Johnson wins at Beausejour; Johnstad Out, Elam In At Schuering Speed Sports

Let’s get you caught up on some quick racing news this Monday:

Johnson Wins At Beausejour

The ice oval racing season started this weekend at Beausejour, and the final results that are posted at the CPTC web site list Brandon Johnson as the winner on his Wahl Bros. No. 22 Polaris. But, according to the buzz on the message boards at snowgoer.com, it wasn’t as simple as that.

Brandon Johnson, pictured here on last year's sled at Eagle River, claimed first in Champ 440 at Beausejour, Manitoba

           Michigan’s Gary Moyle led several laps at the beginning of the race on his Rotax-powered mod before he blew a belt. That handed the lead to “Flyin’” Bryan Bewcyk of neighboring Winnipeg, who later succumbed to problems related to a coolant leak.

            All of this is not to say that Johnson was slow on his Jimmy John’s backed sled, however. He was the only driver to make it through all four of his heat races with victories. Michigan’s Malcolm Chartier finished second on his Houle-built Ski-Doo, with three-time World Champ PJ Wanderscheid third on his Hooper Cat.

           It appeared to be a good weekend for Team Wahl Bros. Dustin Wahl took the Champ 600 final ahead of Matt Schulz and Brandon Johnson. Jordan Wahl claimed the Formula 500 final.

            For more, and for some cool photos of the event by Rob Bye, make sure to check out the Ovals board on the SnowGoer website.

Elam In, Johnstad Out With Schuering

The Amsoil-backed Schuering Speed Sports team will have a new look this weekend at round two of the ISOC season. Andrew Johnstad has left the team and has been replaced in the Pro class by Willie Elam.

Willie Elam will join the Pro ranks for Schuering Speed Sports

            Johnstad, 24, of Beltrami, Minnesota, is a former Semi-Pro points champion on the national snocross circuit, but he looked quite bad at the season-opening Duluth Snocross race November 26-28, with a fifth being his best Pro Super Stock class finish, and a seventh was his best heat in Pro Open. Not surprisingly, he didn’t qualify for either final. No word on whether the problem was related to injury or mechanical issues, but Johnstad looked noticeable slow and unenthused going around the track.

            Elam, of Buhl, Idaho, is a longtime racer out West who has made appearances in Pro and Semi Pro on Cat, Polaris and Ski-Doo equipment over the years. Last year he only raced one weekend on the ISOC circuit, and claimed third in the Semi-Pro Open final at Utah.

            ““Willie was in Duluth racing out of his own pocket and that alone says a lot about his character and determination,” said team owner Steve Scheuring. Elam is also an experienced free rider and is expected to take part in the Speed & Style competition at the Winter X Games.

Want Snowmobile Racing To Be Fun? Pay Attention

 We’re just days away from the opening of the snowmobile racing season, with the ISOC Duluth Snocross kicking off next Friday, November 26, in Duluth, Minnesota. The following weekend, the oval racing season kicks off at one of the coolest venues in the sport – the Canadian Power Toboggan Championships track in Beausejour, Manitoba. The weekend after that, things get going out east with the East Coast Snocross opener in Burke, Vermont.

These guys switched brands for the coming season: Knowing that makes how they do in Duluth this year very interesting.

          Good times await for family members and true fans at the various venues. And, as a fan of any sort of motorsport myself, I can’t wait. But I realized a couple weekends ago, while at a NASCAR race in Texas, the difference between truly enjoying a motorized soap opera and merely watching fast machines making laps. It is all about the bye-in of the individual fan.

            I was at the NASCAR race as a part of a REALLY cool Arctic Cat junket involved the company’s ATV division. That weekend at Texas Motor Speedway, Arctic Cat had its name emblazoned on the No. 1 Chevy driven by the popular Jamie McMurray. It was fabulous.

            But while sitting in the crowd immerse in the events happening on each lap, I looked around me at several fellow motor journalists and some Arctic Cat officials and saw completely different levels of interest. A few of us were literally hanging on the edge of our seat, leaning forward toward the action, completely saturated. Many others in our group, however, including many fellow snowmobilers and a few snowmobile racing fans, were leaning back and staring off into the distance.

            The difference, of course, was how big of fans of this type of racing we were, but tied to that was how much members of the two different groups were absorbing based on their background.

Having a Cat-sponsored car to cheer for in Texas.

            To me and a couple of others, we immediately saw Kurt Busch dropping toward the back and wondered what that said about the Penske Dodges on this day. We saw five different cars come in during the first 20 laps to have tape removed from the front end of the cars, and knew that overheating was the problem. We saw eventual winner Denny Hamlin drift backwards early in the race and knew the potential implications in the standings. We saw perennial good-guy Jeff Burton completely take out Jeff Gordon, and wondered how that could be. We hooted and hollered when bad boy Kyle Busch was penalized two laps for flipping off a NASCAR official.

            The others in our group? They heard loud engines, saw flashes of colors and general enjoyed themselves, but they didn’t know all of the stories and subplots, they weren’t engaged in the implications and meanings.

            I see the same thing at some snowmobile races. I’ve brought some friends, and a couple of times my son, to sled races and they merely saw sleds clicking off laps. It’s fun, but they weren’t intrigued enough to go back. But if they only knew that the guy who won the race in front of them was a semi-pro last year but he just beat Tucker Hibbert in a heat, they’d appreciate it more. If they knew that Polaris hadn’t won an Eagle River World Championship since 1978, they would have been more intrigued as Matt Schulz was putting together a stellar weekend at the Derby last year. Some people merely saw sleds driving across the water last summer at Grantsburg; others saw a second generation victory by the son of a legend.

Each driver who touches the cup at Eagle River has a story to tell.

    Some of that background information is gained through experience, but it’s amazing how much can be gained by paying attention to the announcers and doing just a tiny bit of homework before you go to an event. When I go to a car race at a local Saturday night racetrack, I pay attention and find out who the points leader is in each class, and when an underdog wins a class, I’m pretty darned happy for him. Before I go to the World Of Outlaw sprint car races in Wisconsin every July, I go to the World Of Outlaw web site and find out who’s leading the points, who’s been doing well and who’s making a comeback – it truly enhances the experience for me.

            Bottom line: I hope to see some of you at Duluth next weekend; I’m not going to make it to Beausejour, but I’ll be watching the web to see who does well. If you go, do yourself a favor and either do a little digging before you go, or pay attention to the P.A. announcer – maybe even walk through the pits, if you’re allowed to. You’ll have a much better time, and you’ll go home with much better memories.

2008-2009 Ice Oval Season Set To Begin This Weekend in Beausejour

Hold on to your hats boys and girls!  Another great season of ice oval racing begins this weekend (December 6th and 7th) in Beausejour, Manitoba.  This is always an exciting time of year and I just love watching all of the new equipment roll out onto the big track at Beausejour.  For a lot of these teams, its “payoff” time.  Time to see if all the hard work in the offseason pays off.

For us here at Benoy Racing, we are full of nervous anticipation as we head into our first full season competing in the Champ 440 ranks.  We were able to get out on the ice on Sunday for some much needed test time with the new machine.

In a quick glance at the registered drivers for the Pro Champ 440 class, it looks to be a World Class field.  With 10 drivers registered already, I am expecting to see more than 20 entries in the Pro Champ field for the Season Opener at the CPTC track by the time registration closes on Wednesday.

[Read more]