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HISTORY OF INDOOR MOTORCYCLE ICE RACING
- A TRUE AMERICAN CREATION!
Greetings and welcome to the exciting
and very interesting world of indoor ice
racing. The history of this relatively
new sport is a bit of a mystery to many
enthusiasts and outright misrepresented
by others. |
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Gary
Densford in the First I.C.E. Racing
Championship. The historic event
took place January 13th, 1977 at the
Oklahoma State Fair Colliseum. |
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SO
HOW DID ALL THIS GET STARTED ANYWAY?
Dirt track speedway motorcycle racing
has been around in various degrees of
popularity for over eighty years. In
fact, the first race ever held was
credited to West Maitland, New South
Wales, and Australia in November of
1923.
In 1975, some fifty-four years after the
beginning of speedway motorcycle racing,
a group of inventive Americans took
these brakeless, gearless, and simplest
of all hybrid-racing machines indoors to
compete on ice. Also in 1975, indoor ice
racing competitions were being held
using 250cc flat track bikes as the
primary machines.
A Michigan gentleman named Staten Lorenz
was credited with starting this form of
ice racing. The end result has been the
evolution and development of a thrilling
new sport. From its early American
beginnings, indoor ice racing is now
being enjoyed by fans throughout the
world.
In 1975, some fifty-four years after the
beginning of speedway motorcycle racing,
a group of inventive Americans took
these brakeless, gearless, and simplest
of all hybrid-racing machines indoors to
compete on ice. Also in 1975, indoor ice
racing competitions were being held
using 250cc flat track bikes as the
primary machines.
A Michigan gentleman named Staten Lorenz
was credited with starting this form of
ice racing. The end result has been the
evolution and development of a thrilling
new sport. From its early American
beginnings, indoor ice racing is now
being enjoyed by fans throughout the
world.
The first ever indoor speedway ice race
was organized and promoted by a
motorcycle dealer in Huntsville, AL in
1975. The next was held in New York
State and the third was organized by a
group of racers and their families in
the summer of 1976. This event was held
in the Kent State University Hockey
Field House in Kent, Ohio. As fate would
have it, then speedway rider, Gary
Densford, staying in Indiana at the
time, was invited to compete in this
event by his close friend Bob Hetrick.
Hetrick ended up winning the event and
Densford finished second. More important
in the big picture of things, it started
the wheels rolling for what is now the
World Championship ICE Racing Series.” |
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The
late Bob Hetrick from Paramount, CA is
pictured here in Amarillo, TX ICE Race
in 1977. He was dedicated to the
growth of Speedway Racing and helped
promote the sport. |
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Densford left
Ohio pumped up by what he had just
experienced. He traveled the country
looking for arenas to hold a
championship series of events in. You
can imagine the response from some arena
managers back then. Everything from “You
want to do what on my ice”!? to “Are you
crazy ” nitro burning motorcycles
without brakes! You’re out of your
mind!? With perseverance, Densford was
able to find four willing victims?,
wrote a rule book and what heretofore
was a novelty event had become a brand
new motorsport.
It was in 1977 when Densford first
formed International Championship
Events/ICE to organize and promote
indoor speedway ice racing. Back then
the sport was quite simply titled
Speedway On Ice. The first ever series
of racing events were held that
especially cold winter. The first of the
four championships was held January 13,
1977 at the Oklahoma State Fair Coliseum
in Oklahoma City followed by events in
Amarillo, Texas, Tucson, Arizona and
Dallas, Texas.
The early pioneering riders rode old two
valve Czechoslovakian Jawas and British
made JAP machines. This group of
traveling daredevils sported some
colorful names such as Rick “The Rocket”
Workman, “Buffalo” Bob Hetrick, Timmy
Joe Shepperd, Woody Doogan, Jim “The
Cincinnati Kid” Hedrick, Tony “The
Tiger” Westbrook, “Marvelous” Mark
Cherry, “Fly”n? Finley Wallace, “Rapid”
Ralph Castor and his brother “Gentleman”
Jim to name some.
