When the Soup Gets Deep

Our second event of the RallyCross season started on March 3rd with the expectation of a fast day on a hard dirt surface. As I walked

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the course the ground was exposed throughout most of the course, with some patches of ice in a few corners. The weather forecast expected some sun changing to snow in the afternoon, of course this was not to be. To accent this, we had nine two-wheel-drive entries and only three four-wheel-drive entries; this was looking to be an entertaining day.

The four-wheel-drive cars, and some two-wheel drive cars took to the course and ran some of the fastest times of the day. By the time we had changed to the second group, the sun had melted some of the snow and the top layer of the frozen ground. This caused the track to have a thin layer of mud the consistency of tomato soup. The track surface under this soupy material stayed solid, but the mud made the course as slippery as ice in some sections and caused most drivers to have to run with the windshield wipers on.

During the lunch break, Roy Hopkins and I drive the course in both directions and decided that the course could still be run in the same direction as the morning. At the drivers meeting, most wanted to continue even with the slippery track conditions. We ran the second group first for two runs and then the first group, with the four-wheel drive entries. The mud soup had gotten about 3” deep and provided some of the drivers a challenge with the uphill climbs. Only one car had to be pulled out of the mud. After the remaining cars in the group completed their runs, we called it a day. Most cars had a layer of mud that caused our service area to look like a row of super-sized candy bars.

We look forward to seeing everyone at the next event. Think snow!