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Minto, ND (January 25, 2011) - They say history repeats itself and that old adage held true this past Saturday, January 22, at the USCC National Guard Cross-Country Snowmobile Championship Seven Clans Casino Red Lake I-500. Thirty-four riders lined up to take the green flag for the first-ever USCC I-500 Vintage class. Mounted aboard sleds 1981 or older with engines no larger than 500cc for air-cooled or 440cc for liquid, they took to the 170-mile course after all the modern sleds had left the line. The course brought them North out of Seven Clans Casino and onto the Red Lake River into the town of Thief River Falls. From there they rode to Warren, Minn., for the first of two fuel stops. Then they looped around to the North and back to Warren for another fuel stop then it was Southeast back to the casino. The field of riders was a mix of vintage enthusiasts and snowmobile racing heroes including two-time I-500 winner Brian Nelson (1976, 1978), I-500 winner Archie Simonson (1977), former Enduro Team Deere riders Jon Carlson, Tom Otte and Doug Oster, former Team Arctic riders John Sandberg and Aaron Scheele and former Team Arctic Race Manager and current Snowmobile Product Manager Joey Hallstrom. The field of machines ranged from sleds that looked like they'd just been pulled out of the shed to a fully-restored John Deere to the meticulously-prepared trio of 1979 Arctic Cat Cross-Country Cats of Brian Nelson. Aaron Scheele was the favorite to win and he set a blistering pace on his 1979 Arctic Cat El Tigre, but he burned down on the second leg just miles from the fuel stop. The field of John Deeres fielded by former Endure Team Deere members felt heavy attrition - Carlson suffered a cracked radiator and most of the others burned down. Some riders simply quit, satisfied they had experienced enough of what it must have been like back in the day. Others, such as Sandberg, had their machines simply quit with his Nelson-prepared Cat stopping dead in its tracks within a mile of Scheele. Only eight sleds made it to the third leg of the race with Hallstrom in the lead and Nelson just a couple minutes behind. Joey Potucek, also on a 1979 Arctic Cat Cross-Country Cat was hot on their snowflaps in third. The line of cars pacing the leaders in the ditch showed a consistent 55-60mph on their speedometers, testament to the heritage of the machines and skill of the riders. Hallstrom took the win with a time of 3:51:18.843, nearly five minutes ahead of second place Nelson who logged a time of 3:56:00.357. Potucek rounded out the podium with a time of 4:09:32.591. After Potucek came Dylan Slominski (4:10:00.100; Pol), Mike Fugleberg (4:35:41.161: Pol), Steve Wosick (4:44:31.221; Pol), Brian Hitt (5:12:04.401; Deere) and Marcus Wetterlund (5:29:03.759; Pol). The list of DNS/DNFs included Ken Artz, who was on a beautiful Kawasaki, Chuck Moser, who rode a full-restored John Deere, John Sandberg, Jon Carlson, Arch Simonson, Jason Clark, Joel Rainville, Ken Waters, Jared Peterson, Derek Frie, Keith Nohner, Brett Lessman, Joseph Wood, Case Gunderson, Jamie Packard, Mark Resch, Ron Lindeberg, Aaron Scheele, Danny Gruhot and Cory Wimpfheimer, Hallstrom also took the win in the Vintage Legends class and was backed up by Nelson and Steve Sherwood (4:47:28.661; Pol). Gary Smetana, Carlson, Simonson, Oster and Otte were all DNFs in the Legends class. "It was so great to see all the vintage enthusiasts, the big names and all the old sleds come out to race again," said USCC President Pat Mach. "A lot of these guys put in a lot of work on these old sleds and just seeing them lined up to take the green flag again after so many years was pretty cool. We're already looking forward to doing it again next year." Next up for the
USCC is the Chase On The Lake 100 in Walker, Minn., February 13, 2011.
For more information about the USCC National Guard Cross-Country Snowmobile
Racing Championship please visit www.usccracing.com.
 Tekvest Vintage Legends
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