A Real Car Race, for a Change – Out Your Backdoor

Here’s a winter fun idea!

Now, big pro sports can be kinda dull. Tickets cost a lot. The players aren’t from around here. The spectating is highly manipulated/controlled/passive. Sure, some communities learn to embrace and try to live off a major corporate event but it often gets kinda ugly. Like, you can’t get around town on the big day (maybe for miles around). And people often act badly on all sides.

But there’s a whole other way to do sport. The local, natural way. Grassroots and ground up. Amateur and moderate.

Driving fast on snowy winter roads has been done up north since cars were invented. The Sno*Drift Rally has been around in one shape or another for almost as long.

If you want to watch some real car racing fun, head up to the Alpena, MI, area on January 30/31, 2009 for 2 days of, as the rally motto goes, “Real cars, Real fast, on Real roads.”

No entry fee. Stand along the road and watch. Chase the race around the country side and see how it plays out.

Rally racing uses street-legal cars—mostly economical little 4-bangers—to race in an orderly way on real roads. I gather that the roads are closed during events so speeds are certainly WAY up there. Big skilz are on parade up close and personal.

…Then the drivers go back to the motel and often work on their own cars, the very ones they drove to the race.

If the maintanence is easy, maybe they head in to town for dinner and socializing.

The 2008 winners were the guy and gal team of Antoine L’Estage and Natalie Richard from Canada, driving a Hyundai.

Lastly, the Sno*Drift is the kind of car race where the organizers post on their live online newsfeed right after it’s done that… “It’s time for that Two Hearted Ale to get out of the ice bucket, and some ice to go in with the Jameson.”