SNOHOMISH – By the end of the day you might find yourself a bit hearing impaired, but at least you won’t be snow blinded by the spectacle.
Besides, a little residual ringing in the ears seems a mere trifle to motorsports enthusiasts for whom snow machines represent an ongoing labor of love. There’s no need to await promising winter weather advisories when you can just rev it up and ride like the devil on grass.
That reasoning brought 60 competitors – and an estimated 800 spectators – to the fourth and final leg of the 2003 Washington State Snowmobile Racing Association (WSSRA) Grass Drag series event at Harvey Airfield on Sunday.
“It’s kind of a crazy thing,” Tom Gogert said after he wrapped up season series titles in five classes. “There’s all kinds of racing and this is just another type to do in the summer.”
This sea-level thrill ride requires those who might otherwise crave an alpine winter wonderland to eschew snow and ice for a dicey date with dust and daring.
Speed – lots and lots of speed – is the constant that makes it splendor on the grass for the fast and furious.
On the WSSRA circuit there are as many as 35 classes for racers – men, women and children – who compete on stock, improved stock or modified machines ranging from 440cc’s to 1500cc’s. The Grass Drag series starts in August in Moxee, near Yakima. After races in Mount Vernon and Burlington, the series winds up at Snohomish.
“It’s our premier event and our oldest track,” Gogert said of the Harvey Airfield site.
Entry fees for racing are $15 for stock, $20 for improved stock and $25 for modified. Eighty percent of entry fees are awarded as prize money in the various classes according to Ken Edwards, WSSRA president.
“Butts on the seats,” Edwards cautions drivers at the pre-race briefing.
“Look straight ahead, if you look aside you tend to go that way.”
Most drivers will use the same sled to compete in multiple classes. The fastest modified machines – up to 275 horsepower – scream down the 500 foot grass track in about five seconds, reaching speeds of up to 80 miles per hour.
Even stock 440 models go 60 mph or faster.
“As the technology improves, the sleds go faster and faster with more horsepower,” said Gogert, part of a racing family that includes his wife Sandi, daughter Corrine, 14, and son Mitchel, 11.
The Gogerts are from Arlington, but others have traveled farther for the season finale, such as the Anaconda Motor Sports team, which made a 12-hour trip from Montana.
“They’ve got some of the prettiest sleds around,” Gogert said.
Anaconda brought seven sleds on two trailers, each a fully self-contained $50,000 shop on wheels. Just don’t turn on the microwave when everything else is running or you could screw up the computer downloading performance analysis data directly from the snow mobiles during each race.
“We run nitrous oxide in the big sleds (over 1000cc),” said Tom Hafer of Anaconda Motor Sports. “It’s hard on engine parts, but it makes for a lot of horsepower.”
The Gogerts – who ride sno-cross and snow drags in the winter – travel to events throughout the west. Racing stops include Klamath Falls, Ore., Crescent City, Calif. and Columbia Falls and West Yellowstone, Montana. This year was the first time in six years the family missed Hay Days in Minneapolis, a grass drag event that draws as many as 60,000 fans.
Team Gogert clinched 10 season series titles on Sunday. Nine were earned on two water-cooled sleds, an Arctic Cat stock 440 and an Arctic Cat stock 700. Tom’s victories included the stock 440, stock 500 and mountain stock 800.
Sandi – who doubles as the high-spirited track announcer – won titles in the ladies 440 and 500 stock and was also the overall ladies champion. Corrine took home the Junior 1 title on the 440.
Young Mitchel Gogert won the Junior 2 championship on an air-cooled stock 440. The air-cooled machines have significantly less horsepower and are safer for less experienced riders.
The engines and chassis of the stock sleds cannot be modified. The suspensions are lowered to provide explosive acceleration at the start of a race. Steel picks on the machine tracks provide optimum traction on grass.
After morning preliminaries, the afternoon elimination heats and finals were hot and heavy for Gogert and his chief rival – and longtime pal – Marty Chin of Klamath Falls, Ore., who raced in 10 classes Sunday.
The team with the superior pit crew has a decided advantage. Gogert believes he has one of the best. After seeing them in action during the virtually non-stop racing it’s hard to disagree.
“These guys work like crazy,” Gogert said of pit crewmember’s Al and Gary Roehl. Longtime crewman David Buchanan missed Sunday’s drags only because he got married the night before. Hopefully, someone warned his bride about the trappings of the sport.
Extreme heat is the enemy of high performance. After each race, pumping cold water through the cooling system cools the machines. The hot water is recycled into a holding tank and then back into ice chests for later reuse.
Meanwhile, plenty of other work is getting done.
“We can service clutches, clean or change belts, put everything back together and we’re ready to go again in less than two minutes,” Gogert said.
When a starter rope on the 700cc snaps off in Gogert’s hand less than a minute before a race, Al Roehl quickly pulls the clutch cover. He brings the motor roaring to life by wrapping a short rope around the clutch and giving a yank.
“A couple of quick fixes here and there, but it’s been pretty smooth,” Roehl said.
Still, adjustments were required as the day wore on. Corrine helps out by cleaning and cooling belts and providing critical race logistics information during the beautifully synchronized pit stops.
“When you get beat, if you don’t change things, you’re gonna get beat again, unless you just sat on the light,” Roehl said.
Gogert savors the family atmosphere of the sport, along with the many friendships, more than the titles.
“A motor head is just a guy who instead of going fishing would rather go racing, who instead of climbing would rather go racing,” Gogert said with a laugh. “If they’re not racing they’re getting ready to race. Or talking about racing.”
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