We had a great morning with the Ice-Bats. An early start followed by the Team Christmas breakfast and then TV, radio and local press interviews in Gronigen. Photos etc to follow.

Best lap time now stands at 41.2 seconds, achieved in Haarlem recently. The Mexican wave as I passed the spectators definitely helped! And my Warp II helmet looks the part, even if the performance improvement is only marginal.

Demos now done at the ice ovals in Nijmegen, Haarlem, Utrecht, Alkmaar, Hoorn and of course in Assen. All good fun!

The first, exciting, try-out of Head to Head Ice-Bat racing at the Bonte Wever in Assen:

The challenge for any modern sport is to make it look as dangerous as possible without actually killing anyone. Well, Ice-Bats have that x-factor but to make it even better we are now testing a new race format:-

• The 2 Ice-Bats start back-to-back, as in an old fashioned duel, and set off round the ice oval in opposite directions
• The lane change takes place while navigating the bend
• Passing speeds are in excess of 60 km/h!
• Twice per lap the Ice-Bats pass each other, the position clearly showing who is in the lead
• If no news gets posted within a week, you know this was a crap idea…

The new v12 Ice-Bat is faster and handles better than the v11. That’s the good news. The annoying news is that despite the extra thrust, the top speed is only marginally better. Peter Haan clocked 42.7s for a flying lap. The magic 40s benchmark comes ever closer!

Fortunately the challenge is not just about ultimate speed, it is also very much about racing and that is why we have more than one Ice-Bat. The bookings for demonstrations are going well and so are the plans for an Open Championship in March (details to follow). See you there?