It was a great weekend for spectators of the Winnipeg Sports Car Club's (WSCC) Fire on Ice Racing Tour on Crescent Lake in Portage la Prairie. The warm temperature wasn't exactly the greatest for the vehicles involved but racers left with nothing but good things to say about the event.

"Everyone involved seemed to have a great time, especially the races," says ice director Jordan Sharples. "We had a few issues with attrition over the weekend. Some of the cars died with blown engines, and there was a blown transmission, so the car count was nowhere near what it was when we first started."

Warm weather created problems for Sharples and the racers. Several times the track needed to be cleared of standing water. "Of course Mother Nature played a big part in it as well, she's a cruel lady," laughs Sharples. "Normally we have the cold weather at this time in Manitoba but it was warm all weekend. We had to move the track away from the water three times on Sunday because water kept popping up but we got it done, had a great time, and had really good turn out from the crowd."

Damon Surzyshyn says it was a tough weekend on the cars because of all the ruts in the track Feb. 19, 2017. (Photo by Aaron Wilgosh)

Racer Damon Surzyshyn took the gold in the rubber-to-ice category. "The track was great, the facility was great, and the fans were amazing," says Surzyshyn. "Portage la Prairie hosted a real great event but unfortunately the weather was terrible. It was way too warm for ice racing. Saturday was basically a slush day, and Sunday we had to redo the ice because it was either too wet or there were sinkholes."

Surzyshyn had a tough weekend but says the sport is normally this taxing, and it's not unusual for it to be as tight as it was. "Everything really depended on what type of car and tires you had. You will have better luck in different conditions and the slush didn't really suit me this weekend, I was like skating on top of it. So you have a very narrow line and if you deviate from it just a little bit you get sucked into the slush and then you're on a ride out of control. (Sunday) the cars were sucking water in their intakes and it made things difficult. Half throttle doesn't do anything but sputter, but full-throttle was working, so you'd have to adapt as you went."

Surzyshyn adds one car broke a shock and had a wheel hanging off for a lap in the third race. "It's also very physical on the body," he adds. "You get thrown around a lot in there."