Carrying an '82 Montesa H7 360cc in the trunk of a rented RV from camperclub.gr , we (Giannis Trigas, Thodoris Ermilios and Spiros Markou) were onboard the ferry to Ancona, with Ice Rosa Ring, north of Milan, our final destination.
We had just received the confirmation of our participation in the Swank Rally On Ice from Deus Italy a week ago, and we had to move fast to prepare motorcycles and logistics.
We borrowed a pair of snow tires by Christos at MX House in Grevena and had our friend Vassilis Vrakas in Trikala fabricate the necessary protective bumpers, as requested in the race regulations (screws tend to come off the tires after some brutal laps in the ice). We were hopefully ready to race...
After some typical procedures and delays in the port of Ancona, we ended up at the track after around 600 kilometers at 4 a.m. the night before the race. A gentlemen's race, as Marco Belli of Di Traverso Flat Track School would call it during the riders briefing the next day.
We parked & spent the rest of the night outside the track, as the gates were obviously closed at 4am.. We woke up by the some Englishmen on a van trying tio get into the track through the entrance we had blocked with our camper van.
The course of the race, for the most part, had a thin layer of fresh snow and thick ice below it. Bikes had screws on the tyres which were supposed to provide traction on ice. And yes they did!
The race was on time trial format: once at the starting gate, each rider had to initiate the stopwatch on his own and stop it at the end of the lap. You could have as many timed laps as you wanted to improve your best lap until 16:30.
Riding the old Montesa on ice was a pleasant surprise even though a few carb adjustments were done to adjust in the high altitude and low temperatures. After the first two passes, Giannis started pushing and improving his lap time.
"It was such a feeling riding on ice, even from the first couple of rounds, as i was looking for traction. First time on studded tyres and a big smile behind the helmet as the slips were so controlled even with 4th in the gearbox..!"
And that's basically how Giannis took the win for 0.1''
Spiros raced on a Yamaha SR400, prepared by Marco's Belli flat track academy, finishing around 15th place.
The plan was for Giannis to race Snowquake too the next day, a race with a format of 6-8 riders on the grid, racing for about 10 laps per heat. Unfortunately Montesa broke down during the victory lap, so that didn't quite work out.
This left Thodoris the only one of us racing Dirtquake, the winter version of the infamous English event, with the same SR400 from DiTraverso academy. It was his racing comeback after 7 years (when a broken mirror forced him into a period of racing stillness ...)
Stay Tuned and ride motorcycles!
Ζ.
