SLED ‘TIL YOU’RE DEAD: Pair of vintage snowmachine races on tap

BIG LAKE — Maybe all of the fresh snow we got over the past couple days has you itching to take your sled out on the trails. Or maybe you can’t wait for the Iron Dog and need a cross country race to cheer on.

Either way, the Alaska Motor Mushers Club has you covered. Saturday, the club expects 40 or so riders will turn out for the Big Lake Arctic Cat 150 race from Big Lake to Skwentna. Mike Lasky, one of the club’s cross country chairmen, said the event isn’t quite a yearly thing, but it might become one.

“We run races to Skwentna as like a pre-run for Iron Dog,” Lasky said. “An event like the one that is running this weekend has not been ran in a couple of years.”

With the preparation put into this race and the plan worked out for things like rider safety, he thinks the event could potentially grow into a yearly event.

If it does, Lasky said, it would be partly due to trends in snowmachining. Whereas snowcross — racing machines around a snowy track similar to those used for motocross — has been popular in recent years, that side of the sport is kind of waning. Meanwhile, cross country racing seems to be on the rise.

“It’s the same thing in the continental U.S.,” Lasky said, noting that a couple of local racers will actually be out of town this weekend participating in races Outside.

That growing popularity shows in the Motor Mushers’ racing schedule, which has seven cross country events on it for this year — two more than last year. Other races planned for later this year include the Mayor’s Cup in Valdez, a race at the yearly Arctic Man gathering near Summit and a race in Girdwood at Alyeska Resort.

The club has managed to add cross country races to its schedule despite a relatively disappointing season where snowfall is concerned. For the club, that just means having to haul machines a little farther.

“With the snow this year, we’re running them farther outside,” Lasky said. “We did one in Eureka last weekend.”

Saturday’s race — named for the snowmachine shop that is sponsoring it — is open to all kinds of machines and all kinds of riders, though there are certain pieces of gear and equipment each rider must have. A list is available on the race’s entry form, downloadable from the club’s website at ammcracing.com. Lasky said he expects to see competitors as young as 12 show up. If you haul your machine up to Big Lake and this is your first race, though, you might want to give some thought to which class you want to ride with.

“We have classes for juniors, for women, for veterans 35 and older and guys who just want to run semi-pro or if you feel you can hang with the top riders in the state you can run the pro class,” Lasky said.

The race begins at the Islander Lodge in Big Lake. The pro, semi-pro, veterans and women will take the overland route to Luce’s Lodge and then to Skwentna and back. Juniors will run a shorter course Lasky said there are other checkpoints along the way, but Skwentna and Luce’s are the only places to gas up.

The route back takes a shortcut and is 16 miles shorter than the route up. Still, the pro class riders will be putting around 170 miles on their machines.

On a snowmachine, that’s an afternoon’s jaunt. Lasky said racers will head out at 10 a.m. and he expects a good percentage will have wrapped things up by mid-afternoon. The deadline for finishing up is 4 p.m. People using area trails, he said, should try to be aware that the race is taking place.

Lasky said the event should be fun to watch and spectators are welcome.

“They can come out to the Islander. They can ride out from there or they can watch the machines take off and come back inside,” Lasky said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or call 352-2270.