fast times in eveleth

We've all seen those "victory" ads that the sled makers liketo run. You know, the ones where they brag about how well their particularsled did in racing against everyone else. You know, the ones where theysay that if you weren't on a - (pick one) Arctic Cat, Polaris or Ski-Doo- you weren't crap.

Well, we're all for bragging up a win here and there. But when it comesto cross country and sno-cross racing, we were wondering just how closeare those sleds before the flag drops. We understand that driver talentplays a big role in winning terrain racing, but just how good does a driverhave to be? Are the sleds all equal or is one brand a little more equalthan the others and giving racers of that brand a built in advantage?

To get a handle on how the new breed of 440cc cross country racing sleds perform, we arranged with Gerard Karpik to use the F.A.S.T. Inc. lakeside test facility in Eveleth, Minnesota. We had a measured straight line coursethat stretched a mile down the lake. To get consistent elapsed times, weplaced Brauer wireless timing devices at the start line, eighth mile andhalf mile. We stationed radar guns at the eighth and quarter to capturetop speeds at those distances. Then we made a full-out run past the halfmile and took a radar reading. We wanted to get an idea of differences intop speeds. After all, if you're racing in a 200-miler on a lake surfaceand you have a five mile per hour advantage over the competition, it means you can be celebrating long before the other guys cross the finish line.

With the assistance of racers Craig Hansen, Steve Hansen and Ricky Strobel,we were able to judge the relative performance of the three top professionalclass racing sleds. These three professional snocrossers let us borrow theirrace-prepped sleds for an afternoon of fun...er, we mean evaluations. Wehad Craig's Polaris Indy XCR440, Steve's Arctic Cat ZR 440 and Rick's F.A.S.T.-backedSki-Doo MX-Z. All three of these racers are top-notch talents and personalities.Their sleds were battle-tested and a treat to evaluate.

As Steve Ingram, our American Snowmobiler test rider noted, "Itwas a treat to ride a sled set up like I could only dream of doing. Allthe sleds were well set-up. It was a hoot to hop on a real racing sled."

Studded for cross country competition, the sleds were run through thecourse three times. The first time our independent test rider ran them downthe course to heat up the engines and get performance "on the pipe."The second and third runs were the ones we counted. After those three runs,which were made back-to-back, we ran each sled once the length of the milelong course, taking a radar reading around the half-mile mark.

Given the fact that the day (Jan. 11, 1995) was warm at 30-35 degreesFahrenheit, wet with constant light drizzle, and overcast, all three sledsperformed well. On a colder, crisper day, we'd expect to see all three sledsimprove performance. Snow conditions were good on the lake, but the threeinch snow cover was wet and heavy. We launched all three sleds from a snowcovered patch of ice. As they passed the eighth mile, they picked up a littlecleaner ice, but overall, the course was very similar to what you mightfind at a lake enduro. And that was the point. Run the sleds in their environment.