(Photos by Jacob Marshall) – Intrepid BangShift contributor Jacob Marshall really crushed it with his photos from the Merrill Ice Drags which we first showed you yesterday and are back with a second and final fresh installment of today. It was a trek for him to get to the event but he did it and it certainly was not for the exorbitant wealth we were bestowing upon him for doing so. Nope, Jacob went because he wanted to go and he figured out a way to get there, which required a bus and for all we know a mule at one point. The mule was technically not required but he told us it looked like fun and one thing led to another….this is off topic. Anyhow, the kid gets himself to this frozen lake in Merrill, Wisconsin and he was greeted by the sight of hot rodding in its purest form. This is shockingly close in so many ways to the very birth of what we now know as drag racing that it constantly makes us smile. The math is virtually the same.
Guys have cars. Guys have some sort of restriction keeping them from enjoying said cars. Guys find suitable venue to enjoy said cars, guys have long history of fruitful competition, fun, and bragging rights with said cars. The early hot rodders were restricted by the authorities who did not want them on the streets. The guys in Wisconsin were restricted by winter. The hot rodders found airports and lakebeds, the Wisconsin crew found a frozen lake.
The vehicles you will see in this gallery and in the videos tomorrow are spectacular. Some are a little on the weird appearing side but even those are cool. Blown motors, big nitrous engines, tires with more spikes than O’Shea’s in an Irish telephone book, and the crisp sound that only freezing air temps can provide. For those of you who don’t live in places where it actually gets colds you don’t understand this but stuff legitimately sounds different when it is freezing and this applies to these race engines as well. Beautiful stuff.
Jacob is a young guy in college and that means he could be doing what most young guys in college do and that does not entail loading yourself onto a bus for hours on end, blowing through a couple tanks of gas to drive out into the wilds of Wisconsin, and then stand in the freezing cold all day to shoot photos and see the sights. Not to make the kid sound like too much of a hero here but how freaking awesome is it that he did this? Really. Sure, instead of a hangover he had frostbite but we all have to suffer for our art. On behalf of all of us….nice work kid.
