Snowbird Nationals 2013 – Wednesday Recap

The last full day of practice at the 19th annual Snowbird Nationals saw the racers get one round of practice organized into their qualifying heats. This structure prepared everyone for the challenge that lay ahead by putting them along side the same racers they’d be dicing with the following day. With randomly sorted practice heats, national and even world champions would go head to head with weekend warriors here on Wednesday, as well as tomorrow for the first round of qualifying. The track has already come in quite well from all the practice laps put down yesterday, so these practice heats were going to be the first good indications of how far racing technology has pushed the limits since this same time last year. Right off the bat, most of the usual fast guys and gals rose to the top of the leader boards with rare exception. Even the traditionally low key, funster classes saw some heavy hitters sign up for a new challenge, and their talents shown brightly early on. The technical inspection table suddenly became the hot place to be as racers made last minute changes in preparation for these practice races. The action on track was incredibly fast and close. Despite only being practice, those close to TQ pace pushed hard and were either rewarded for their heroism running an inch off every board or punished accordingly for violating the sovereignty of the track barriers. Looking towards the start of qualifying tomorrow it’s easy to see how close the competition will be as this hectic pace continues.