series, sponsored by an industrial jam (fruit preserver) manufacturer attracts ex-F1 drivers like Alain Prost or Olivier Panis, manufacturer-backed entries of sophisticated 4WD cars and international television coverage. The Trophée Andros races mainly use damped snow (that is not very different from ice regarding car handling) tracks in French ski resorts with a final race on artificial ice in Paris Stade de France. The 2006 trophy includes one round in Andorra. On several occasions a round also took place in Canada, in the Canadian Challenge, which is held yearly and is the most notable Ice Racing event in North America. In the 1960s and 1970s, there were two major Ice Racing Championships, the North American Ice Racing Championship and the European Ice Racing Championship. The North American was held in Anchorage, Alaska and their champions include Earl Bennett and Chuck Higgins, while Mexican Formula One driver Pedro Rodríguez won his class and an exhibition race in 1970, and was 2nd overall. Elsewhere, ice racing has proven to be a largely recreational pastime. There is no professional ice-racing sanctioning body in North America, but there are clubs in several Canadian provinces (Alberta, Ontario, Manitoba, Quebec, Saskatchewan) and American states (New York, Michigan, Maine, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Alaska). Some amateur and professional dirt track and paved track racers use ice racing to hone their skills or to practice for the summer season. Drivers often find that developing the car control skills needed on ice substantially improves their performance on a wet race track. There is a new class in Canada called SS (street studs) where a car can run with the same modifications as a rubber to ice class, without the need for a roll bar. This same SS classing, although referred to as Super Stud or Studded class, by some American Clubs (such as the Anchorage Alaska Sports Car Lions Club) require any car running studded tires to meet at least IT rules and requires a roll cage and full safety gear. Some clubs even encourage people to ice-race their daily driver, and have strict no-contact rules to allow that safely. In Russia there is a rally raid event, called the Northern Forest run on ice and snow in the last days of February in the outskirts of the city of St Petersburg. Also, in Russia exist popular winter track racing, where pilots race on short ice oval track, usually hippodromes, covered