Learning ice driving with a Junior world champion – DirtFish

“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.