News

5/3/2010: The banquet was a blast. I ended up with a huge stack of trophies and the #1 Pro plate. A special thanks to all of my sponsors and also to MSRA for all their hard work this year starting a new circuit. We'll be on Lucas Oil on the Edge on May 15th at 3:30 pm on SpeedTV. The second half of the Brainerd race coverage is set to air on June 15th. We got a sneak peak of the footage at the banquet and there should be at least one good race win of me on there. Hopefully I can find the footage online and post a link to it on here soon.

3/29/2010: It was a tough weekend for me at Mount Christie. After my hospitalization, I'm done racing for the year. I was forced to just take starts in a few of my classes to make sure that I sealed up my points championships. It's pretty tough watching your friends and competitors racing while sitting on a sled on the starting line, but I guess it's better than still being in the hospital. I should end up winning all of the Pro classes except for Ultra Pro, and I'll end up being the top overall Pro. It was a heck of season for me, although I would have liked to finished it out with actual racing and not just taking starts. A special thanks to Kevin Bird for letting me borrow his snowmobile to take starts on. It saved me from hauling my trailer down and having that temptation to let it rip on the sleds instead of just taking starts.

3/24/2010: I'm back at home now. I've actually been out of the hospital and back at home since Monday night. I'm feeling pretty well too. I've still got some pain around where I had the chest tube, and that will take a while to heal up and be back to normal. Unfortunately it means that I'm not able to finish out the season racing. I'm still thinking that I might take the starts at the final MSRA race this weekend for points, if that means that I can still win some of the classes in overall points. It will be a last minute decision based on how the points standings shake out and how many pro riders are signed up to race. I'd really like to take home some championships this year as I was racing really well, but we'll see how things work out. I'm happy to have my health and I shouldn't have any long term side effects from this accident either. A big thanks to everyone that stopped to see me in the hospital and for all of the messages, e-mails, and phone calls wishing me well. A special thank you to my girlfriend Kimberly for staying with me the whole time in the hospital, and also to my parents for spending the extra time in Brainerd with me and driving back and forth to get everything home.

3/22/2010: Ski-Gull turned out to be not the greatest weekend for me. I raced well and made all of my finals- taking home two seconds, four thirds, and one fourth by the end of the day. The trouble I had with the weekend was actually with my first race of qualifying for the weekend. It had gotten cold on Friday night and the track was pretty firm on Saturday morning for racing. I won my first race, but I got a little sideways going across the finish line jump. I tried to straighten the sled back out in the air and save the landing, but with how hard the snow was, I got tossed from the sled when I landed a little sideways. I hit the ground hard and got the breath knocked out of me while my 800 proceeded to flip a few times before coming to a stop. I got right up and got the sled back right side up and proceeded to race out the rest of the day. I hurt quite a bit and was a little short of breath, but I figured with how hard I landed that I had bruised or possibly broken some ribs. There's really not a whole lot to do to treat broken ribs, so I figured I'd tough it out and keep racing. After all, there were TV cameras rolling and I'm still leading all of the Pro classes overall. After all the races were over I was still in quite a bit of pain, and still a little short of breath so I figured I better head to the ER and see if I really did break some ribs. Turns out I had a right pneumothorax (collapsed lung). It was more than just mildly collapsed (my right lung was about 30% collapsed), so a surgeon came in and placed a chest tube right away to help inflate my lung. Having a chest tube placed is the most painful thing I've ever had to deal with. I guess I've never had to deal with much for medical problems other than having my wisdom teeth removed, but this was a totally different kind of pain. I'm used to being sore and having quite a bit of muscle aches and pains from racing, but having a chest tube is like getting stabbed in the chest from the inside, constantly. Every time you take a deep breath or move (the tube is hooked up to a drain and suction, so there's always some sort of tension on it) it hurts. There was still an air leak in my chest tube on Sunday morning, so I earned myself another day in the hospital with the chest tube. Today, Monday, is going much better. The air leak in my lung has stopped, so I was pulled off of suction and just had my tube placed on a water seal drain. At noon another x-ray came back as normal with my lung still inflated well, so I got to have the tube removed. What a relief and decrease in pain that was. As I sit here now at 3:15 pm in my hospital bed, I'm waiting for one more x-ray at 4:30. If it comes back normal, I get to go home tonight. This whole experience is pretty crazy, especially racing a whole day with a collapsed lung and actually doing pretty well. The only problem now is that I probably shouldn't be racing any more this season. I'll have to see how the points look after this weekend, I could always go next weekend and just take starts and maybe get enough points to still win some classes overall. I should have some pictures from racing, and maybe an x-ray to put up on here later this week. I'm hoping that the crash and a few of my races make it on SpeedTV, but we'll have to see when the shows air in a few weeks.

