Perhaps the most anticipated straightline racing event of the season succumbed to Mother Nature’s will recently when the planned Battle On The Bay/ISR World Series event in Green Bay, Wisconsin, was cancelled for 2019 due to poor ice conditions. It was scheduled for February 8-9.
The planned event – in its eighth year overall but second as a joint effort between the ISR World Series of Ice Drags and the NSSR Speed Runs – was to feature three tracks that would all be running simultaneously: One with side-by-side drag racing with top competitors at the most historic ice event (the World Series), another with the sport’s fastest sleds going one at a time for world record speeds (the NSSR event) and a third track with radar runs for more common snowmobilers looking to check their sled’s capabilities.
After a year filled with a lot of planning and big-time promotion, plus endless work and preparation, the Battle was unfortunately called off by organizers Clint Holst and Chris Garrity this past Sunday.
In a message posted to followers on social media, Holst said, “Mother Nature is surely cruel. Everything was looking like it was going to be an epic event with great sponsors coming on board and increased fan interest. Even though we had bitter cold it still didn’t make enough ice to safely hold the event of this magnitude. The shear weight of 2000 cars and the safety of the spectators had to be our priority.
“We started monitoring ice as soon as it formed and continued to as conditions changed,” Holst continued. “Both Chris and myself have put on many events on ice and not all ice is the same. Three weeks ago we had 6 to 12 inches with cold weather coming, and we were very confident we would have enough ice as we were right on track from last year’s ice building statistics. On Friday after drilling over 80 holes and only seeing 11-15 inches it was very disappointing. We moved to an alternate spot and drilled and it wasn’t much better. Friday evening we made contact with the local DNR agent and he also didn’t have good news as a vehicle broke thru within a couple miles. Believe me these are very difficult decision’s to make with so many people counting on you,” Holst said. “Chris Garrity and myself are fully committed to having this event in 2020!”
The NSSR Speed Run portion of the event has been moved to Forest Lake, Minnesota, site of a similar NSSR speed run event just two weeks earlier. The ISR World Series of Ice Drags has been cancelled, though the good news for straightline racers and fans is that Garrity and Holst, through their Vecolity Race Manager effort, are looking at other locations with hopes to still host a big-time drag race yet this winter, according to our friend Chris Riley at Super Sled Online.
Stay tuned for further updates from Snow Goer.
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