for the love of the sport

Time to Run
Going into the eliminations, Hooper Engine-powered Weston had set both performance marks to shoot for on his Arctic Cat. In qualifying, he had posted a 9.442 ET and a top speed of 137.19mph. Both would prove to be the best of the weekend.

Crank Shop/Trygstad Motorsports-sponsored Bellman qualified second on his Ski-Doo. Weber came in as the third qualifier on his Polaris EDGE. Brent Kangas garnered the fourth slot aboard his Cat. Blachfelner qualified fifth on his PSI-powered Polaris.

In the first round, Weber used a quick reaction time to narrowly beat Kangas, recording a .084-second margin of victory. The second race placed Bellman and Blachfelner head-to-head. "Danny had me nervous last night," Bellman said before the race. "He can cut a quick light and that may be enough for him to beat me with. We're not running as well as I'd like to be right now." When the tree turned green, though, Bellman was first off the line and never looked back. Weston made an uncontested pass, thanks to his first-place qualifier status. He again made the fastest pass of the round at 9.587 seconds at 135.17 mph.

"We've been doing a lot of testing," said Weston. "John Hooper made us an excellent engine. I'm very happy with the way it's performing."

The second round gave Bellman the bye. Weston squared off with Weber to determine who would face the returning champ in the final. Weber went into the staging box deep and quick, while Weston coolly lined up his skis in the second beam. Weber got off the line first, thanks to his deep stage, but couldn't hold off a hard-charging Weston on the strip. Once again, it would be a Doo versus Cat final.

The championship race was a dead heat on paper. Weston had been running strong all weekend, Bellman had struggled with suspension issues. Either could send the other home empty-handed. Off the line, Bellman held a negligible advantage: .605 to .606 reaction times. But a little belt slippage would cost Weston the race. By the 60-foot beam, Bellman was in front and would stay there for the entire quarter, despite Weston's higher speeds through the traps.

"This is a good win for us," said Bellman afterwards. "My crew- my dad [Jim Bellman], Bob Wilson and John Mason all worked very hard to get us through our problems. I need to thank Dave Trygstad for coming out to help me tune the sled in qualifying. Tom Lawrence from Ski-Doo racing came out to see the event, too. It means a lot to a racer when a factory representative comes out to observe and help out. Finally, there are a few other sponsors who have stepped up to get me here- Edwardsburg Snowmobile Sales, Midwest Detail Graphics, Woody's, The Crank Shop and EGT.

"This was a good weekend for our sport," he continued. "The five of us came out, put on a great show for the crowd and we talked to a lot of potential consumers and racers. Hopefully, we can recapture all four of the factories' attentions next year."