THUNDER BAY — Racers took to the ice at Mission Bay this Sunday for Ice Racing 2025.
The season held its first six races in the afternoon.
These races were split between its studded series and rubber-to-ice series.
Gary Adomko, the Thunder Bay Autosport Club president and a competitor in the studded series with car number 57, won three races in his class.
“The car is feeling really, really well. I’m very familiar with this package,” said Adomko.
“I’ve changed it around a few times, but because we didn’t run last year, it gave me some additional time to refreshen the engine, which helped with today’s success and another fresh set of tires. So, all those contributing factors placed us into the first-place position, which was really nice because there are other cars out there that are very, very fast also and just luck fell our way.”
After last year’s cancellation, Adomko explained that it took some practice to get used to the track once again.
“The first few practice laps were knocking off a lot of rust, overdriving, underdriving, just doing all kinds of crazy things, but eventually, by about the last practice session, started to get most of the rust off and getting into some of the grooves or the paths that the car really likes to take. So, it worked out well,” said Adomko.
However, the snow forecast for the area did impact the driving conditions on the track for racers like Adomko.
On Saturday, Environment Canada issued a snowfall warning for the city, forecasting up to five centimetres of snow after midnight and another 10 to 20 centimetres the following day with winds of up to 20 kilometres per hour.
Adomko said that the studded racers don’t like the snow as their studded tires work best on 'basically glare ice.’
“The rubber-to-ice series that we also run with no studs, they use that snow to get a grip, so it works in their favour,” said Adomko.
“But a little against us because when we start getting into what we call the sugar or the outer edge of that snow dust and it really slows our cars down. So yeah, you got to stay out of that and stay in the groove on the clean ice.”
Moving forward, Adomko said his goals are to try to encourage other people to come out and build cars and be a part of the family sport.
“Thunder Bay Autosport Club, we’ve been around for over 50 years and family-based,” said Adomko.
“There’s fathers and sons racing out here and we’ve had daughters and fathers running and so really it’s a family sport (that has) been around a long time and we’re actually just looking for additional people to come on board and build a car and come out and have some fun.”
He said he would also like to thank all their sponsors who support the series and help out the club.
“We’re a registered nonprofit and so everything that helps us put this program on, we really appreciate,” said Adomko.
