Long before spectators’ trucks lined up around the oval, vintage ice racers were tuning, checking and working on their machines.
Vintage ice oval races returned to a slough south of Codette on Feb. 19, bringing with them racers from across the province and as far away as Flin Flon, Man.
Cory Raddysh was one of the Manitobans racing. Raddysh said he drives at least four hours to any race.
“I’ve always been into the old sleds, and I did lots of drag racing. I started ovals in Saskatchewan and just thought it would be neat to try. I got hooked, and went from there, I guess,” he said.
Raddysh has since encouraged his friend Miles Tetlock to join the sport.
“I enjoy the technical part of it, and going around in circles is fun too,” Tetlock joked.
Raddysh said that a lot of maintenance goes into their vintage racing sleds.
“Time and time and time. You basically spend your whole winter working on them and tuning them and rebuilding them,” he said. “Parts are getting rare and a lot of it is sourced out through the States.”
Mitch Kreutzer of Govan agreed.
“There’s lots of maintenance on an oval sled, just because the ice is really rough and hard on things when it’s grabbing, so you’re always constantly changing tie rod ends or sharpening picks or carbides so you’ll have good handling,” said Kreutzer.
“They’re not real easy to come by, the older sleds. Now that vintage has been around for probably 15-20 years between drags and ovals, they’re getting a lot harder to find.”
The Kreutzers race as a family. Kevin, Mitch’s father, got back into oval racing when his kids asked him to join them.
“It’s great for family. I’ve got all my grandchildren here, my kids here. That’s what we do - we do the circuit and it’s awesome.”
While some racers – like Kevin – aimed to win, others had different goals.
“I’m just hoping to stay running until the end of the day,” said Tetlock.
Race results were unavailable online before press time. Only one other race was held this season, in MacDowall, Sask. The third race, which was originally scheduled for January in Bellevue, Sask., was cancelled.
