Soo I-500 Race Results - Awesome !!!!

[Snowman]

******** AWESOME ***********
Excuse me if I yell a little I must have temporarily lost my hearing
from the sound of tripple pipes Eh!.

The 29th annual Soo I-500 race was held on the weekend and it was an
excellent race on the MONSTER 1 mile oval. The winner from the pole to
the end was Troy Pierce and Todd Kikke on a Polaris with a seven lap
lead at the end of the 500 miles. This was the second year in a row for
the 57 sled to win this race.

1997 marks the eighth year in a row for Polaris to win this race, the
last time another manufacture took a win here was George Sherrard's
Ski-Doo back in 1989. George now is crew chief for the Hainkonen,
Flying Finn Ski-Doo snowcross race team.

Over all the years, with many attempts and good efforts Arctic Cat has
been cheated from ever winning this race. Perhaps 1998 will be the
year, keep in mind that Ski-Doo has not had a win since 1989 so they are
also very hungry for the 1998 win. Yamaha has also not had a win since
1983 when Duane Baur took home the trophy for first. In the early years
this race has been won by Chapparal and Mercury, remember those names.

After 3 days of qualifying attempts the time trial results and speeds
were as follows:
1 60 Todd Krikke Hudsonville, Mi Kirkke Race Polaris 94.21
2 57 Troy Pierce Greenbush, Mn Felzke Polaris 90.94
3 21 Russ Chartrand Brimely, Mi Cadarette Polaris 90.85
4 44 Steve Houle Ham Lk, Mn Hot Seat Polaris 90.41
5 45 Rick Zudell Holly, Mi Benner Ski-Doo 90.28
6 33 Monty Tolan Caladonia, Mi Tolan Polaris 89.89
7 96 Tim Havercroft Greenbush, Mi A.T.M. Arctic 89.39
8 83 Brian Carey Stanwood, Mi Carey Arctic 89.39
9 24 Eric Fountain Detour, Mi CCMS Thunder Polaris 89.20
10 27 Steve Mitchell Benton Harbor, Mi Cat House Arctic 89.14

There were 38 machines allowed on the track so the cut this was at about
83 MPH minimum average speed over two laps if you wanted to play with
the big kids on saturday. Todd Krikke did not start as he was co-driver
with the winner pierce. They built a sprint sled to try and set a track
record, and then raced a 500 mile sled to win the race. Race engine
size is limited to 600 cc or less. A new 440 Polaris XCR nearly
qualified for the race, you know the red jobber with new exhaust port
control.

The track record is still held by Jeff Kipfmiller on a Ski-Doo at 94.33
in 1994. It should be noted that Dan Kirts set a record 94.20 MPH in
1986 that stood for almost ten years until Kipfmiller beat in 1994. As
one racer I know put it "Dan Kirts was a God, he had no fear, he didn't
let off for the corner till he was through it !! "

In summary its a great challenge of endurance for both man and machine
to go 500 miles in one day. If you got a sled start getting ready and
see you at the 1998 I-500, its a blast. This race has stood the test of
time and I hope it continues, so make sure you support it if your a true
race fan. This is a endangered species worth preserving.

BTW, I watched this race for the first time in 1969 when I went there to
see my father race a Sno-Jet in the very first I-500 race. He placed
8th place overall and got to beat out some big names at the time.