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Alaskan Chad Gueco loves the outdoors, so much so that he works on the North Slope oilfields when he's not on his Yamaha Nytro, or motocrossing, or hunting or fishing.
At his outside winter day job, where he works two weeks on then two weeks off, it's not uncommon for Gueco to face -40F days with 30 mph winds. But then if he didn't tolerate the cold, he probably wouldn't race USCC and other cross country endurance races each season (on those two-week stretches he has off).
Gueco notes that "it can get nasty" out there on a couple hundred mile cross country race. But it's what he excels at and enjoys. Yet he notes that two years ago he got frostbite on his stomach during the Red Lake I-500. Ugly!
True blue AlaskanCross country is something Chad enjoys though and he's been doing it since he was 14 and his dad, Danny, owned a Yamaha dealership in their hometown of Wasilla, yes, the Wasilla of Sarah Palin fame. They sold the dealership recently, but Gueco says, "I bleed blue."
"Cross country conforms better to my style, I'm more an endurance rider says the 6-foot-3, 205-lb. racer. "You're out in the middle of nowhere and you're reading the terrain and there are hundreds of miles of different terrain and I'm just better at this," he adds.
Gueco turned serious about the cross country racing four years ago, but he has been doing endurance races of all sorts, and with considerable success.
In 2006 he won the Soo-500 in his fifth try. But he built up to it, finishing fifth in his first race there, followed in order by a fourth, third, second, and then the win. He also won a Semi-Pro race at the famous Eagle River Derby Track and has had a lot of third and fourth place finishes in USCC events. He says a third at Minto, N.D., has been his best on that circuit.
He feels poised for additional podium finishes this season and is looking forward to the Red Lake I-500 outside Thief River Falls, Minn., in mid-January.
Gueco normally rides and tests his sleds for 5,000 to 7,500 miles a year, usually from late November to late March in Alaska, and that's beyond the miles he puts on racing.
"The Nytro is starting to come around. It was a struggle in the beginning, but the suspension is much better now," he says, adding that adjusting the suspension and getting it just right is what he prides himself in and what makes for a successful cross country machine.
"Big bump shocks and control is the name of the game because if you're out there fighting it all day long it works on you physically and on the sled and eventually you'll break something on the sled," Gueco says from his home away from home on Alaska's North Slope.
Reliability is never a worry for him in a race though. Gueco says in that regard his Nytros have been bulletproof. "It's a huge relief knowing I don't have to worry about the sled eating a cylinder while I'm out there," he says, referring to the strength and durability of his 4-stroke, 3-cylinder engine.
American motivationWhat motivates him? His dad, who was born in the Philippines, moved to the U.S. as a teen and joined the military, serving for 11 years. Gueco says his dad built his family and life in Alaska, along with the successful dealership that he retired from last year. "He is really living the American dream, coming here with nothing but a bag and clothes and now he has it all, the family, the dealership. It's unbelievable," Chad says, more than a little admiration in his voice.
Now he's building his own dream, one where he works hard for two weeks on production optimization, working on equipment that goes 2-3 miles down into an oil well, and then racing on his time off, driving from Alaska down to races in Canada and the States. This year he's looking for some gold hardware! -Mark Savage