Cross country teams traveled to the Canadian boarder for round five of the USXC season. The 27 mile loop was made up mainly of ditches and cattail filled shoreline. Due to eight inches of snowfall through Saturday morning and limited visibility, officials pushed back the start to 10:30 A.M. They also changed the Seven Clans Warroad 100 to a 1 day event due to weather.
The first race of the day consisted of Pro Open, Semi Pro, Sport 600 Imp, and Masters 40. Christensen, Herfindahl, and Selby all had mechanical issues within the first lap which resulted in a DNF. That left Justin Tate and Ross Erdman to battle and run away with the 1st and 2nd. Tate also dominated the Maters 40 class by almost 10 minutes. Former snocross racer Ed Neubauer rounded out to podium of Pro Open.
Junior, Vintage, Sport, and Masters 50 riders competed in the 3rd and 4th races of the day. The 4th heat race was cut short to get racers back on the road before the storm hit.
The last race of the day was the 100 mile Pro Stock final. Sleds took off one at a time due to visibility issues. Revering and Herfindahl were the first two sleds off the line. Shortly after, Herfinahl blew a belt which set him back to about 6th place. Feil and Wenzlaff were out of the race early on lap 1. Christensen dominated the race course leading most of the final. Riders had to take 1 mandatory fuel stop sometime throughout the 4 lap race. Strategy is key when picking a time to fuel. Justin Tate was running 2nd while he fueled but had to “stop, drop, and roll” because he was on fire, literally. Tate managed to only loose one position to Bunke during the incident.
