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HomeRacingPine Lake Weekend: A Cross-Country Tradition

Pine Lake Weekend: A Cross-Country Tradition

Pine Lake XC 2013 photo by ArcticInsider.com

This weekend, many of the sport’s top cross-country racers will gather on a small lake in northwestern Minnesota in hopes of finding a groove, a few extra MPH and a suspension/traction setup that will carve with precision and control. Those who find this magic elixir will start the season with a win.

Gerald (right) Dyrdahl and his son Bryan. Photo by ArcticInsider.com

The event: the Gerald Dyrdahl Memorial Pine Lake 200, named after a great racer and man who passed away far too soon, yet who left a wonderful legacy. (That’s Gerald on the right, standing with son Bryan during the 1997 season.)

A few hundred fans will show to see the high-speed action, as will a dozen or so engineers from some of the snowmobile manufactures. Most of the spectators will be crew members. If the weather is as warm as the forecasters are predicting, there will be boots on the ice, so to speak. If it’s cold, they’ll be huddled in pickup trucks parked along the shore.

What they will see and learn on the opening weekend of lake racing is which machines are the fastest and which teams have done their testing. With the new rules in effect for cross-country this season – in which the sleds must powered by consumer-available engines with EFI – there’s even more anticipation and uncertainty than usual.

How will the Arctic Cat ZR6000R XC fare, with its 600 C-TEC2 DSI engine and its consumer ProCross chassis? Will the new Polaris AXYS have the speed necessary to contest for the win? Will the preseason speculation that the Ski-Doo MXZX 600RS is the fastest prove true? Will this be the year that Yamaha climbs on the podium?

We will know the answers in little more than 48 hours.

The entire staff of ArcticInsider (including Engineering, Marketing, Purchasing, Manufacturing, Sales, Accounting, HR and Customer Service) will be there on Sunday (due to a family Xmas party on Saturday) to capture the action and glean bits of useful information. Expect a report early next week detailing what we learned. 

Good luck to all the racers and families who attend Pine Lake! May the speed be with you. 

Team Arctic Cat's Brian Dick and Wes Selby, with Justin Tate and Matt Piche. Photo by ArcticInsider.com

Team Arctic Cat's Brian Dick at Pine Lake 2013. Photo by ArcticInsider.com

Team Arctic Cat's Jordan Torgerson. Photo by ArcticInsider.com

Team Arctic Cat's Zach Herfindahl won at Pine Lake in 2013. Photo by ArcticInsider.com

Team Arctic's Wes Selby at Pine Lake 2013. Photo by ArcticInsider.com

Polaris racer Ryan Faust will be a contender at Pine Lake. Photo by ArcticInsider.com

Will Team Yamaha be in contention at Pine Lake in 2014? Photo by ArcticInsider.com

The course at Pine Lake in 2013.

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4 COMMENTS

  1. Go Team Arctic! Should be another beat down, but from what I have seen as far as track layout, top end will be especially useful……

  2. Looking forward to the feedback on the improvements on the 6 R-XC. And how racers feel about the 4-RR compared to the 500 Sno Pro. I think Cat will be on top, but anything is possible…….

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