Lindsay was a little chilly

Lindsay was quite a chilly weekend. Things went pretty well but not as well as Rouyn. Patrick had some really great heats and qualified 4th in the Novice 2 finals. He had 3 fifths. Unfortunately we have burne a piston on the 550 - hopefully it will be ready by the weekend.

Rebecca had an okay weeknd. The mini was running well but unfortunately she was too tried on Sunday to keep it together in the qualifying - she had her mini heat right after 3 back to back heats on the big sled on the big track.

Next weekend we are in Barrie at Georgian Downs.

Rouyn rocked

The kids had a fun time over in the belle province. The little mini rocked - 2nd on Saturday and 1st on Sunday. There is a little discrepancy between what we believed happened and the posted results. The first two kids were disqualified and Rebecca was 4th over the line so she should have come 2nd so that's my story and I'm sticking to it. On Sunday she clearly came 1st and got the big trophy. She also won Novice Girls on Saturday and had her usual 3rd / last place finish.

Patrick has some pretty stiff competition in all of his classes. He was racing well, had a 2nd place in one of his 550 heats and qualified 4th for the Novice 2 final on Saturday. He just doesn't have much luck in the finals. He was 3rd in both heats of Freestyle racing and got a third there. He qualified for all finals both days and just didn't have any great finals races on Sunday.

There were huge crowds there. The race was between two big (huge mountains of snow really) piles of snow. It was almost like those hill climb races from the west with all sorts of people watching from beside their sleds.

The funniest part of the whole weekend was the availability of booze. A lady was selling beer and shooters from a little sleigh in the parking lot. It's a different land over there.

They say the snow in the snowdump lasts until August and they might have a race there in June this year. Sign me up - we'll be there.

We're off to Lindsay this weekend.

1st race over

Calabogie is now history. It was a far better weekend than we feared. The course was simpler than one would like due to the lack of snow. Rebecca raced the 380 for the first time and Patrick raced the 550 for the first time. Bill and Tom had the clutching set up well on the 550 and it had a decent hole shot so Patrick was able to stay with the leaders on each start. There are some pictures of him on DooTalk at the starting line.

The kids share the Freestyle and we saw by the end of the weekend it needs some love. It had a broken side panel and it was getting pretty slow by Sunday. Patrick actually had a 3rd on it on Saturday. Turns out the carb boot is shot and needs replacing. It wouldn't run at all this weekend at the cottage.

Rebecca had a great time on the mini. She won on Saturday and go DQ'ed for speeding on Sunday. She came 3rd twice in Novice girls and 3rd once in Novice 1.

We ended up with a great spot in the pits - they were too soft on Thursday and Friday when all of the big teams showed up. Saturday morning we got moved to within about 50 metres of the staging area.

My sister's family came out to watch for the first time. I don't think they were ready to sink the money into racing full time just yet.

The rear shocks froze up on the 380 on Sunday at the cottage. We're going to upgrade the track to a 1" while the shock is being replaced. Should give the sled a much better holeshot since the existing track is only about .7".

Our next race is Rouyn in the middle of January. We might be able to go over there to practice sometime over the holiday. We need to win the lottery to buy a property to put up a practice track.

Toronto Snowmobile Show 2010

The weather was fantastic in TO for the first race of the season. Rebecca has decided she's going to race the mini again this year so it was a good start to come second on Sunday on the woodchips. Her track fell off in the qualifiers on Saturday so she didn't move on to the finals. Rebecca also had a blast racing McCoy's mod Saturday and Sunday morning.

We picked up some gear at the snowmobile show. Looks like I spent too much on carbides. We found out today that Woody's is going to sell us traction products at 50% of retail. We can't use studs on the 550, Freestyle or the Mini and Rebecca doesn't reallyneed them on the 380 so we'll just be getting carbide runners. Still, any help is good.

The first race is in Calabogie this year - it is over by Renfrew - a nice site. It should get out bigger crowds than Searchmont.

Season's over

Horseshoe has been cancelled due to the complete lack of snow. Apparently days and days of hot weather have metled all the snow.

I think we are happy that the race has been cancelled. Our calculations show that Rebecca has won the 120 Improved Stock by 6 points. The results on the website don't show this yet because they have yet to drop the worst race from people who went to Gaylord and got points in all of the other races.

On the down side, Patrick is only 6 points out of 2nd place in Novice 1 and he usually does well at Horseshoe and might have moved up. He is still quite happy with his 3rd place. The other disappointment for Patrick was that he was going to get to race his new 550 in Novice 2 and now he'll have to wait until next year. Maybe we'll get enough snow today that he can go for a ride at the cottage on the 550 on Saturday.

Kirkland Lake and Kitchener and New Liskeard.

We have now had the races that start with "K". The kids had a great race in KL. Rebecca had her first win in Novice Girls on Saturday. She had a second on Sunday as well. Her mini racing was okay with a 6th and a 3rd.

Patrick also had a great weekend. He had a 2nd and a third in Novice 1. He really is racing well on the 380.

After KL we were looking forward to 3 weekends of riding at the cottage and practicing.

Rebecca raced at the mini race in New Liskeard. She was 2nd behind Micah. Mr. Mik Mak seems to have really gotten that old Ski-Doo a rockin'. Patrick got to be the finish line flag man. Just like Johhny Adams.

The snow ran out about 1/2 way through March Break so we found a 550 in the Auto Trader and went down and got it for Patrick for next year. He'll likely give it a try at Horseshoe.

To everyone's surprise Kitchener was not cancelled. There was enough snow. The pits were a little rough though since they were just gravel.

Saturday in Kitchener wasn't great. Rebecca was 5th on the mini and 4th in Novice Girls. Patrick was 6th in Novice 1.

On Sunday Rebecca was 3rd on the mini after a hard fought battle with Alexie. She was 4th again in a photo finish in Novice Girls.

Right now Rebecca is still in the lead in the 120 Improved Stock by about 6 points. Patrick is in third in Novice 1. He is 6 points out of 2nd. It's going to be interesting to see how things work out at Horseshoe the weekend after Easter. That is, if there's any snow left for the event.

Sarnia

Ramsay Kids Racing had quite a weekend in Sarnia. Rebecca was 1st on the mini and 3rd in Novice Girls. The Novice Girls final was in the middle of the big ISOC show so she got her trophy on the podium. The announcer interviewed her -

"how old are you?"

she replies, "8"

then, "how long have you been racing?"

"5 years"

"since you were 3?"

"no, 4"

"I guess I'll have to check my math," he says with a chuckle.

It really is her 5th year - 4,5,6,7,8

Patrick was a little off on his 380 on Saturday and came in 8th. I think this still keeps him in 3rd place overall. Patrick's goal is to win or come 2nd in KL this weekend. His machine has been into Maille's for a complete once over and a new drive shaft was installed. We also had to replace the oil container on the Freestyle after he crashed on Sunday.

Rebecca moved ahead a further 3 points in the lead for the 120 Improved Stock class. She is now almost a whole race out in front.