As we quickly are approaching winter, I wanted to talk about plans for the upcoming 2022 cross country and lakecross racing season.
The last year has taught me a lot about cross country racing. Last season was a challenging winter with the lack of snow that ultimately turned the entire season into lake races and cut the season in half to just 4 race weekends.
As the winter was progressing towards the end of January, we quickly sensed that if we weren’t willing to do lake races, we may not even get to race a cross country race at all. The week of Okoboji, Emily asked me if she should do a lake race and what that would take. I told her she may as well just do a lake race for extra practice. Because we had such a short time to get ready, we decided to just have Emily race with her sled. I knew we were a long way off on set up and the most simplistic approach was the only way this race weekend was going to work. For me this was a completely new role to go to a race to be crew chief and not actually race. I wasn’t sure what to expect. It turns out it was a lot of fun and I enjoyed just having one sled to focus on. We were able to do a lot to the sled over the course of the weekend with this new approach. I was a much more effective mechanic in this role and it was really eye opening that this new role had many benefits given our lack of experience in cross country racing.
Day 1 was kind of a rough start because we had mostly trail studs and a limited amount of ice picks in the sled, and Emily flew off in the race. For day 2, we changed most of the trail studs to ice picks thanks to a couple of other race teams who were kind enough to sell us some of theirs. Emily on day 2 was able to rebound with a lot better time. In both the added traction and staying on the sled Emily went from day one being 4:06 behind the leader Gabby Hallstrom to day 2 being 1:45 behind at the finish. Those times are for those individual days. Our main focus was just to see how much of the gap Emily could close on day 2.
To help get more racing in and develop the snowmobile more, we competed in the two local lakecross races, Neosho and Manawa. At Neosho, Emily was able to win the Women’s class with a commanding lead! Joel was able to bring home 4th place finishes in both the Pro 500 and the iron man, with the Pro 500 finish bumper to bumper through the top 5 across the finish line.
It was a very busy weekend in Manawa with Emily running the pit board, training all the race day volunteers, and running the driver’s meeting, and I took the lead on track set up, directing practice, and track maintenance during race day. The racing went really well for both of us. Emily started with a last place hole shot and quickly worked through the field to the lead on lap one and hung on for the win with another commanding lead. I finished 4th place in the Pro 500 and then had my best race of the season in the iron man. I lead the first 5 laps of the 8 lap race and then hung on to a 2nd place finish. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1398914373790646
Our other cross country race last season was Park Rapids. For this race I decided to race Emily’s XCR in the Sport Stock 600 class. We came to Park Rapids much more prepared. We even had the opportunity to get to practice and wrench on the sled for about 4 hours on Friday. I was able to help provide some extra feedback on the set up to help further develop the sled. The weekend turned out to be a solid weekend. Emily was consistent each day with similar gaps from the lead on day 1 of 2:39 and day 2 of 2:31. Day one I had a belt blow which ended my race because I had no spare on the sled. It was a lesson learned to carry a spare belt along. Day 2 I was able to get through the race with no mechanical issues and was 9th best. For the weekend I was 11th out of 18 racers. My main goal for the weekend was to help further develop the XCR and help to have a better baseline setup.
In the offseason we’ve been getting more input from other racers and have been assessing our program and the best direction to go. To help get better established given our current budget and experience, we feel focusing on mainly just one snowmobile will get us further along. The established programs in cross country do a lot of tuning and preventive maintenance and have a good stock of parts to help do so. In doing an honest assessment of how can we get closer to that type of program it will help us to continue the momentum built from last season with more of a singular focus on one snowmobile.
Since last season we have some new parts to improve our efforts. We bought a new cobra track for the terrain set up. The original track has the ice picks in it for the lake set up. We also set up a second set of shocks for ice racing to make swapping between both ice and terrain racing easier. We also purchased some good used brake pads, caliper and rotor. We pretty well used up a rotor and brake pads ice racing last season. I have also made a list of parts and tools that we will soon purchase as well. I’ve taken apart much of the sled to learn more about it and really go through it.
Emily will race at Park Rapids January 29/30. It’s a 2 day race that totals 250 miles. I will be her crew chief at Park Rapids to help support her efforts there. It’s 125 miles each day for a total of 250 miles. The longer terrain races are a unique format where you aren’t able to share a snowmobile with somebody. I have learned each time we take on a new style it’s a steep learning curve. Your main focus is learning the new style of race and just take in all the information you can. I will be able to help work on the sled more and focus on the sled more as a crew chief. This Park Rapids terrain race is a completely new style of racing for us and I feel we aren’t ready to take on this race with two snowmobiles. At least for this year, we will be doing the majority of the racing on Emily’s sled and I’ll only race my own snowmobile at Whitecap in March on the Cor schedule. https://corpowersports.com/schedule/park_rapids/
On Saturday, February 12th both Emily and I will be racing at the Neosho Cup Snowmobile races. This race is the best chance for many of our local fans to come see us race. Neosho is only 20 minutes from our house! Emily will compete in the Women’s class and I will drive her sled in the Factory 600 class. https://www.facebook.com/Neosho-Cup-Snowmobile-Races-282312466120
On Saturday, February 19th both Emily and I will be racing at the Manawa Snodeo. Emily will be competing in Women’s and I’ll drive her sled once again in Factory 600. This race is close to home for us as well, located about 45 minutes west of Oshkosh. https://www.facebook.com/Snowdeo
Emily and I plan to race at Whitecap Mountain in Upson, WI on Saturday March 26th. This is a 4 to 5 mile course on a ski hill. I do have one race of experience on a ski hill back in 2019 at Dubuque, IA. Whitecap Mountain is the closest race on the Cor Powersports circuit for us. https://corpowersports.com/schedule/whitecap/
Kreuziger Racing 