Frozen Alaskan lake, 82 MPH, ice race track

[AKBronc49]

Couple weekends back I spent some time playing around on Big Lake, Alaska with the Bronco. They had just plowed the race track for races the next day, so it was fresh untouched ice. Even my Studded Nokian Hakkapeliittas were fighting for grip in the corners. On the straights I had a lot of fun romping on it, hit a high speed of 82 MPH (in video). Finished off with some trail turn donuts. All in all had so much fun! Plan on going out more this winter. Also rolled 14k miles on the way out there.

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[BAUS67]

Forget the studs, you need some spikes to get some traction.

 

[rayhil67]

Couple weekends back I spent some time playing around on Big Lake, Alaska with the Bronco. They had just plowed the race track for races the next day, so it was fresh untouched ice. Even my Studded Nokian Hakkapeliittas were fighting for grip in the corners. On the straights I had a lot of fun romping on it, hit a high speed of 82 MPH (in video). Finished off with some trail turn donuts. All in all had so much fun! Plan on going out more this winter. Also rolled 14k miles on the way out there.

Wow looks like a lot of fun, Your lucky its so isolated up there, anything like that in the lower 48 and a bunch of drunk yahoo's would end up killing somebody and that would be the end of that.

 

[rcl4668]

So fun! Question: Which Nokian's are you running?

 

[JBBronco]

Looks like fun. Thank you for the video. Looks like you got the hang of drifting on ice toward the end of the video.

 

[Classics Fan]

Not in anyway related to Broncos but I lived near Big Lake in Wasilla for a few years in the early 80’s whe I was in my early 20’s. There was a lakeshore lodge located on the opposite side of the Parks Highway that was only accessible in the winter by crossing the lake. I worked for a propane company as a delivery driver and one of my memorable experiences was driving across the lake in a propane bobtail delivery truck to deliver propane to that lodge. On the way back I strayed off the plowed road to bust some drifts. When I got back to the office and told my boss what I had done he about had a heart attack. I didn’t know at the time that the snow was an insulator and the ice underneath was thinner than the plowed areas. Luckily I didn’t break through. Life lesson learned.

 

[murphtron]

That looks so fun!!!!!

We had enough early snow in November that I was doing donuts in a private parking lot. But I totally forgot about TTA.

 

[AKBronc49]

So fun! Question: Which Nokian's are you running?

The only option for a Sasquatch, Hakkapeliitta LT2 (new version is LT3) in 315/70R17. Fantastic snow tire!

Looks like fun. Thank you for the video. Looks like you got the hang of drifting on ice toward the end of the video.

Not trying to toot my own horn, but im pretty good normally. They had JUST plowed the track for races the next day, so it was fresh smooth ice with basically zero traction. It gets much better once the ice gets ate up and some grip is available.

This was years ago, but I took my Excursion out on the much smaller oval motorcycle track and had a blast!

 

[C1 Ret]

That looks like a blast!!

 

[Gnomad]

The ice road system at Big Lake is a hoot. You can drive to areas completely inancessible to wheeled or tracked vehicles when the water is open, a lot of cabins are built with materials delivered in the winter, the truck can drive right to the front door. That looks like a lot of fun!
In the early aughts a group of us would stud up our motorcycle tires and go on trail rides around the lake and on the ice road. The local racing body was considering our request for a street bike division on the ice race track, and we even got drafted into being safety observers for the races. So, fly to AK, rent a car and don't tell the rental company you are going to drive on the ice roads, and OnStar told me that if something happened that roadside assistance stopped at the shoreline, winter or summer!

 

[nabronco21]

That looks like a blast!!

 

[Fillups]

Looks even more fun in the Excursion... Just looks wrong to go drifting in something that big and heavy!

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