Vermont SportsCar’s trip north of the border for Nitrocross’ annual round in Calgary was an unusual affair with warm weather forcing a number of changes to the event. Chinook winds, which are blasts of warm air coming in off the mountains to the west, raised temperatures to the mid 50s Fahrenheit on Friday and Saturday. The warm temps melted most of the base on the unique ice track built at Calgary’s iconic Stampede Park.

After initially condensing the planned Friday and Saturday schedules down to a single day of racing on Sunday, another last-minute change saw the event switched to an afternoon-only, non-championship exhibition event for all classes, including the headline all-electric Group E category in which VSC competes.

The non-points-paying event began with two ‘semifinals’ which consisted of single timed runs, with VSC’s Conner Martell going second-quickest, behind only reigning champion and current points leader Robin Larsson.

A full race involving all eight of the weekend’s entrants was expected to follow, but the rapid deterioration of the track scuttled those plans, morphing into a demonstration on the front stretch jump for the fans.

Nitrocross will return in earnest on March 1-2 with a double-header finale in Las Vegas which will bring a close to the 2023-24 season.