Artic Man event is big business

The Tesoro Arctic Man Ski & Sno-Go Classic is many things to many people. It's an alpine ski race like no other. It's a snowmachine race like no other. It's a giant RV round-up and the last, biggest snowmachine event of season. It's Mardi Gras for motor heads.

And for people in the snowmachine business it's a marketing opportunity — one in which they're willing to invest dollars and time because the event attracts snowmachine enthusiasts from around the state. Arctic Man organizer Howard Theis of Fairbanks said 985 RV parking slots had been reserved as of last week. That number will likely go up by one hundred before race day on April 14.

The race takes place near Summit Lake, north of Paxson on the Richardson Highway, and there's a reason it's in such an out-of-the-way place. The race course is five miles long and uses two hills. Competitors ski down the first hill to a waiting snowmobile, grab a tow rope, then ski uphill behind the machine to the second downhill leg. The second downhill starts immediately when the snowmachine driver pulls hard to the right and sends the skier off like a rock from a sling.

For a ski resort to pull off an event like this they'd have to close a serious chunk of profitable ski acreage. Not to mention the trouble they'd have finding competitors.

At the first Arctic Man 16 years ago, Theis had just 10 teams registered. The race has grown and leveled off to between 40 and 50 teams competing each year.

The audience for the event continues to grow. Each year, approximately 10,000 to 15,000 people show up for the event, but those numbers are not certain. Most stay for the weekend or longer in a giant temporary RV park plowed into streets in an area that once served as a pipeline construction camp.

In the midst of this RV city, you'll find what Theis calls "manufacturer's row," a strip of commercialization where race sponsors and other retailers set up to show their wares. There are snowmachines, accessories, and even RVs for sale set up miles from even the smallest of Alaskan towns.

Bill O'Hara, owner of Bill's Cat House in Big Lake, takes advantage of the Arctic Man event every year. This year, Bill's Cat House, with help from his distributor, will display and demonstrate 2002 model Arctic Cats, and provide a small shop with on-site parts and service. O'Hara said the service offerings were limited, but necessary.

"We'll have plugs and belts and such for people that seem to endlessly go up there unprepared," O'Hara said, "With that many people around they break lots of stuff."

O'Hara said his business spends approximately $1,000 on the Arctic Man weekend and, although people don't go there specifically to buy a snowmachine, he figures it's money well spent. Arctic Man provides a target market that a snowmachine business owner can't ignore.

"It's a participatory activity," O'Hara said. "The people that go to the fair or the Sportsman's show are just there to look, but virtually all the people that are up [to Arctic Man] are engaged in the racing or the riding or both."

Bill's Cat House gets promotion assistance from Arctic Recreational Distributors Inc., the Alaska distributor for the Arctic Cat product line. O'Hara said the distributorship is primarily responsible for keeping the product line visible.

Korey Cronquist, general manager of Team CC, which owns Valley CC Ski-Doo, takes sales staff and snowmachines to Arctic Man every year as well.

Ski-Doo dealers such as Team CC work directly with Ski-Doo manufacturer Bombardier instead of through a distributor, but promotions are handled in a cooperative fashion similar to Arctic Cat's. Cronquist said Bombardier's presence at Arctic Man varies from year to year, and this year the company's investing pretty heavily.

"They're making a huge effort. They have a tour that goes right up to the Arctic Man," Cronquist said.

It's a big weekend for the company, Cronquist said. Team CC is not only getting set for Arctic Man, but has shop staff in Wasilla and Eagle River, and a display at a motorcycle show in Anchorage.

In addition to the Ski-Doo road show, there's another part of Arctic Man where people are likely to see plenty of screaming yellow logos. Team CC books Arctic Man parking spaces as a block, then resells them at the shops to their brand-loyal customers, which creates a sort of Ski-Doo neighborhood at Arctic Man.

Organizer Theis said the massive parking lot grew around the event's popularity, and not the other way around. Fans spend $50 per lot, and each lot is long enough for an RV, a tow vehicle and a snowmachine trailer.

"Their $50 goes to pay for the outhouses, snow removal and all the things that make it happen," Theis said, adding that it wouldn't be possible without Alyeska Pipeline Co., and Tesoro, which are the event's major sponsors outside the snowmachine community.

Arctic Man is a not-for-profit event and proceeds are donated to the Arctic Lions Hockey Association, a Fairbanks-area youth hockey nonprofit group. Hockey association volunteers work as parking marshals for the event.

Theis said Alyeska donates dollars and labor to plow the lot. The company sends crews and equipment to the site two weeks before the first vendors, competitors and fans arrive.

"I can't thank Alyeska enough," Theis said. "What they donate to us, is really to the snowmachiners of the state of Alaska, that's who they really donate it to."

Theis said the Arctic Man would still be just a dozen or so teams racing in the mountains if it weren't for Alyeska's plowing efforts. The giant parking lot makes an event out of what once was a little race in the mountains. The event brings a community into an unlikely place, and in turn the community brings commerce. Without the parking lots and temporary streets carved onto the old construction camp area, Theis said, Arctic Man would not have grown so big without turning into a chaotic mess.

"It's what makes these vendors able to come and market their products with some sensibility," he said.