectly smooth as a billiard table. Keep this scene in mind when comparing it to subsequent images from late Sunday afternoon. After two days of the Studded cars carving up the ice, it's amazing how much the track conditions will change. |
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Hey, wait a second. I could swear I've already seen this movie!
Apparently the Neon driver does this on purpose, as he repeats his snowbank bashing manoeuvre on each lap. I don't understand how scrubbing off speed this way in the snowbank is meant to help him attain a higher speed down the straightaway. It's bizarre. Oh well, it's a FWD car. It's best not to pay any attention at all to what those guys do. I'll only get confused if I watch them. My plan is to stay well clear of the FWD cars and I should be okay... |
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Another butt-clenching moment as the visibility drops completely to zero in the
curtain of snow thrown up by the Neon!
Fortunately I missed hitting the snowbank this time. The combined effects of the icy cold temperatures and a dead-calm windspeed leave the snow crystals hanging in the air for a very long time. This complete lack of visiblity will certainly be cause for concern in the races to follow.
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