For Immediate Release
NSSR Chetek, WI News – February 24, 2018
“CHETEK WINTERFEST”
Exciting news as NSSR headed to a fantastic event in Chetek, WI at the Chetek Winterfest which was held in conjunction with the Outlaw Snow Drag Racing! National Straightline Snowmobile Racing held its fourth race of the NSSR 2018 Super Series for the “Fastest Show on Ice”. Temperatures ranged from about 10 degrees F in the early morning to 30 degrees F in the afternoon with only a slight breeze from the East ranging from 5 to 9 mph during the day. The 1000 feet of shaved ice tracks, 4000 feet shaved with shutdown, were aimed to the East, so most of the racers experienced a slight headwind. The race track was under Sunny skies holding for most of the day, with some clouds coming in for the afternoon, followed with the snow coming into Chetek at about 5PM.
NSSR worked with Rob Licht, Winterfest Chairman, and the Chetek Chamber of Commerce to get the event set to coincide with the City’s local events with Winterfest. Fans and Spectators had the thrill of also watching 15 of the fastest Snow Drag Sleds in the World dueling it out on Friday Night and Saturday Afternoon.
Racer entries included 81 entries on the Pro track and nearly 75 on the Radar Run track making a great number of entries at 155 hot rods and just over 600 safe passes between the two shaved ice tracks. Great to see so many nice vintage sleds coming out of the garage to make some sweet passes on the pro track and the radar run track. Keep those gems coming!
It was great weather to get the spectators out to watch some fast passes on the ice and the track held up well for racing action until mid-afternoon. More important, the racers had a great time getting the sleds out and meeting up with fellow racers and spectators. The Radar Run track had some great hot rods including vintage sleds, many running near or above the 100 mph mark.
The running of the kid’s event at noon brought future racers running kitty kats to mini mods. Thanks to Straightline Performance again for sponsoring prizes and trophies for the kids to come out and run. They will be some of our future racers and they already have some great hot rods to learn on. The running of the local bikini run event at 1PM raised several thousand dollars to be contributed to the Pink Ribbon Coalition and a great cause.
Our competitors continue to come from throughout the Midwest and included racers for North Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Michigan. NSSR is the only ISR Affiliated Speed Run organization where you can set World Records on the 1000 foot shaved ice competition. World Records in the Stock and Pro Classes were again limited with the slight headwind to battle and NSSR Racers posted six World Records at this race.
Katie Reinhardt jumped into Trail Stock 440 for the 2018 race season and posted an amazing 98.181 mph on her 2002 Artic Cat Sno Pro. Rod Spindler out of Wisconsin bumped up the Improved Stock 700 record on his 1999 Polaris XCR to 126.315 mph. Al Doberstein of CSE raised the record in the Improved Stock 800 Twin class on his 2003 Artic Cat F7 to 118.032 mph. Josh Dempsey raised his own record in the Pro Stock 500 class on his 2000 Ski Doo Formula to 118.032 mph. Jerry Benson was back on the Simons CPR Turbo Yamaha in Pro Stock Four Stroke to run an amazing 175.253 mph, with skis up for the whole 1000 feet – Ladies and Gentlemen this is fast on this 800 pound machine! In the Vintage G Stock Class Erik Fagerlin posted a great speed of 57.37 mph on his 1980 300 Yamaha Enticer.
Top Speed of the Day had some blistering passes to light up the score board! Rick Schellbach posted a great pass at 165.200 mph on his nitrous sniffing 1620 cc Super Mod machine. It was great to see Jason Houle on his Straightline Performance Yamaha post a 169.080 mph pass on his second time out with this new machine. Glenn Stickels out of Illinois on the Mike Martin Busa Mod posted a great speed of 178.512 mph in the Exhibition Class and it is great to see this machine working its way back up the 180’s it has run in the past. Posting an Amazing 191.150 mph pass with a backup speed of 190.308 mph was Flyin Ryan Ensor on the Warning Family/Hypersports Machine know as Frozen Assets II in the TopGun Shootout to take Top Speed of the day! Congratulations gentlemen and great work by all involved on these Hot Rods!
All records require a run within 2% to back up their World Record run and over 1000 fans and race supporters were on hand to witness the racing throughout the day!
This NSSR Super Series event in Chetek was hosted by the Chetek Chamber of Commerce in conjunction with many of the local area businesses of the Chetek Area. Also, a big thanks to the City of Chetek, the Chetek Police Department, the Barron County Sheriff’s Office, and the Wisconsin DNR for their support and cooperation to make this event happen.
Ron and Stacy Bray of NSSR want to thank all who participated, supported, and sponsored our four events in 2018 for just another great year of speed run action. We would like to thank all our sponsors who make these races possible! All racers and sponsors stay tuned for more on our awards banquet to be held on Saturday April 21st.
See www.racenssr.com and facebook under National Straightline Snowmobile Racing for more information on results and upcoming events.