3/16/2010: Quadna was another good weekend for me. It wasn't quite the domination that I had the first weekend, but all in all it was a good weekend. The competition was tougher this weekend with the Bauerly Racing trailer showing up and Chad and Kurt both racing in the Pro ranks. It also marked the return of Alex Roufs of Hammertyme Racing who is another great Pro class rider. Combine that with a narrow track that only allowed 4 racers to the finals, and it made for some fierce competition. The track consisted of two doubles, a triple, and a rhythm section of rollers right before the finish line. It had it's share of big air with the triple, and the rhythm section is a good change of pace for hillcross. It was much more of a technical track with big air/short distance jumps than I'm used to. In the end, I made all 7 of my finals and was even the #1 qualifier in Pro 800. I ended with one win in the finals, three 2nds, and three 3rds.

3/8/2010: The first race of the year went awesome! I ended up winning 20 of the 22 races I was in. The sleds were both running great, and I had a nice line figured out on the track. MSRA and Mt. Itasca put on a great show. The racing went really smoothly; you would never guess it was their first time having a race. The entire MSRA crew did an awesome job and I look forward to racing with them in the future. Mt. Itasca also has a great set-up for racing. You can watch the race from inside the chalet, or with how nice the weather was, everyone was out on their huge deck in front of the chalet. Their manager and groomer operator Jeff also did an awesome job with the track, he was always ready to go and touch up the finish line and fix any holes or problems with the track. It's things like that that made this weekend run so smoothly. I couldn't have asked for much more this weekend, the weather was gorgeous and the racing went amazingly well.

3/1/2010: Practice at Planet X this weekend went well. It's the first time I've really been out on the sleds for the year and they seemed to be running great. Now it's time to get the new graphics on in time for the first race. A special thanks to Fastline Graphix in Duluth, MN for getting them printed up so fast.

2/21/2010: Race season is almost here! I'm going to be running both MSRA and WSA Pro-Ice hillcross this year. MSRA is new circuit this year and has the potential to become the premier hillcross circuit in the country. It's run by racers/former racers and they're doing everything they can think of to promote the sport. We'll even have a race broadcast on the SpeedTV this year! Lucas Oil "On the Edge" will be covering the Brainerd race (3/20/2010). Check out http://www.msraracing.com for details. My tentative race schedule is posted on my current results page.

3/23/2009: It was the first time I've had the chance to race at Mont Du Lac in Superior, WI. The weekend ended up alright, with me making all of my finals and taking home two podiums. Qualifying on Saturday was not my strongest showing. If I could keep the sled pointed straight up the hill, I won, but the rest of the times I was getting kicked sideways in the air and finishing in the back of the pack. I managed to always stay on the sled and keep myself from getting injured, but it meant that I had to go through a couple of LCQ's on Sunday morning to make all my finals. On Sunday I managed to do quite well for having last pick on the line for the majority of my races. I made the left side of the track that no one else liked work for me and managed two podiums and top 5 in 5/6 of my classes. My back was getting pretty sore though, and I sat out the long jump contest.

3/17/2009: Happy St. Patrick's Day! Good thing I'm on spring break now, because I found out that my crash at Park-X bent the "flying nun" on my 800. It's a huge structural piece that holds the front suspension together. I ordered the parts to fix it now, and luckily I've actually got some time to get it fixed. My back is feeling better, but I'm still not 100%. I've been trying to take it easy, but I'm still grateful for the weekend off. I would have been no where near ready physically or mechanically if there would have been a race 14th.

3/9/2009: Park-X was one of the worst weekends I've had in quite a while. There was a corner in the track, and it's been quite a while since I've tried to navigate a corner with 5 other racers at a time. It was a double header weekend with Saturday and Sunday being completely separate races. Saturday I ended up with a second, a third, a four, and a fifth. Not as well as I was hoping, but it was my first time racing a sled in almost a year, and my first time racing through a corner in two or three years. Sunday morning started off well. I was feeling fast and qualifying well, but things didn't stay that way for long. The groomer was broken, which meant that the track was in less than moderate condition with racers uncovering some very hard spots in the track. I managed to find one of those in the the form of an ice boulder right in the landing of one of the jumps. It kicked me and my snowmobile sideways into the face of the next jump, and needless to say I knew that I wasn't going to be able to ride this one out. I bailed mid-air and managed to find a nice patch of ice to land on with my lower back and tailbone. It completely knocked the wind out of me, and as soon as I tried to get up I knew my day was over. I loaded the sleds up and headed back towards Duluth to go to Urgent Care for some x-rays. Luckily they couldn't find any fractures in my lower back/tailbone, but there was a few days where I wasn't sure if they were right. Good thing there's an off weekend coming up, because I'm going to need some time to heal on this one.

