Contoocook Lake in Jaffrey, NH, Track #298

This weekend I wasn’t expecting to go to any races because I had some work-related things I wanted to do. However, as it turns out, I got most of the things I wanted to get done by the end of the day on Saturday and my Sunday was freed up. I decided to see some ice racing in New Hampshire. As far as I can tell there are three groups that run automobile ice races in New Hampshire and they all run there regular shows on Sunday and all start between 12:00 and 12:30 pm. I checked with each group and they all were running. After some hemming and hawing, I decided to go watch the Jaffrey Ice Racing Association race on an oval on Contoocook Lake in Jaffrey, NH. The main reason why I choose this club was that it was an hour closer to where I live than the others.

There were 3 divisions of racing and the scheduled called for each division to have two 6 lap heat races and a 10 lap feature heat race. While you could watch for free on the road, I paid $3 to walk onto the ice. Another option would have been to pay $10 to drive onto the ice. The weather was a bit warm for ice racing (40 degrees) and rain was on its way so I appreciated that they started on time. They probably could have taken a little less time between heat races though with rain in the forecast and on its way. In the end, they managed to get 5 of the 6 heat races completed before the rain and warm conditions made the event organizers call off the rest of the racing at about 1:30 pm. Besides being the first ice race I’ve seen in New Hampshire, this was my first oval ice race. I really did enjoy the oval ice races and hope to get to another one this year but with ice racing being so weather-dependent that may or may not happen.

PS: I didn’t write up a report for last weekend when I went to Georgia, but I saw two new tracks that weekend.

New Track since last report:

Albany Motor Speedway, dirt oval, Albany GA (dirt late models): 01/25/2014
Watermelon Capital Speedway, paved oval. Cordele GA (paved super late models): 01/26/2014
Contoocook Lake, ice oval, Jaffrey, NH: 2/1/2014

2014 Stats:
Total Tracks: 6
New Tracks: 6
States I saw new tracks: 5 (Georgia, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia)
Countries: 1 (USA)
Total Races: 6
Total lifetime TrackChaser countable tracks: 298