Motorsport in the Snow, Part 1
THERE’S SNOW WAY!
PART 1
Merry Christmas! hope you’ve all had a jolly time. As the festive season is at its peak, nothing is more magical the a light dusting of snow to really get into the festive spirit. Naturally I wondered, How many times has motor-racing crossed paths with a wintery shower? It can’t be that many? Most series plan to avoid this (with the exception of Rallying) So to assist your Boxing day snooze, here’s what I found. (Looking at race weekends, not testing)
NASCAR California 2023:
Most recently the second round of the Xfinity series saw some challenging conditions, As these cars don’t do well in wet, they definitely won’t flourish in the snow. Persistent rain and a quick flurry of snow at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana delayed the race until the next day for a unusual night race for the Xfinity series. John Hunter Nemechek would take the victory in his Toyota.
IMSA Road America 2020:
Okay, it’s not quite snow, but it’ll do. What started out as a pretty straight forward race, with the quickest cars far ahead by the halfway point, The weather Gods had other plans, throwing rain and hail making for a classic sprint to the finish after a short red flag session. Acura, Corvette, Lexus would go on to win their classes respectively.
Freddie Jenner
WEC Spa 2019:
As the previous years 6 Hours of Spa was a toasty 30°C, I had only packed light for that weekend so many Jupilers were consumed to keep warm of course. A very sorrel experience walking down to Raidillon covered in snow. The race did go underway with the Ardennes Forest throwing all the weather at the circuit. Sleet, Snow, Rain and bright Sunshine. Toyota would go onto win with Alonso, Buemi and Nakajima. A race to be remembered in racing folk stories.
VLN 2 Nürburgring 2019:
In the same month and the same stretch of the Ardennes Forest, It’s unique micro climate throws another curve ball at the racing world with one of the shortest long distant races of all time. Just after 2 laps the VLN race was cancelled due to excessive snow. The forecast didn’t look great for the rest of the day so the race was cancelled with no classification given.
NASCAR Martinsville 2018:
The first snowed out race for NASCAR in 25 years, Snow began falling Saturday afternoon, stopping the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race after 23 laps and the Cup series postpone for the following day. Clint Bowyer would end a 190 race winless streak that Monday night in the NASCAR Cup series.
Youtube
24 Hours of Nürburgring 2016:
If the Nürburgring wasn’t one of the most challenging 24 hour races in the world, then perhaps some hail might spice things up. I know it’s not technically snow but it basically is. 49 minutes into the 24 hours the race was red flagged due to the Nürburgring GP circuit and the Nordschleife had been made impassable by heavy hail. The race restarted 3.4 Hours later with no other interruptions finishing in a thrilling Mercedes 1-2-3-4.
WEC / ELMS Silverstone 2016:
When it snows in Europe it does like to reach out as far and wide as it can, around the same time across the channel, The World Endurance Championship and the European Le Man Series both experienced a shower of snow, The WEC red flagged the practice session for the adverse weather, It made for a lively qualifying session for the ELMS.
British GT Oulton Park 2008:
Saturday morning arrived cold, windy and overcast, with a slight risk of sleet and snow forecast for during the day. The second round of the British GT Championship saw a first ever win for a Lamborghini against the likes of Ferraris, Vipers, Aston Martins and Ascari. The weekend saw some pretty huge accidents with all parties walking away.
NASCAR
NASCAR Bristol 2006:
The 0.533-mile pinball machine known as Bristol Motor Speedway is one of the more challenging races on the NASCAR calendar. Add a covering of snow with cars without rain tyres, you have chaos. Qualifying was cancelled due to extreme weather conditions, so the field was set with the top 35 points from 2005. Just 32 laps in, a second heavy snow began falling, which delayed the race for more than an hour. In all, there were 18 cautions, and over 100 of the 500 laps were run under the yellow flag. Kurt Busch would go on to win his 15th race while It was Dodge's first win at Bristol since Richard Petty in 1975.
Supercars Sandown 2003
This classic Australian Endurance Race at Sandown was one to remember. The rain came and went during the first half of the race, by lap 112 the heavens opened and a hail storm littered the circuit which sent cars off in all directions. Amazingly the race stayed under caution until lap 127 before the Supercars were unleashed once again. On the last lap the No. 44 Ford of Jason Richards sent it down the inside of the Mark Skaife’s Holden Commodore sending them both off into the gravel, Skaife made it out but Richards didn’t going from 2nd to a DNF on the last lap with Skaife going on to win. I would strongly advise to watch this race on Youtube.
IndyCar Surfers Paradise 2003:
1000 miles up the coast of Australia from Sandown, The Indy 300 would crown Paul Tracy as the 2003 CART champion, but not before an exhilarating race, 20 Minutes in a freak hailstorm would cause a red flag and the race to be shortened. Ryan Hunter-Reay would go on to claim his first IndyCar win on the street of Australia. The Indy 300 would turn out to be the last CART World Series race after the 2003 King Taco 500 was cancelled because of a wildfire. After this, CART went bankrupt and the 2004 series became the Champ Car World Series.
Euro GT Series Nürburgring GP 2002:
To mark the 80th anniversary of the ADAC Eifel race an incredible spectrum of cars was there to celebrate, from historic vehicles from the early years of the Nürburgring, to modern GT machines, Classic Formula Ford, German Formula 3 and Euro 3000 Series. The race weekend got off to a wet start and the weather deteriorated from there, the Saturday was called off due to fog and over night a thick blanket of snow covered the ground on Sunday.
Indycar Pikes Peak 2002:
It was a dominant display from the Marlboro Team Penske who placed 1st and 2nd, De Ferran led all but eight laps in the 225-lap event on his way to earning his IRL win with Castroneves just behind. The race was stopped for 50 minutes due to a freak hail storm passing through. Once that was out the way it was business as usual for Team Penske who had the fastest cars all weekend.
Supercars Bathurst 1000 2001:
The Bathurst 1000 is always worth a watch, especially when there are 4 separate hailstorms to cross the mountain during the endurance event. it was a race of attrition which began in sunshine, Eight Safety Car periods soaked up 36 laps of the race, with 21 of 39 starters classified when the rain maestro Skaife took the chequered flag.
CART Nazareth 2000:
Bad weather had been forecast, but no-one was quite expecting snow to force the cancellation of Nazareth's Champcar event.. Two inches fell on the Pennsylvania circuit overnight, leaving CART with no option but to officially cancel all racing. The race would take place later on in the year.
There we are, the first course of snowy races, part 2 will be released in the new year looking races after the 2000’s, Have you been to any of these races? did I miss any? Please let me know in the comments and don’t forget to subscribe for more content.
Freddie Jenner.