All that was available for traction on
the ice in those days was off the shelf
hardware store sheet metal screws. There
was no uniformity and racing results
were quite primitive relative to today’s
competition. In real terms – over two
seconds a lap slower!
Technical innovations have improved the
sport dramatically since those early
days. The biggest improvements have come
in the areas of tire and stud
technology. In 1982 ICE adopted a stud
rule making use of a single designed
stud mandatory. The new “Ice Getter”
stud was specially made for ice racing
and related motorsports activities,
primarily on frozen lakes, ponds and
rivers in North America’s cold weather
regions. The Ice Getter was a good
universal stud that allowed for better
traction and no increased ice wear (a
very important consideration for indoor
ice racing). This stud was about a
second per lap quicker and gave very
consistent traction.
As the sport and its riders developed
further we began to realize that much
more traction could be achieved and that
there needed to be a stud design that
could be “tuned” or adjusted. To
accomplish this in 1985 ICE adopted a
new mandatory stud called the “Kold
Kutter”. This nifty little design
knocked seconds off lap times! Although
ice wear did increase, the gain in
traction and exciting racing action was
worth it. Indeed, the lap times and
speeds got so quick that several older
riders of the time decided to retire.
Their reaction times were just not
competitive any longer. These specially
designed, extremely sharp edged,
directional ice racing studs can be
“tuned” by riders and their mechanics to
achieve excellent “side bite” for
cornering and “forward drive” for
straightaway and starting line traction.
The Kold Kutter stud was so exceptional
that once the riders got used to them
they were amazed to realize better
traction than they could achieve racing
their bikes on the summertime dirt
tracks!
The newest mandatory stud to be
instituted by ICE on January 1, 1991 are
“Silver Rockets Racing Studs”. They
offer the best of all worlds for indoor
ice racing and outdoor ice racing where
ice wear is a consideration. The
absolute most traction available with
the least possible amount of ice wear,
just what the doctor ordered.
Another factor in the increasing speeds
was improved tire building technology.
This all came about through trial and
error by some dedicated indoor ice
racers. In fact, it takes many hours to
“build” a winning set of tires for a
champion ice racer. Around the same time
the custom dedicated racing studs came
on the scene racers began experimenting
with inner tire liners. They would cut
and install special liner tires inside
their regular racing tires. Sometimes a
bicycle tire is used for a front liner
and a street motorcycle tire for a rear
liner. These days there are special
purpose built liners available to
racers.
Utilizing liners allows the rider to use
longer threaded shanks on his racing
studs. Using longer threaded screw
shanks give the stud (the part that
actually sticks out of the tire) more
rigidity. This stiff, rigid stud “bites”
into the ice surface much more
efficiently thus giving the racer much
more traction. Couple this evolution of
tire/stud technology with the new
hi-tech, much more powerful 4-valve
racing engines and you can begin to
understand why today’s competition
hardly resembles our first races in the
1970’s. These higher speeds and quicker
lap times demand that the modern ICE
racer be an excellent athlete to have a
chance for success.
In 1985 ICE debuted the Trike and Quad
Divisions. ATV’s were just beginning to
get popular at the time. They were an
instant hit with the fans on the ice.
Unfortunately, insurance liability
problems saw the demise of the Trikes
that very same year. The Quads “The Race
Cars You Sit On” Not In? have since
become a premier professional racing
division with ICE. In 1986 the first
ever ICE Quad National Champion was
crowned and in 1990 the first ever ICE
World Champion.
Technology is advancing in the Quad
Division at a feverish pace. In fact,
these days some riders are building
lightweight tubular frames just for
indoor ice racing competitions. The
original set of rules for Quads had a
maximum engine displacement regulation
of 250cc for 2 and 4-stroke engines. In
1990 the rule changed to allow 360cc
maximum displacement for 4-strokes while
keeping the 2-stroke limit to 250cc. In
1992 the Quads adopted an “Open” engine
displacement rule. Now we see everything
from 1100cc Harley-Davidson V-Twins,
1000cc 4-cylinder Suzuki, 650cc
4-cylinder Kawasaki engines to the new
age 4-valve head, lightweight, single
cylinder powerplants. With Open rules,
who knows what American ingenuity will
come up with next!!! Great racing and
experimentation in technology is
exciting to watch! The future of the
rough and tumble, bump and run ICE
Unlimited Outlaw Quads should be
interesting indeed.
