TV show turns average drivers into ice racers

Autos take to frozen lake in central Alberta

A frozen lake in central Alberta, a bevy of Dodge Neons and five average, everyday drivers.

Sounds like the premise for a television show — and it is.

Filming has wrapped on Ice Racer Challenge, a new TV show that aims to find those who can control and finesse an automobile moving at speed over a frozen body of water.

Calgary’s Scott Henuset, president and executive producer at Corkscrew Media, said more than two years ago he and his crew were tossing around ideas for their next big TV production.

“We were looking at Canada’s Worst Driver,” Henuset said, providing an example of their thought process. “It’s very successful, and there really aren’t that many other car shows ( that feature driving).”

Henuset investigated some of the best performance- driving schools, and wondered how Corkscrew Media could take run- of- the- mill drivers and put them behind the wheel of a race car.

“At the end of the day, we decided to put them on ice,” Henuset said. “It looked like fun, without people reaching 150 miles per hour. They can spin out in second gear and hit hay bales and the action would make really good TV.”

Ice Racer Challenge, a series of 12 one- hour episodes, will air this fall on CMT.

Each episode stands alone; a viewer could watch the second or the 10th instalment without having seen the previous action.

Every show features five new contestants, and the drivers come from all walks of life — cab drivers to soccer moms to experienced truck drivers. Some are so fresh, they have just received their driver’s licences.

To eliminate two drivers, the five contestants go through a series of driving challenges.

Then, the three remaining go head to head, racing specially prepared Dodge Neons on the frozen water of Red Deer Lake, between Ponoka and Wetaskiwin.

All of the front- wheel- drive Neons are equipped with manual transmissions.

Some of the contestants arrive without ever having driven an automobile with a standard gearbox.

Henuset said this makes for some entertaining TV even before the action of the challenge gets started.

The cars are essentially stock, with the exception of a gutted interior fitted with a racing seat and roll cage and tires equipped with studs.

“The cars were fairly reliable,” Henuset said of the Dodge products. “But we’d sometimes lose a radiator or two every day because of crashes into snow banks and hay bales.

“We also lost two transmissions and five clutches.”

Two mechanics were employed in the upkeep of the relatively simple Neons, one from Ponoka and one from Calgary. Crews and contestants were on the ice from Dec. 28 to Feb. 22.

“There’s plenty of action and excitement,” Henuset said.

“We have Yetis that cause distractions by throwing snowballs, and there’s lots of speed and some fantastic crashes.

“In the end, I think people walked away much better drivers, especially on snow and ice.”

Stay tuned for Ice Racer Challenge on the CMT network.

Plans are for the show to air late in September or early in October 2015.