In world they are many forms of racing, racing from single seat motorcars, to truck racing championship, but one of the newest and most exciting is the Andros Trophy. This Trophy is mainly a national French championship, although it has gained international status, as there have been three events at Sherbooke in Canada in 2003, 2004 and 2005. If you know your geography you'll know that Sherbooke is in the Quebec state of Canada, and it is known for its long cold winters with warm summers. This climate makes it ideal for putting on one of the events of the Andros Trophy. If you haven't guessed it yet the Andros Trophy is an ice racing championship, these events take part on circuits that are cut out of the snow and ice; they are generally created at ski resorts. The championship started with four events, but over the years this has gone up
to as many as nine; although over the last couple years it has decreased to 7 events. The final event is known as a super final and takes place typically in a stadium where hundreds of tons of ice are trucked in to make an ice Oval. This super final is a showpiece event where no points are awarded for places, but it does allow thousands and thousands of people to view the exhilaration of ice racing without having to travel to a remote ski resort.

The motorcars that compete in the Andros Trophy may look like the vehicles you see on the road today, but under the skin they are far from. The motorcars chassis is made from tubular steel, giving them a strong lightweight design. They are then covered with a lightweight fibreglass body, giving them the the look of a road vehicles. These custom-built race cars are fitted with advanced four-wheel-drive systems, coupled with six speed gearboxes and a 600cc motorbike engine, and all this creates a very light and fast motorcar with lots of grip which is what you want for racing on ice. To allow these race motorcars to be used on ice, further modifications are required; they are fitted with special tyres which have hundreds of metal spikes in them to give them grip in the ice. All these spikes coupled with a strong motorbike engine throw up large quantities of snow and ice, which can easily obscure the driver’s vision. This is why these motorcars are fitted with four wiper blades, two for the front window, the other two wiper blades are fitted to the side windows. This is because the motorcars go around corners sideways, as in ice racing this is the fastest way. In the beginning of the championship replacement wiper blades had to be frequently fitted to the motorcars, as the cold would ruin the rubber replacement wiper blades within a few events. Nowadays the motorcars are fitted with the latest flat wiper blades made from silicone, and these flat wiper blades are ideal for ice racing as there is no frame for the ice to collect.

You might ask what sort of driver would be mental enough to want to race on ice, but there are no shortages of drivers wanting to compete in this championship. There are some very big names competing, these include three-time Formula One world champion Alain Post and Olivier Panis who won the Monaco Grand Prix in 1996. He was also in the running for the Formula One championship in 1997, until he broke his leg in an crash at the Canadian Grand Prix.