Kids in the sport
Today’s young riders are tomorrow’s Iron Dog champions
COURTESY ANDY SWENSON
Intermediate 200cc racers line up for Fairbanks Snowmobile Fun Lion’s Club races in Fairbanks. Club support of youth racing, and advancement in sled technology, is helping to develop tomorrow’s future Iron Dog racers.
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ost parents will agree that they want their kids outside being active, not staring at a TV or computer screen. But “outside” can get boring – until you introduce a snowmachine into their winter recreation. There is nothing boring about it, and with the evolution of the snowmachine in recent years, some might say a kind of training ground for Iron Dog. Snowmachine clubs across the state see snowmachine evolution as a way to introduce children to the sport of cross-country snowmachining at an early age. Not only does it keep kids active, but perhaps most important it also teaches them how to ride safely and responsibly from a young age. Early riding experience also can help usher in the next generation of riders, and maybe even racers. Who knows which of today’s 10-year-old riders are 2032’s Pro Class racers? Their love of the sport is being solidified now. “The production of the ZR/Snoscoot 200cc machines have made cross-country racing possible for kids between ages of 5 and 12,” said Tim Gossett, race organizer for Alaska Cross Country Racing, whose mission is to develop Iron Dog’s future racer pool. “Now kids have the ability to level up from a chain-driven 120 to a belt-driven 200cc sled that fits their body size and youth frames.” Gossett is part of a group of lifelong Alaskans who have been brainstorming ways in which they can grow the sport of snowmachining among youth. Traditionally, snocross track racing has been the most common form of youth racing options available, but in Alaska, where it’s all about the wilderness, ACCR felt cross country racing needed to be better represented. “Many Alaskan families with talented riders will talk about having to choose between time in the backcountry as a family learning life lessons and survival skills, or standing around racetracks talking strategy and analyzing racers,” Gossett said. “We started wondering how to incorporate both into our winter lives while simultaneously reshaping what ‘could be’ for youth racing in Alaska.” That is how one of Alaska’s newest – and most successful youth races – the Scary Tree 50 – came to be. The first race was held in 2021 and attracted 32 racers. This year’s race will be held March 12, and ACCR is offering three other youth cross country racing opportunities on its calendar as well. In mini-Iron Dog Pro Class fashion, the Scary Tree 50 was a team race – only the pint-sized competitors were 6 to 12 years old, riding 200cc snowmachines. They rode in teams of two, accompanied by an adult escort. The 16 youth teams started on Big Lake and traveled 25 miles to “Scary Tree,” an infamous
Industry grows to meet youth demand Kids snowmachining is gaining in popularity as more families embrace the “Families that ride together stay together” mentality. And industry growth is following. “In a general sense we’ve been steadily increasing the amount of youth gear we build in accordance with how the market is growing,” said Lukas Eddy, communications manager at Klim. “Every year we continue rolling out more and more youth-sized products to give people options for what to get. We’re definitely excited to see parents get their kids out on sleds and enjoying the sport, it’s great to see that getting passed on to the next generation.” Josh Estes, district manager of Yamaha Motor Corp., is seeing similar interest in the sport and positive signs that there is growth. Sales of Yamaha’s 200cc and 120cc almost doubled between 2018 and 2020, and industrywide 550cc and 400cc models, which are often sold to youth and new riders, are showing “extreme levels of growth,” he said. While the snowmachine industry has struggled amid the COVID pandemic the last two years, he said, these types of figures help keep the outlook rosy. “When you lump in mid bore 400cc step up type models and you pull data from pre-COVID, I can tell you all four brands have doubled in volume in the last eight years in Alaska,” he added. Eddy, with Klim, said that while the gear may be smaller in size, it’s still mighty in performance. “We don’t ‘dumb down’ the kids gear in relation to our adult gear,” he said. “We use the same materials and construction processes for everything, so when parents buy their kids some KLIM gear, they know the kids are getting the same experience.”
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