2/2/2009: Race season is almost here! There's been snow on the ground in Minnesota since November, and now it's finally almost time for me to start racing. I'll be running the WSA Pro-Ice Hillcross circuit again this year in the Pro classes. I've cut back to two sleds this year, since last year there was no one else that ran Pro 500. It frees up a little room in the trailer not having to have a third sled, and makes my mechanicing duty a little less hectic on weekends too. No new sleds for me this year though. I decided to save myself the time and money it takes to set up a new sled and put it into making my sleds from last year perform even better. It should be a good season!

9/10/2008: It's been quite a while since my last update, but that's mainly because not a whole lot has happened for me racing so far. I'm still up in the air for what brand of sleds I'll be riding next year. I've still got my Ski-Doo 600 and 800 mods from last year that I can race, so I'll be racing for sure this winter, but there's still a chance I could end up on Polaris or some newer Ski-Doo's. I'll post more when I know for sure.

7/6/2008: So I've really been slacking on getting the Spirit Mountain photos up, but I finally got some of them up now. There should still be more photos coming from Giant's Ridge and Spirit Mountain once they finish getting edited. Not much else has changed for my plans on racing. I'll be racing next year for sure, but the plans for new sleds are still up in the air. The association that ran the snocross circuits (WPSA) went bankrupt, so all of the snowmobile manufacturers seem to be waiting for plans for new racing circuits to get sorted out before they give out any info on the new sleds and pricing and such.

5/13/2008: Some of the pictures from Giant's Ridge are finally up. The ones right now are from Allen at http://www.aroundtherange.com/. He's got pictures of all of the racers on his site, so check it out if you were racing there. My mom is still having computer troubles, so there will be more photos from the last two races once she finally gets everything working again. I'm also working on making a few videos with some highlights of me from the TV footage shot at the last 4 races, so watch for that to get up here soon too!

4/29/2008: Another season is officially over now with the banquet being last weekend. I ended up with plaques in every class, which I think is actually a first for me. If I wouldn't have had so much trouble with my 800 at Park X, I would have ended up second in every class. I've got a whole summer now to think about what I'm going to do to be faster next year, and I think I've found out how I'm going to be much faster next year. The pictures from the end of the year should finally be up soon. Computer issues for my mother have kept me from even seeing them yet, but once I do I'll get them posted on here. The videos that will be on television are also finally posted on the Pro-Ice website (http://www.pro-ice.com) and I'll try to put some clips of my racing up on here soon too.

4/14/2008: Spirit Mountain marks the last snowmobile race of the season, and another season has gone by without any major problems. Results wise, it was actually the worst race of the season for me, but the competition was very tough. There were over 20 Pro's there, and with the track conditions only 6 were going to make it to the final. I ended up winning the Jackson X final, along with 4th's in both Pro 900 and Open. I missed the 600, 700, and 800 finals by small margins in the LCQ's. It's frustrating to miss finals, but I was racing well all weekend, just had some mechanical issues and bad luck that kept me from making all my finals. I ended out Sunday with a 3rd in the Pro King of the Hill race, and a 5th in the long jump competition. Overall it was a good season. I had a lot more wins than last year, and a ton of seconds. I ended up being the 2nd overall Pro, which is great accomplishment.

