Story & Photos: Emily Wicklund
The USXC racing series took riders to Park Rapids Minnesota for the Heartland 200 for the 8th consecutive year. Park Rapids is known for its narrow trails, fast ditches, and the neon sign trophy. Friday morning brought blizzard conditions across the state making crews and teams to wonder if the show will even go on. Luckily teams and officials made it to Park Rapids safely and the snow stopped falling around 5 A.M. Saturday morning. Racing started on time at 10 A.M. on Saturday with 98 sleds set to take on the trails. Sleds started 1 at a time 30 seconds apart instead of the 2 at a time that was planned. The race results were all based on time for this event with the final results based on a 2 day total time; not who crosses the line first.
Taylor Bunke and David Brown both had issues during Saturdays racing action but both made repairs so they wouldn’t have to take a DNF. Riders who didn’t finish on Saturday weren’t able to compete on Sunday. Marshall Busse was the top Semi-Pro rider on Saturday with the time of 2 hours 14 minutes and 53 seconds. Junior riders ages 10-13 were also given the chance to race in Park Rapids on Saturday only. They rode the start of the big course and then made a U-turn to come back to the finish. Their loop was about 60 miles of ditch and a small wooded section.
Saturday night brought more snow through the night into Sunday. This filled in the ditches even more and now the front runners had to blaze the trails yet again. Snow plows also threw hard snow onto the course and onto approaches which made for some interesting sections. On day 2, racers started in the inverted order from Saturdays start (nothing to do with how they finished on day 1). This put Selby as the lead sled for day 2’s racing action.
Aaron Christensen ended up stealing the show on Sunday making it from 8th to 1st on the race course. He clocked in 2nd fastest on day 1 and was the fastest time on day 2 giving him the overall best time of the weekend. This is Christensen’s first Heartland 200 win since 2014. Wes Selby kept up his speed on day 2 giving him the 2nd place spot. This is Selby’s 6th podium at Park Rapids in the past 7 years (in 2017 he didn’t compete at this race). Alex Hetteen started at the back of the pack and came across the line 8th on day 2. His time was quicker than he had thought and earned himself the final spot on the podium.
After round 2 of the USXC racing series, Aaron Christensen and Wes Selby are tied for the Pro Stock points lead with 105. Zach Herfindahl is sitting in 3rd with 93 points after a weekend he wasn’t hoping for. Selby is currently leading Pro Open points and Busse is took over the lead in the Semi Pro class.
USXC will head to Thief River Falls for the Sevens Clans TRF 250 next weekend.
