eagle river to debut new race format

The Decker family recently announced that there will be a new form of snowmobile racing during the Friday Night Thunder event at this year's Eagle River Derby weekend. Dubbed "Ice X Snow," the new race will combine laps on the oval track with laps on the snocross track. "This is not going to be an easy race," said Dick Decker," but we think it will be fun to watch and will really showcase a racer's riding skills."

The race will start on the ice for a couple laps, then flow onto the snocross course for a few laps, back to the oval and finish at the Dayco tabletop. The final for the event will be 20 total laps, in increments of five laps on each part of the course.

"We'll be running ISR-qualified 500cc stock sleds for the Ice Cross Snow races," continued the elder Decker. "There obviously won't be any time to change setups for the different tracks, so it will be an interesting tuning challenge for the mechanics. As well as rider preparation. The winner of this race will have proven himself to be a very talented racer."

Decker said that this first year's running will be by invitation only, but in the future it may open up.

The Eagle River Derby Week will be January 14-21, 2001. For more information, contact the Derby Track at 715/479-4424.