A passion for speed

Snowmobile racers take to the ice at Isaiah Tubbs

The sound of high-revving snowmobile engines cut through the blowing and drifting snow on a bitterly cold weekend as the Ontario Snowmobile Oval Racers (OSOR) launched the 2019 race schedule on West Lake at the Isaiah Tubbs Resort. Over 80 racers took part in the two-day event, the first of seven race meets for the season in Ontario. The youngest racer was five years old—and he had already been sledding for two years—while the oldest snowmobile was from the early ’70s. Carl Blight is the president of OSOR and was pleased with the turnout for the first race. “It’s growing every year,” he says. “We race from single-cylinder stock sled right up to 500 modded. There’s quite a number of classes, including ice bikes. It’s extremely competitive, and the vintage circuit is growing immensely. We’ve gone from having one or two races in Ontario, now we have a seven-race schedule. There’s points at the end of it, and there’s big money. Next week’s race is in Cochrane, Ontario and there’s $10,000 on the line.”

The racing oval is one-third of a mile in circumference and, except for the junior class, the racers do five laps per heat. Speeds can hit the 80 mile an hour mark for the most powerful sleds, even on this relatively short track. There are usually five or six racers in the heats, but the finals can see up to a dozen sleds nose up to the start line. Blight has been racing for about 10 years and he rides a vintage 1974 Yamaha GTX, which he spools up to 9,950 rpm during a race. For him, it’s all about the speed. “I absolutely love it. I’ve always had a big passion to race, so I got into this. I compete in the World Championships down at Eagle River, Wisconsin, and I compete for the Grand Prix title in Valcourt, Quebec.”

The sleds are heavily modified for oval racing. Jamie Bound of Uxbridge has been riding snowmobiles for over 30 years, and jumped at the opportunity to enter his first ever race this weekend. He was racing in the powerful F500 class, and modified a stock snowmobile for racing. “Everything that’s unnecessary is cut off, and there’s a lot of left-side percentage for the weight. They have an extreme amount of traction. These are designed to go left and go fast.” Zipping around an oval track at breakneck speeds in a counterclockwise direction, these machines need a lot of traction on ice, and they need to go straight, or go left.

Safety is of prime importance during the competition. All racers are briefed on safety procedures before the race. They are told what to do in the event of an accident on the track, and what to do if they themselves run into difficulty. Competitive driving is encouraged, but there’s no tolerance for recklessness, and any offender will be ejected from the race. Volunteers are stationed at intervals around the track so they can respond quickly to any situation. However, it is the thrill of competition that draws the riders, and that can begin at a very early age. Eleven-year-old Hunter Twyman was taking part in his first race, with his twin brother, Brock, as his crew chief. When asked where he expected to finish in the race, Hunter’s answer was simple and direct. “First.”