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Sideways action and skijoring - FAT Ice Race was one hell of a snow blast

Fantastic weather conditions, a perfectly-prepared ice track glistening in the bright winter sun, and an after-party that made us dance for hours. What more could one want from a season-opening car event like FAT Ice Race?

Throughout the last couple of years, FAT’s signature Ice Race was the victim of bad luck. Cancellations due to global pandemics and climate change-related weather misfortunes made some people viscously gossip about the event’s uncertain future. However, everyone loves a good comeback and after a slightly shaky return in 2024 — when cars had to race in deep soft snow, mud ruts and the Skijöring, the main thing that makes FAT Ice Race “THE Ice Race”, had to be cancelled — this year, Ferdi Porsche and his team came back full throttle.

Actually, over the past 12 months, Ferdi and the FAT project have been going from strength to strength. After a successful US edition with FAT Aspen, the Zell am See-based outfit successfully competed in Le Mans, became a local staple and renowned car culture hub with their FAT Mankei Grossglockner café, collaborated with international brands on all sorts of hot new merch and launched their own karting league that slashes the costs of this entry level motorsport by 75 percent, making it accessible for almost everyone. 

They have indeed been busy and one would be foolish to assume they haven’t been taking notes and thinking about how to improve the event that started it all. And boy, they sure did their homework. The basic recipe didn’t change: it was still a full day of racing around an ice track, with cars ranging from a 365 GTB4 Daytona Competizione to Cross Karts, to a Type 64 Porsche and an Audi Q6 e-tron offroad concept with Jutta Kleinschmidt and Susanne Kottulinsky taking turns behind the wheel. But the whole thing was subtly refined around the edges, making it a more wholesome experience. 

The good news is that the event kept its very intimate nature with around 5000 people present, including participants, spectators and media. This means that running into friends and acquaintances, as well as legendary car makers like Alois Ruf, or rally and racing drivers like Hans-Joachim Stuck and Harald Demuth is still fairly easy and there are no barriers between punters, VIP’s and drivers. The friendly atmosphere doesn’t mean it feels disorganised, to the contrary, if it weren’t for the odd delay here or there, something that is natural in motorsport, the whole event would run like a Porsche Design wristwatch. 

There was also a marked improvement to the whole look and feel of the event, with a huge inflatable FAT racing driver statue greeting guests at the entrance and a great coffee and cinnamon bun bar manned by one of the main sponsors — Polestar — in one of the hangars. Subtle branding and fantastic Porsche racing and rally cars displayed almost everywhere you looked created “Instagram Friendly” moments for all the content creators that flocked to Zell from all over Europe.

Finally, the weather gods smiled upon the event organisers this year, not only delivering sub-zero temperatures in the mornings, evenings and at night, which meant the ice track could be properly maintained while also providing ample snow to build everything properly in the first place. This meant that all the cars could compete against each other, racing head-to-head in the finals, while also allowing the traditional Prof. Ferdinand Porsche Memorial Skijöring competition to take place. 

During this particular category, daredevils on skis agree to race, while being towed behind maniacally driven racing cars of all shapes and sizes - from the VW Beetle-based Baja buggy of the events “Driver Extraordinaire” or rather “Enfant Terrible”, Michael Gross to Christian Rühle’s Ford GT40. In fact, Michael’s crazy antics made him have a bit of an accident, when he rolled his car in the battle for first place in the “FAT Performance Klassik” category. A spectacular skid made him lose control into the barrier as he tried to match his Skijöring win with another victory. In the end, our colleague and Ice Race debutant, photographer Nikos Karampotis, came in third in the "Klassik" category in his heavily modified 944 Turbo “Dakarista”.

Borromeo De Silva’s Christophe Duchesne wowed crowds with a display of bravery at the wheel of a Tutto Bene-liveried Dallara Stradale and David Zupancic Valant showed people that you don’t necessarily need massive power and four-wheel drive to spectacularly slide in corners when he made his early Austin Mini dance on track as it were an Olympic ice skater. All that while proudly displaying a “you were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off” sticker on the roof. 

Emotions ran high even in the parking lots, where one could spot a flock of casually parked Huracan Sterratos, GT3 RSs and even an Mercedes AMG One, as well as our own Classic Driver transportation: my 2001 996 Carrera 2, and Filip Blank’s overlanding family adventure vehicle, a 955 2006 Cayenne. Both drove the 1,200 km from Warsaw without missing a beat.  

All that meant we had to occasionally cool off a refreshing beer and the occasional trackside spray of snow from the racers. The event’s dress code — 1990s winter gear — complemented the music perfectly, while we only wish that with so many international spectators present the race commentary was done in English as well as German. Either way, everyone enjoyed themselves, breathing in the fumes from the high-octane racing fuel, admiring the various rare Le Mans cars, and enjoying mulled wine while sunbathing. 

The whole thing ended with an afterparty that ran from 6pm to way over midnight and beyond, during which we danced furiously to tracks by superstar DJ Wolfram Amadeus, who lit the dance floor on fire just as we planned to retire quietly to our quarters after an almost 10 hour long day of spectating. 

We have on good authority that Ferdi Porsche and the FAT team have more exciting events planned in the future and after what we’ve seen at Ice Race this year, we simply can’t wait to take part in all of them. So… what’s next on the agenda Ferdi?

Photos by Filip Blank