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New GP Ice Race Is Coming To Aspen
The big winter car fest from Austria will feature races, skijoring and “lavish parties.”
“Half a century after its inception, and 5 years after its first revival, the F.A.T. Ice Race is finally crossing the big pond: from the icy airfield of Zell-am-See to the snow-covered circuit of Aspen, Colorado,” organizers announced.
“In February 2024, F.A.T. International will turn the iconic Colorado town into the El Dorado of each and every car aficionado.
A three-day race car extravaganza, paying tribute to the golden age of Aspen, when rebels and misfits came from all over the world to conquer the slopes of Snowmass and the bars of Woody Creek.”
GP ICE RACE
The GP Ice Race is coming to Aspen Feb. 8-10, renamed the F.A.T. Ice Race and aiming to become the off-season motorsports destination weekend for car enthusiasts.
The event is put on by Ferdi Porsche and four of his friends, who have revived and co-opted the title F.A.T., the sponsor of two Le Mans-winning Porsche 962s back in the 1990s.
The abbreviation F.A.T. stood for the name of a French logistics and transportation company that sponsored several Porsches from the 1980s to the early 2000s. Ferdi Porsche brought the name back and has put it on this event.
The GP Ice Race had been held off and on in the Porsche ancestral family home of Zell am See, Austria, for almost 100 years.
The races started out there in 1928, when organizers in the resort town decided that skijoring was a fun way to while away the winter.
Skijoring is where you tow a human on skis behind a horse.
They did that until 1937, then started towing the skiers behind cars, usually Porsches. Various world events intervened and the GP Ice Race carried on and off until 1974.
Then, Ferdi Porsche, great grandson of Ferdinand Porsche (and grandson of Ferry Porsche), brought back the GP Ice Race in 2019.
That first revived event was held just for friends.
Then in 2020 they opened it up to the public and 16,000 people showed up to see 150 really cool cars race on ice, some of them towing skiers.
COVID-19 hit for 2021 and the event still went on but was closed to the public. Last year a lack of snow canceled things.
Now, it’s back, with an Ice Race in Zell am See January 27 and this new round in Aspen February 8-10.
“Expect thrilling track performances, jaw-dropping cars and lavish parties,” organizers promise.
That fun will include skijoring, races of cars with big spiked tires on snow, and, apparently, lots of parties.
Previous Ice Races have included numerous famous race car drivers, including Max Verstappen driving a studded-tire Red Bull F1 car on the ice.
Specific details of this year’s event are not yet laid out, nor is it clear where exactly the events will take place.
In the past, at Zell am See, the event took place on the frozen lake, then at the local airfield.
There’s an airport in Aspen, and a competent race track in Woody Creek, but which if any of those facilities will be employed remains to be seen.
