2002 Western Canadian Ice-Race Championship

Rubber Race #2

(Diedrich's Explanation)

Saturday, March 2, 2002

I was involved in four incidents of contact, and one near-rollover, in this one race alone. That's not good.

In the first turn of the opening lap I was hit from behind by a VW Rabbit A Scrappy First Lap - Image 5. And at the end of that lap I hit Jim Graham A Scrappy First Lap - Image 20.

Due to the intense battle with Diedrich, I had already long ago forgotten about those other two incidents and remembered only the two collisions involving Diedrich's Honda Civic and my Chevette.

Since both of those incidents with Diedrich happened in plain sight of the marshalling posts, it's unlikely that they went unnoticed. So the proper thing to do is report to Hal and Uwe in the pits after the race and make our confessions...

		That's Uwe with the clipboard. He keeps a list of all incidents that are reported over the radio during the race by the corner marshalls. Uwe knows if you've been naughty or nice. He's checking his list, ...
		... he's checking it twice. In fact, he checked his list four or five times in the course of this long chat with Diedrich. Seems like there was rather a lengthy discussion going on there. I was starting to wonder what they could possibly be talking about for so long. Finally Diedrich says something and...
		... everybody suddenly turns around and looks at me! uh oh. Then it's my turn. I kept my side of the story short and admitted there had been some light bumping and rubbing with Diedrich, due to the different and conflicting lines taken by FWD vs RWD cars. But there was no real harm done. I was just taking a deep breath to start in about how Diedrich's little Honda Civic seemed to be taking up a lot of space on the track, when Uwe cut me off in mid-breath and said, "Okay, you can go." Cool.
	Here's what Diedrich had to say in his defence... -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Ice Race Date: 27 Mar 2002 From: Diedrich Will Hi Ferd - I looked at your new entries on your web site. Good stuff. I've been talking to Jim Graham at the club. He tells me that I'm likely going to feature in some of the stuff you add to your site and ribbed me about having the world's widest Honda. I thought maybe I should explain about some of the unorthodox lines that I drive. When the track gets slicked up, my car's handling is sh*t and the ice at Lac La Biche, I find, gets even slicker than normal. Therefore my whole driving strategy is a traction hunt, and one of the places I try to put my car is right on the bank on the inside of a turn where RWD cars can't buff the ice. It probably looks pretty strange. When I slide across the track, it's because I couldn't hold it there. I try not to block (much), and the truth is that I don't really pay much attention to my mirror. We had some fun in that race didn't we? Cheers, Ferd. See you there next year.
	Those wacky FWD pilots see the world in a totally different light, don't you think? It actually was fun though. And it did provide for some good video footage. I'm really looking forward to a rematch.

Up next, Chevette Race #3, Best Race of the Weekend...
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