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Setting a world record is almost always a bigger task than can be accomplished by a single person. Nick Musters knows that.
Last March Musters, 24, beat the year-old record for distance traveled in 24 hours on a snowmobile. He went 3,069 kilometers (1,907 miles) and his last lap was his quickest at 3.56 minutes. He averaged 155 kph (96 mph). But wait, we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
Man, Machine, PreparationMusters is a die-hard snowmobiler, racing CSRA snocross in Ontario as a teen. Now working for a Ski-Doo dealer in Utterson, Ont., Musters chose a 2011 Ski-Doo MXZ TNT 800R E-TEC to make his record run, as a fund raiser for the Kelly Shires Breast Cancer Foundation.
The machine was basically stock, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t a load of preparations that went into the record run on a 10 km course around Bigwin Island on Lake of Bays. That’s about two hours north of Toronto.
Preparation started with a lot of physical and psychological training. Musters ate a special diet and did a lot of leg work in preparation for his record ride, including a 24-hour competition at a local gym.
Musters contacted Dustin Shoemaker, the previous Guinness World Record holder at 2,372 km, to learn about his experience too. Musters was thrilled that Shoemaker freely gave him advice, including dos and don’ts for the run. And Musters says the two have become friends due to the run. Shoemaker’s run also was a fund raiser, to raise money for his daughter Hannah, who has Biliary Atresia.
Valuable Advice While Musters prefers to turn left, he originally wanted to do half the course turning left and the other half turning right. Shoemaker nixed that.
“Whatever you do Nick, keep going in the same direction, if you change your direction, it will just feel wrong!” Musters tried switching directions during a practice session and confirmed Shoemaker’s advice. He only turned left.
While preparing physically Musters had to gather a team to help set up the course, and groom it on Lake of Bays, with a starting point at Norway Point. All the prep work was time consuming, but he still practiced weekly.
However, two weeks before the record attempt disaster struck.
During practice Musters crashed, the sled rolling end over end several times. He was traveling at full throttle when the crash happened and he injured his knee. The sled was beat up pretty badly too.
“I know what it feels like to fall off at top speed and it hurts!,” says Musters, who had a hard time walking after the wreck. He thought maybe this wasn’t his year.
Gave it a goYet after a two-week break to heal, Musters was willing to give it a try.
With months of training behind him and his support team in place, Musters and crew gave it a go at 9:20 a.m. on March 8.
It was a shaky start. On the first lap Musters almost hit an otter as it crossed the course, and during the second lap several deer came really close to the track.
They hadn’t planned for this - time to use his Racing Radios. “Our team used several different frequencies for different functions, such as score keeping, logistics, grooming, maintenance, they all had their own frequencies, but I had my own frequency, like a private line.”
Almost immediately, part of the crew was sent to the far side of Bigwin Island to monitor the wildlife and help keep the track clear of unwanted critters.
Lap after lap, Nick made good time and was ahead of the record the entire run. The crew was a big help. Nick says every time he came in for fuel the crew knew exactly how much he needed. Also, every time he opened his visor ... food came in.
“My crew was just awesome, at one point I looked down to my foot, because I felt something and one crew member was wiping oil off my boot, my crew was just incredible.”
Everyone felt a new record was within reach, even at the ¾ mark, when the crew noticed a problem in the rear suspension. Without Nick’s knowledge, they had previously decided to build a spare rear suspension and they switched it out at the next fuel stop. It took less than 15 minutes.
Musters was still ahead of schedule and continued cranking off laps - then more trouble as he neared the finish.
Pulling into the staging area, just a couple hundred feet from the fuel stop, Musters heard a large – “Bang!”
“I thought I broke something mechanical, the engine was revving but no sled movement.”
The track had blown apart. Now the team was forced to make serious and quick decisions. They opted to use a backup sled, but this presents another a problem. Guinness assesses a 15 minute penalty for using a backup sled.
Yet Musters shouldered on to finish the final rounds. He came across the finish line at 9:20 a.m. March 9 with a new World Record, even with the penalty. Musters and crew were ecstatic, celebrating with champagne and flowers.
For the RecordTHE RECORD OF 3,069 km (1,907 mi.) was set on a 10 km (6.21 mi.) oval track, a closed course that was professionally surveyed. The complete run was monitored by scorekeepers recording times and distances traveled each lap, along with video cameras documenting the course and official time clock.
Musters averaged a blistering speed of 127 km/h (79.5 mph), including stops for fuel and food.
He and his crew also raised more than $15,000 for the Kelly Shires Breast Cancer Foundation and their efforts continue.
“This was an amazing team effort and I want to thank all the people that supported and stuck by me,” Musters says.
“They say something like this is 50% physical and 50% psychological but for me it was 99% luck, I was lucky to have the best crew, the best of everything and mother nature dealt out the best possible weather conditions to make everything come together, I feel like the luckiest man alive!”
To see Muster’s Recognized Record check the official Guinness site at:
www.guinnessworldrecords.com