#TBT | The epic tale of an ice resurfacer turned autocrosser | Articles

Open the Pod Bay Doors

To understand the origins of this odyssey, you must first understand Rule 5 in the Grassroots Motorsports Challenge rulebook: “Production-based passenger cars only. No kit cars, dune-buggies or formula-type cars. The exception to this is Zambonis, which will be allowed to enter.”

“We often joked about the Zamboni option that the Challenge rules mentioned,” Lee explains. “‘Ha-ha! A friggin’ Zamboni—yeah right!’” But once one of these ice smoothers came into reach, the idea became serious—but not too serious.

So, how do you buy a Zamboni? Give you three guesses. Here’s a hint: You can also use the same method to buy a grilled cheese sandwich bearing the image of the Virgin Mary. Yep, eBay. Granted, the team was on the lookout from a number of sources. “We all followed eBay, local traders, craigslist, shade trees, barn backs, etc. for unusual cars,” Lee explains. 

The majority of the Zambonis on the market were too expensive for a Challenge budget. However, “Zambonies” were another story. Shaun cleverly used the misspelling as a search term. A ran-when-parked 1959 “Zambonie” with a current bid of $100 was among his search results, and thanks to the misspelling it had very few bidders. Another popular eBay strategy drove the Zamboni into the team’s clutches: They placed their final bid with less than a minute left in the auction. Strategy paid off, and the team had the winning bid at $323.13.

Next question: How do you haul a 4000-plus-pound ice resurfacer with an inoperable clutch 500 miles to get it home? Apparently it’s a pretty difficult process. Step one is to get it on the flatbed hauler. For Lee, this meant a lonely three-hour battle with a dead stick, frozen wheels and a broken winch handle. 

Once you’ve got that handled, lug the sucker down the highway at 45 mph. Again, this was no easy task for a one-man Zamboni rescue squad. Aside from dramatically increased…