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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.
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. |
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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