Gabe Bunke
|
Racer |
Brian Dick
|
| Polaris |
Team |
Arctic Cat
|
| 37 / Moorhead, Minn. / Racer, race team owner, construction, custom agriculture work |
Age/Address/Occupation |
35 / Thief River Falls, Minn. / Racer, Product Team Manager, High Performance Snowmobile Engineering |
| “Brian Dick and Eric Quam are very fast and very capable and have very good equipment.” |
What do you think of your competitor’s Iron Dog racing potential? |
“Gabe is a good technical racer; his challenge will be dealing with having a partner during the race.”
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| “It’s something new, but I’m trying to learn as much as I can and go from there...Essentially I’m a rookie. There is a lot to this race, and a lot of experience helps.” |
What does it feel like to be a rookie / veteran? |
“It’s very similar if you take little bits and pieces
of different cross-country races.”
|
“Main focus is for putting a long time on the seat with that amount of gear…I will be going up to Alaska in December for the first time to train [in that environment.] And I’m trying to acclimate to riding after dark.”
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How are you training for this race different than USXC? |
“Best way to prepare is to get out and train similar to a marathon…It’s both mental and physical. You need to ride a lot longer to get used to sitting on the sled for that long.”
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“I’m somewhat concerned about how you keep your sled fueled and you hydrated over time. It is an unknown for me.”
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What are the challenges in this race? |
“You only see everything once, and you don’t know what’s coming up. You, also, have to agree with your partner… leading a guy for eight to 10 hours you can start to butt heads... Also, it’s tough to stay warm at -40 F.”
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| “Klim is going to outfit us with our gear.” |
What type of clothing will you be wearing? |
“We worked with the clothing department at Arctic Cat to tailor Arctic wear for the Iron Dog. You use a lot more base layers, but the jacket will just be a shell.” |
| “Most of the Polaris teams will be using the Switchback, but Scott likes the 600 Indy and has experience on it.” |
What snowmobile will you be racing? |
“Eric hasn’t trained on the ZR 7000, but he has on the ZR 6000. So we will be testing this November on the ZR 7000 in Alaska and then decide. It’s cool to race on a snowmobile you helped build. And we will be using the new Arctic Cat chassis.” |