4/7/2008: Hometown races are a lot of fun, but also very stressful. Giant's Ridge is as close as I ever get to home, and while it's always a good time, I also put a lot of pressure on myself to do well. I ended up being at the track on Friday from about 10-8:30 testing set-ups and trying to make sure that everything would be running great and looking good. Saturday went off almost flawlessly. I had one of the best days of qualifying that I've ever had. My 800 was finally was running great, and my 600 was no slouch either. It was also a beautiful sunny day, and we had a big BBQ for the racers afterwards thanks to my mom and Brian Bauerly. That night my luck turned on me. I ended up getting sick around 9pm, which might not be a bad thing since it sent me home early to go to bed, but it wasn't fun. I felt alright in the morning, but we were now in the middle of a blizzard. There was a foot of fresh snow on the ground, and I was glad I had some time to do some testing in the morning to see how it was going to effect my set-ups. I thought things were going good, practice went well, and I was looking forward to the finals, but then the mechanical troubles hit. The check engine light starting flashing at me on my 600, which usually means one of the sensors is bad and defaults the engine to "do no harm" mode, which meant my sled wasn't going to be as fast as it usually is. Frustrating, but with how well my 800 was running, I was just focused on winning with that. I won the Jackson final, and took second in Pro open, but mechanical trouble struck again in Pro 900. I had rear suspension trouble which killed my 900 run, and put me on a borrowed sled for Pro 800 and King of the Hill. A special thanks to Alex Roufs for letting me borrow his 800. It's a fast sled, but set-up very differently than mine and that kept me from performing how I should have. I ended up getting my 800 fixed in time for the big air contest (again thanks to Alex and Jim Roufs) and had a great time. The big air contest is something that was designed as a little extra show for the fans and TV cameras. All Semi-Pro and Pro drivers are given the chance to hit the feature jump of the track twice, and the drivers with the 3 longest jumps take home some extra money. My first round jump was great. I had a great line and it actually put me into the first spot (134 feet) by a comfortable margin. For the second round, my jump was almost identical, and some other guys found some good lines and ended up putting me into third, with the winning jump being 138 feet. It ended up being a bittersweet weekend with great results on Saturday, and some troubles on Sunday. Also a special thanks to Les Harkonen. He helps me out at some of the races with set-ups and mechanical help. He really keeps me on my toes, and my stuff always runs better when he's around.

3/31/2008: Cascade Mountain was another successful race. My 600 sled was running great as always, and even lead me into the finals as the top qualifier in both Pro 600 and 700. In both those finals, I nailed the holeshot and got out to an early lead, but both times got kicked sideways about 2/3's of the way up the hill making for extremely close finishes that left me in second place both times. I was having some difficulties with my 800 again, this time with some rear suspension problems due to pretty hard landings. It's been frustrating having my 600 run so well with relatively little effort compared to my 800, but I think that everything is finally falling into place for the 800. I've made a lot of changes to it lately and I think I finally have them all working together properly. I'm looking forward to next weekend, as it's as close to a hometown race that I get, and the far away races are finally done for the year. I also just finished what is supposed to be the hardest class of the first year of medical school. That frees up some extra time for racing and also clears my head a little more so I can focus on the final two races.

3/24/2008: My hard work over spring break seemed to pay off. The race was in Brainerd, MN and I finally got my 800 to run competitively. It took me up until midnight the night before the races, but it is running MUCH better and my results show that. I still had some bad luck with starts, and did have a crash in qualifying, but the finals went fairly smooth for me. I won the Jackson X class, took second in Pro 700 and 800, and third in Pro 600. I took 4th in Pro 900 and 8th in Pro Open, but those were primarily due to bad starts. I was really pleased to have Les and Jayne Harkonen come with to the races. Les got me involved in motor sports and is always helpful with set-ups and mechanical advice, and Jayne was in the crowd cheering me on and helping my mom out while she took pictures. I'd also like to thank her for showing up and taking photos. WIthout her, I would not have nearly as many or as nice of photos on this site.

3/11/2008: Park-X is usually never one of my good races, and the trend continues. I had everything from bad starts, tangles with other drivers, and bad luck in the draws for line choice in qualifying. I still ended up 2nd in Pro 600 and Jackson, along with 4th in Pro 700, but the 800+ classes weren't good. I couldn't get my 800 running how I wanted to, and the track was much too flat and fast for me to be competitive on my 600 in those classes. I'm glad that there's an off weekend and my spring break coming up so that I can really go through my 800 and get it running good for the rest of the season.

3/4/2008: The first weekend of hillcross went great. It was actually the first two races combined into one weekend with Saturday and Sunday being completely different races. I ended up winning four class, second in three, third in two, and top five in the rest. I had really good luck on the new Rev XP chassis. My set-ups and tuning of my 600 mod were running great, and I actually ended up running my 600 mod in all of the finals except the 500 class. It was pulling great holeshots and seemed to get me through the rhythm section right after the start much faster than I could on a regular Rev chassis. For Sunday, the Pro 500 class was canceled due to me being the only entry. It's sad to see one of my best classes get canceled, but hopefully some more Pro's will show up and some of them will be willing to run the 500 class. All in all it was a good weekend for me. I had good results and didn't have any major issues with equipment or my body, other than being sore at the end of the day.

2/23/2008: The new web site is up! Not all of the pages are complete, but it is officially lfcracing.com now. The first hillcross race that was scheduled for this weekend in Iowa was canceled, so I've got a little extra time to work on the site and catch up with life. Medical school has really cut into my racing time, but I still got to race ATV's on ice once this winter. No snocross for me this year, which is a first since I started racing in 2003.

---