At the first cross-country race of the 2012-2013 USXC season, aboard the all-new Sno Pro 600 ProCross and Sno Pro 500 race machines, Team Arctic racers delivered an overwhelmingly-dominant performance that rewrote the record books. When it was over, Team Green captured 16 of 20 classes via 14 individual winners at the Gerald Dyrdahl MemoriaPine Lake 200.
Ryan Simons
Leading the history-making assault was two-time cross-country Pro champion Ryan Simons of the Christian Bros. Racing (CBR) team, who won both the 100-mile Pro Stock and 100-mile Pro Open finals convincingly. Joining Simons on the podium of both finals were his Team Arctic/CBR teammates Brian Dick and newcomer Zach Herfindahl. Including the Pro classes, there were 13 podium sweeps by Team Arctic, making this one of the most successful racing weekends in modern history.
“We’ve enjoyed outstanding success in cross-country over the years but this reset the high mark for winning,” said Mike Kloety, Team Arctic Race Manager. “It shows what’s possible when you combine the outstanding efforts of our racers and crews with the speed and handling of our Sno Pro race sleds.”
Bryan Dick
Joining Simons as a two-time class winner at Pine Lake was Bryce Buchanan, who returned to his familiar place atop the Expert 85 classes aboard his Arctic Cat Sno Pro 500. Nearly nailing the big double, Erik Nymann went 1-2 in the two Sport 600 finals, while Jon Arneson raced a record number of laps en route to his first in Semi Pro Stock, third in Masters 40-plus and fourth in Expert 85.
“The improvements to the 2013 Sno Pro 600 in the ProCross chassis gave us an even greater handling and speed advantage on the fast lake course,” said Kloety. “Of the 14 individual class winners aboard Arctic Cat sleds, six of them were on the new Sno Pro 600.”
Zach Herfindahl
The next race on the USXC cross-country circuit is Jan. 5, 2013, in Detroit Lakes, Minn.
