Local Racers Compete in USXC’s Legendary I-500

“Somewhere right now there is a person who watched a portion of this race over these past few days, who saw something and it captured their imagination and it will change the course of their life. It’s a kid from Bagley or Plummer who saw these super cool snowmobiles with awesome numbers on the side of that machine and he saw that and wanted to be part of it. It’s a teenager in Wisconsin that saw a Facebook video of one of you guys launching off a ditch approach and it’s the coolest thing that kid has ever seen. It’s an old guy who’s in Winnipeg, Bismarck or New York who is going to read about it in a magazine or see it on a website and their imagination will be captured. How will their lives be changed? Because something that stirred inside of them, that kid, that teenager, that adult, it grabs ahold of them and they’re going to come here some day and they’re going to participate in the race. That is the power and the allure of the I-500. It’s the same thing that brought all of us here today. There’s something about the magic of this race that brought you here and it goes beyond just the racers. It’s the friends that helped you prepare the sleds, its felt by the mom and dad that fist-bumped or hugged or said I love you to a kid who took off on a sled each day. The magic of this race is felt by the race officials and by the volunteers who worked for days and weeks and months to make this race happen. It’s not the money that inspires, it’s the magic of this race. The magic was felt by the people who sit in the trucks at every road crossing, their imaginations are stirred by this race. For those who had their first I-500 experience this weekend I’ll tell you this, what you experienced these past few days it’s going to stay with you for the rest of your life. You’ll think about it, you’ll talk about it, you’ll dream about it and for those who didn’t finish, you will agonize about it. The lessons you learned will play roles in other areas of your life. Lessons like what it takes to prepare for something like this, what it takes to push yourself, what is feels like to succeed and how to come to terms with not winning – all critical lessons in life. That is what happens when you dream big and you put on a helmet and you take a green flag. And this weekend you didn’t take just any green glad to start, you took the flag of one of the most important races in snowmobile racing. Like the Soo 500, and the Eagle River World Championship, the I-500 is one of the pillars of snowmobile racing. For 53 years it has been the single most important cross country race. As of today, there have been 43 editions of this race with 28 different winters who became legendary because of their success in this race. Earlier today you raced through a tiny town called Leonard, and that’s the town where Bryan Dyrdahl lives. Bryan won all kinds of snowmobile races and championships in his time but what he is famous for is that he is the only person in the world that has won this race 5 times and next week he will be inducted into the snowmobile hall of fame. That is how this race changes people’s lives. Most who compete in this race don’t win and don’t step onto the podium. We race it to challenge ourselves, to have the experience of being a part of something great, and to hopefully make it to the finish line. And most of you didn’t make it to the finish line which is its own victory. For those who didn’t, I hope you come back next year. So, weather you won or finished or had to haul your sled here in the back of a pickup, you dreamed, you dared and you became part of the 53 year history of a truly amazing race.”