Big Lake home to World Snowmobile event

BIG LAKE -- For a few years a large plot of land off Rogers Road in Big Lake has been the site of the T2 Snocross Track.

The track, owned and built by Big Lake's Dan and Donnella Moffitt, has attracted snowmachine racers from across Alaska. In each of the past two winters, the Alaska Motor Mushers, a local snowmachine racing organization, hosted a snocross event on the T2 Track. Last January, following the Motor Mushers' event, Dan Moffitt made a call to the World Snowmachine Association on a whim to see if the national organization would have any interest in hosting an event in Alaska.

To their surprise, just days later the Moffitts received a call back from the organization and a WSA representative decided to fly to Alaska and check out the track in Big Lake. And again to their surprise, the WSA representative who traveled to Alaska was none other than founder and CEO Scott O'Malley.

O'Malley was impressed with his visit to Big Lake and decided to bring the WSA to Alaska. The Moffitts were not the only Alaskans trying to lure the WSA to the state. Fairbanks racers Dave and Dana Kapla had been working for nearly five years to bring the organization to Alaska.

Now the 49th state is home to its own region in the WSA. The WSA has several regions across the United States. Participants can advance from the regional competitions to the national X-Games events that are frequently broadcast on ESPN.

Now that the WSA has come to Alaska, WSA-sanctioned events will now be held in the state. The first WSA-sanctioned event to be held in Alaska is Saturday at the T2 Snocross Track. The top three racers in each class of Saturday's event automatically qualify for the national X-Games qualifiers.

Snowmachine racing has long been a popular sport and recreation in the state. This will be the first opportunity for locals within the sport to get national exposure. In the past if a local racer wanted to compete for a spot in a national qualifier, they would have to load their sled on a trailer and make the trek to compete in areas such as Minnesota or Wisconsin. The expense of such a trip prevented many local competitors from moving on in their racing careers.

As the local riders compete for positions in the national qualifiers, the event in Alaska will have the look and feel of a national race. Adjacent to the track will be a beer tent and food vendors. Fans will also be entertained with live music. The rules and procedures of the Big Lake race will also run parallel those of the national events.

The event is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. Saturday. More than 100 riders in eight different classes are expected to participate in the snocross snowmachine racing.

Moffitt expects Saturday's event to be the biggest Alaska has seen in the sport and there could be great growth in the future. Moffitt said that traditionally the WSA rotates among their regions as the site for the national events. That means Big Lake could host a national X-Games event in the near future.