Over the years ICE has developed and
incorporated many innovations into the
sport. Most of these improvements have
been in the areas of technical
regulations and developments, safety
regulations and competition rules. One
of the most important in the overall
scheme of things is the institution of
the ICE Progressive World Race Format.
While the concept of a “new” progression
style race format may appear simple
enough, achieving the desired end
results are not always that simple. The
goal was to create a format that
rewarded the riders’ performance while
giving the ticket buying race fans the
best possible, most exciting racing
event. In the 1970’s, with overwhelming
fan approval, ICE was the first
organization to hold a Main Event at the
conclusion of a championship speedway
race format. The top points scorers
earned positions in the Main. Nowadays
most promoters and organizations have
adopted this format for their major
speedway championships. We have taken
our original concepts several steps
further in adopting the “Progressive
World Race Format”. The race format you
see today has achieved the original
intent of providing challenging and fair
racing for the competitors while
building to an exciting grand finale for
the fans.
In 2004 X-Treme Speedway Kart Racing
(X-KARTS) was added to the World
Championship ICE Racing Series. The ICE
X-KARTS more than doubled in
participation the very next season and
crowned their first World Champion. Also
that year, in 2005, the Flat Track Mad
Dogs debuted with much fanfare. Finally,
an entry level class for indoor flat
track ice racing! It will be interesting
to see how this class develops into the
future. Another popular entry-level
class recently initiated by ICE are the
ICE Breaker Amateur Quads. Many of our
current pros around the country have
come out of this “racing for fun and a
trophy” class.
In 2004 ICE and its star racers made it
to the big time! For the first time in
history ICE Racing was seen in the
world’s most exciting city – LAS VEGAS!
That particular World Championship Open
event at the Orleans Arena paid a never
before heard of $20,000 cash purse. Both
the Nitro Speedway Bike and Unlimited
Outlaw Quad Champions pocketed a cool $5
Grand! World Championship ICE Racing
returns to the beautiful Orleans Arena
in 2007.
In the 2005-2006 winter season a new era
began in arena ice racing with the
Inaugural Manufacturers World Cup ICE
Racing Championships. This exciting all
new World Championship Series features
state-of-the-art, hi-performance, major
factory made motorcycles matched up with
many of the world’s most talented
riders. These best of the best riders
readily adapt to the new Universal World
ICE Bike and crossover from all
disciplines of motorcycle racing
including Flat Track and Speedway dirt
track, Motocross, SuperMoto, Road Racing
and even FreeStyle MX to the level
playing field of the indoor ice oval. In
fact, at the first race of the new
Manufacturers World Cup on December
16th, 2005, arguably the most talented
group of riders ever assembled for an
ICE race converged on the Rose Quarter
Memorial Coliseum in Portland, OR. Among
those competing were none other than
X-Games and dirt track star “Showtime”
Johnny Murphree, “Smokin” Joe Kopp,
Shaun Russell, Dan Stanley, Shane Vance,
Donnie Steward and former ICE Speedway
World Champ Seth Church to name just a
few.
ICE Has the future of World Championship
ICE Racing focused and in its sites.
Manufacturers World Cup Bikes, Nitro
Speedway Bikes, Unlimited Outlaw Quads,
X-KARTS, Mad Dog Bikes and ICE Breaker
Amateur Quads. There’s something for
everyone at an ICE Race! It’s no wonder
our slogan remains – THE GREATEST
SPECTACLE ON ICE!
With the continued support from our
great racers, race fans, staff, sponsors
and arenas around the world, exciting
ICE racing advancements will continue
long into the future. The potential is
wide open, there is no limit. Our goal
is to take is to take World Championship
ICE Racing to a well deserved and earned
lofty position in motorsports history.
Come along for the ride of your life! |
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