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" Chippewa Lake, Mich.\u2014When winter descends and the professional racers of the Nascar and IndyCar series put away their cars for the off-season, amateur racers of the northern regions get ready for winter&amp;#039;s gift: ice racing.  This type of car racing is regional in nature, and consequently the rules, cars and venues vary depending on where you live. But less than a few hours northwest from my home near Detroit, Mich., there happens to be a active ice-racing series on Chippewa Lake. Not wanting to sit and wait for spring to arrive, I decided to try my road-racing skills on the ice.  I did my homework first, of course, before choosing a car and class. The Michigan Ice Racing Association (MIRA) runs the races and splits the classes depending on tires (studded or nonstudded) and car layout (front- or rear-wheel drive). For safety&amp;#039;s sake, they don&amp;#039;t race unless there&amp;#039;s at least 10 inches of frozen H2O on the lake. The most popular class is the front-drive, nonstudded group, so that&amp;#039;s where I figured I&amp;#039;d run.  The rules are refreshingly light compared to road racing. Competitors are only required to outfit their cars with a rear-mounted light, an interior fire extinguisher and tow points. Since the low-traction surface means the cars slide around and sometimes bang into each other, it&amp;#039;s common practice to drive cheap, well-used cars.       I&amp;#039;d found the cheapest of cars\u2014a free one offered by a friend. But of course a free car usually comes with strings attached, and when I pulled the soon-to-be mine 1984 Dodge Colt Turbo from a junk pile near South Bend, Ind., I had no idea how much time and money it would require. In all, I spent about $800, but that included roughly $200 for Continental ice tires. The Colt needed a complete brake job, a new half-shaft, a battery, and lots of little things to shake off 10 years of sitting in a field. I spent about six weeks of nights and weekends bringing the car back from the dead.  But it was well worth the effort. Ice-racing is the cheapest wheel-to-wheel racing I&amp;#039;ve ever done, and it&amp;#039;s every bit as exciting and entertaining. A one-year membership costs just $60 and a one-day entry fee is $25. Plus the only legal requirement is a valid driver&amp;#039;s license. Trust me, there&amp;#039;s no easier way to go fender-to-fender racing.  About those fenders: I got whacked several times during my first day, which caved in the Colt&amp;#039;s left-rear corner. But the car&amp;#039;s one step from the crusher anyway, so who cares? And the thrills are incredible. Imagine barreling towards the first glare-ice turn, surrounded by cars on the edge of control, and sliding through sideways. It&amp;#039;s the sort of at-the-limit driving few get to do.  And who knows, maybe the car-control skills I&amp;#039;m honing will come in handy when the snow melts and I&amp;#039;m back on road courses this summer. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/adventure/outdoors/a5187/racingonice/>