Mazda MX-5 Ice Race Mark II

Russians invite Aussie writers back for a second bout — on the Russkis' home 'turf'
discount new cars games  » Get the best price on a new Mazda

This time last year, the diaspora that is Australia’s motoring-writer scene bonded together to form Team Australia and went ice racing in Mazda’s MX-5 challenge.

Team Australia is heading back to the ice lakes of northern Europe determined to right the wrongs of 2011, still in MX-5s with the roof off in -30 degrees, but with some significant differences.

Last year, though fearful of embarrassment on a surface it was utterly unfamiliar with and faced with the best ice-racing scribes from 20 European nations, the little-team-that almost-could ran second to the winning Russians.

It was an epic contest, with six-man teams and two x two-hour races. Team Oz took an astonishing pole (more astonishing even to them than to the Finns, Swedes, Norwegians and Russians that live half their lives on ice). It won the first race but faltered on strategy to finish second in the clincher, even though the three fastest Australians shared the fastest five race laps between them.

While the 2011 race took Team Australia to northern Sweden and a high-speed track that almost replicated Bathurst for length, this year’s race takes it to deepest, darkest Siberia in middle Russia. And the track will only be 1.2km long, so the high-speed corners that favoured gravel-bred driving styles won’t exist.

If that’s not intrepid enough, Team Australia will be faced with a rulebook written by the same Russians who had such difficulty adhering to the race regulations last year. The key differences are that no other nations have been invited, so it will be a grudge race between Australia and Russia. The Russian rules also include splitting up Team Australia into two teams of three drivers and having the 50-minute finale as a match race between the three fastest Australian MX-5 drivers and the fastest Russians.

Four of the 2011 Team Australia drivers are returning in 2012, determined to lift a trophy they believe they were robbed of last year. Michael Taylor will captain 2011 pole sitter James Stanford and the SMH’s Drive boss, Toby Hagon, while Carsales.com.au’s big kahuna Mike Sinclair will captain the second MX-5 with ice-racing newbies Marton Pettendy and Glenn Butler.

The teams have gathered in Moscow today to develop strategy according to the ideas of Mazda Motorsport guru, Allan Horsley, before flying to Ekateringburg for tomorrow’s practice and racing sessions and the finale on Thursday.

Read the latest news and reviews on your mobile, iPhone or PDA at carsales' mobile site...