Driving experiences rarely come more surreal than sliding a car on ice. Step foot on an icy sidewalk and you’ll be slipping and sliding all over the place – but somehow a high-performance vehicle can dance over a similar surface at high speed.
Patrik Sandell knows a thing or two about driving fast cars in deepest winter. Once a Junior World Rally champion, these days he’s working with DirtFish to show anyone – whether a complete novice or professional drivers – how to experience the unreal sensation of gliding a Subaru WRX between snowbanks on the frozen Dollar Lake in Eagle River, Wisconsin.
“It’s how all Scandinavian drivers start,” explains Sandell, who became Junior world champion in 2006. “It’s where I learned the first basics of car control and rallying. For me, it’s the best place to learn to handle a car and eventually become a rally driver.”
Now Sandell has teamed up with DirtFish Rally School – who are based in Snoqualmie, WA – to create Ice Driving USA. Thanks to DirtFish’s world class curriculum, which has taught participants from beginners to high-profile drivers like Travis Pastrana how to master rally driving, anyone can now jump into a Subaru WRX and learn the art of ice driving at their camp in the unofficial snowmobile capital of the world.
“The great thing about taking our experience of running a rally school onto the ice in Wisconsin is having the freedom to exercise different driving techniques on a safe, closed course, where the consequences of a mistake are really minor,” explains DirtFish’s chief instructor Nate Tennis.
“DirtFish sends a team of instructors to help advise participants on how to get the most out of the experience but because we’re out in the open on a frozen lake, you can learn through trial and error without the same risk factor as on gravel or asphalt.”
Sandell concurs, highlighting that it’s the best value for money option to hone your driving skills: “It’s so forgiving. If you want to learn rallying on a normal gravel road in a forest, for example, it’s very expensive to test your limits. But if you do it on a frozen lake, the worst thing that happens is that you get stuck in a snowbank and someone has to pull you out – and then you can carry on as you were. So for me, it’s the absolute best way to learn precision driving.”
But what is it about driving on ice that makes it so important for anyone who wants to develop a strong natural instinct for driving high performance vehicles in a safe, controlled manner? Controlling a car requires patience and precision – once you’ve mastered driving on ice, those skills transfer easily to other surfaces.
“The techniques required to be successful on ice and snow require massive smoothness,” explains Tennis, who’s been involved in running courses at DirtFish Rally School since it opened in 2010. “It’s the greatest teaching tool there is for driving, as it exaggerates everything that happens in the car control process.”
Competitors in world championship rallies – and national and regional events in Nordic countries – benefit from studded tires, allowing drivers to push the limits and achieve speeds and grip levels akin to driving on pavement. One of the biggest upsides to Ice Driving USA is the studded tires Sandell’s team sources directly from Sweden, which are above and beyond anything typically found in the States.
“That’s the game changer,” Sandell highlights. “Driving on a frozen surface without studs is like walking on ice with shoes that have no tread left. What’s so unique about this program is that we have specially-made tires that we ship over from Sweden that are purposely built for ice driving.
“A normal winter tire in the Nordic region has 150 studs per tire and the stud is about 1/21” tall. But the ones we use for Ice Driving USA have 400 studs with a length of approximately 1/6”. The difference is night and day: the extra grip this provides is unreal and makes it so much fun to drive.”
Bringing the thrill of rally driving to the Midwest is a key goal for the Washington-based DirtFish Rally School, a region that’s well-known in rallying circles for its winter driving: neighboring Michigan is famous for its Sno*Drift Rally, a round of the American Rally Association National championship.
“We’re excited to bring the DirtFish philosophy to the Midwest,” said Tennis. “Our rally driving facilities here in Snoqualmie are known the world over and we wanted to bring some of that magic out here so this part of the country can discover why these driving experiences are so thrilling to be part of.
Classes take place on selected dates in February 2025, with prices starting from $1900 for a one-day experience on the ice. Rhinelander Airport (RHI) is just 30 minutes away from Eagle River, with Wausau Airport (CWA) around a one hour and 40 minute drive from the Ice Driving USA camp.
