A record of nearly 16,000 people turned out this past weekend in Zell am See an Kaprun, Austria, for the second GP Ice Race weekend, presented as “Woodstock on Ice” and promoted by Porsche scion Ferdinand Porsche and his Greger Porsche Classic Cars dealership partner, Vinzenz Greger.
While featuring an assortment of vintage racing cars on snow- and ice-covered tracks, one of the highlights is the sport of skijoring, in which a skier is pulled along, once upon a time by a horse but now by automobiles.
Freestyle skier Benedikt Mayr competes in the Skijoring event
Featured this year was Austrian skier Marcel Hirscher, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and seven-time World champion, who took turns both trailing behind a 580-horsepower Red Bull-sponsored Audi S1 EKS WRX quattro and also at the car’s steering wheel.
Another skiing star Frank Woerndl, did runs trailing behind a 1955 DKW F91 while using skis nearly as old as the car. Norwegian skier Aksel Lund Svindal also did some runs behind the Porsche 911 Carrera 4×4 (953) that won the Dakar Rally.
Skoda staged an “Ice Race of Champions” pitting 2019 European Junior rally champion Filip Mares of the Czech Republic, Slovakian champion Martin Koci, German champion Fabian Kreim and Austrian runner-up Julian Wagner in identical Skoda Fabia Rally2 evos. After two days of races, Kreim edged Wagner for the overall victory.
Taner Foust drifts at the second GP Ice Race weekend
Saab skijoring at the second GP Ice Race weekend
Buggy-style vehicle makes a run on the snow-covered track
Filip Mares in Skoda at second GP Ice Race weekend
Another highlight of the weekend was rallycross star Tanner Foust drifting in a Volkswagen Beetle R. Stig Blomqvist, the 1984 World Rally Champion, drove the iconic Audi Sport quattro S1, and Le Mans winner Benoit Treluyer was among those driving an Audi RS5 DTM.
The 1976 Jagermeister Formula 1 March-Cosworth 741 was outfitted with studded dualie Pirelli tires for driver Jans-Joachim Stuck.
The actually racing involved nearly 150 cars in eight classes, from classics to modern rally cars.
This article, written by Larry Edsall, was originally published on ClassicCars.com, an editorial partner of Motor Authority.
