Young Iron Dog finisher returns to motocross racing

MAT-SU — Jonathan Sindorf is not a typical high school senior, nor a typical Iron Dog finisher.

At 18 years old, Sindorf was the youngest racer in the 2015 Pro Class Iron Dog race. His teammate and father, Paul, has finished eight of the 11 races he’s entered since 1996.

Although the Team 23 father-son duo finished fourth from last this year — Jonathan’s first race — they counted their race a success.

“This year I would say the challenge was really just finishing, for me,” the younger Sindorf said by phone Wednesday. “I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into.”

He described the race, at some points, as “surreal,” being “out there in the wild” for so long.

Riding for 14 hours a day, sleeping for four, and getting up to do it again, he said, was all too real, however.

“It’s really hard the first couple days, you’re sore when you wake up and you think, ‘Do I really have to sit down again?’” he said.

An inability to overcome that mental barrier, Sindorf said, actually causes some racers to drop out from year to year.

“A lot of people have trouble with that. But once you get past a certain point, you (can) get used to it,” he said.

Sindorf said he’s been exposed to snowmachining his whole life, since his dad started racing the Iron Dog when he was an infant.

“Whenever he’d go out and practice, I’d go out and practice with him,” he said. “I just kind of grew up with it.”

But it wasn’t just growing up with the sport that helped him survive the Iron Dog this year — it was growing up with his teammate.

“Going into it with my dad, I had a lot of confidence in him that I could make it,” Sindorf said. “I think (racing with him) kinda gives me an advantage because I already know what kind of person he is and how he’d act under pressure.”

Another goal the Sindorfs had was to “make it up to Nome and back without breaking a single part,” and they accomplished that, Jonathan said.

But there are other accomplishments Sindorf can put on his resume — feats that look a little more impressive on paper.

Sindorf has also been involved in motocross “ever since I was a little guy,” he said, and in the last four years has been traveling south to California almost monthly to compete in national quad motocross events, such as the Yamaha Quad X Series.

That was “put on hold” so he could train for the Iron Dog, he said, but he plans to return to motocross soon.

Josh Estes, the general manager at Performance Yamaha in Wasilla, has worked with all six of the Sindorfs — Jonathan, his older brother Kris, his two older sisters, and their parents — for some time, providing the boys with machines and advice for motocross racing.

“(Jonathan) and his brother got incredibly fast for the state” early on, Estes said. “Only a handful of people from Alaska ever went to the professional level in the ATV racing world, and Jonathan and Kris both did that with the help of our shops.”

Although the boys have since been “scooped up” by BigKid Racing Motorsports for sponsorship — Paul, Kris, Jonathan, sister Heather and friend Ed Paulus once raced for the company as a team — Estes still considers all of them friends and even teammates.

“As the manager of a dealership, I really like sponsoring youth because they seem to have a different value of you helping them out than those who can afford to build their own machines” and attend races on their own, Estes said.

“I look for people who are well-spoken and intelligent and that I can trust to be a spokesperson for Yamaha, because that’s really what they are, and Jonathan is exactly that,” he added. “Even if for some reason he’s having a bad day, he’s always gonna have a smile on his face.”

In regard to the Sindorfs’ Iron Dog investment, Estes said the brothers could very well be the team to watch in future races.

“(They) could become one of the Iron Dog dream teams in Alaska,” Estes said.

“It makes me proud to be on a team with him and be a supporter of his racing career,” he said, of Jonathan. “Just because he’s a neat guy, I’m gonna push hard to get myself involved with him in the winter racing scene as well.”

The Sindorfs aren’t currently riding Yamaha for the Iron Dog — Ski-Doo was their brand of choice this year, and Academy Mortgage their sponsor — but Estes hopes he can win them over eventually.

That might depend on what the youngest Sindorf does post-graduation, however.

As a member of the Colony High School track team and a recreational hiker and cyclist, Sindorf has plenty of hobbies, and also his college education to consider in the next few years. He said he’s “definitely going to stay in Alaska,” since he doesn’t want to be “too far” from his family, and hopes to attend the University of Alaska Anchorage or Fairbanks this fall.

The Sindorf brothers will not be able to make the next race in the Quad X Series in San Bernardino, California, this month, but they plan to compete in the May 2, June 27 and July 25 races, their mother said.

Contact Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.