The 45th World Championship Snowmobile Derby made Brian Bewcyk a first-time world champion after a week of heated oval racing in bitter cold.
Bewcyk (#39 Ski-Doo) dominated the final and beamed up at the audience in Eagle River, Wisconsin, where each year the most sought-after oval title is up for grabs. “If anybody ever wants to win in this sport you’ve got to try hard and keep going and you could be standing where I am one day,” he said.
Gary Moyle (#66 Arctic Cat) stood there a year earlier and also in 2005 and dogged Bewcyk for most of 25 laps, hoping to stand there again.

“I could hear him a few times,” Bewcyk acknowledged, adding that the two re-starts over the long race told him Moyle was having trouble.  “At the red flag I knew he was having problems and couldn’t turn his sled off, so I knew he was running warm,” he said. After the new start, “I just rode on and just rode from there on. I found a good line I was real comfortable with.”

Several minutes of rest after each accident was a benefit, he added. “Gary’s a really physical guy. He works really hard. He’s considerably younger than me, so I probably should have had a handicap anyway,” Bewcyk joked. He’s 43, while Moyle is 28.

“Yeah, I’m definitely younger than him,” Moyle smiled. “That definitely would have helped if we hadn’t had that second start, but like I said, Brian drove a helluva race.” He said a broken recoil was part of his troubles.

It was a two-man race for the lead, with Moyle of Houghton, Michigan grabbing first place momentarily, but with no challenge from Dan Fenhaus, who finished third. There were no mechanical problems for Fenhaus (#10 Arctic Cat) of Wausau, Wisconsin, who rode a re-tooled machine.

“Everything went A-OK. Last week we had a whole new set of pipes - maybe not as good on the start as my old pipes, but they seemed like they kept the power, so that’s what we needed.”

The problems Fenhaus rode through faced every racer. “Traffic was getting kind of cruel at the end,” he said, plus, “The track changes every single year. This year turn one and two were absolutely brutal. It was ripping the handlebars right out of your hands. You can’t prepare for that. You ride as hard as you can until you’re about ready to fall off.”

Still, in the world of snowmobile oval racing, Eagle River is hallowed ground and the final 12 racers count themselves lucky to be there. “Derby Week” is a festive time of daytime racing and nighttime parties that stared nine days earlier with “Loadmaster Classic Vintage Weekend” and ended Sunday afternoon in the fastest, longest race of the year.

Before the world championship final the national anthems of both Canada and the U.S rang out. Flags of a dozen countries waved freely, held aloft by strong winds that pulled the sub zero temperatures ever colder. Thousands of fans were in the “hot seats” around the track, but most were standing on sloped banks, watching the potential champions get ready and shuffling to stay warm. Overhead, a helicopter that had offered rides all day slowed to a hover, and racers and fans alike seemed eager for the green flag to fall as the sun fell lower and lower.

Bewcyk had earned the pole position in Friday’s qualifying rounds and the racer from Winnipeg, Manitoba was in the lead around corner one. Each racer leaned low into the turns, fighting momentum and hoping their tread grabbed the ice track just right for the fastest maneuvers.

On the fourth corner of that lap Brad Bettin (#20 Polaris) flipped off his sled after being bumped and slid safely in front of it as the race slowed to a stop. His Polaris couldn’t be repaired quickly enough and he didn’t return.

The racers returned to the starting area, in the order they had been at the accident. Bewcyk again led the way, with Moyle in tow. By the third lap they’d pulled ahead of any challengers, while Matt Schulz (#38 Polaris) was third, with Fenhaus behind and three-time champ PJ Wanderscheid (#28 Arctic Cat) in fifth.

Action again stopped in lap six when Dustin Wahl (#74 Polaris) strangely pulled off the track. His team later said he was rattled and dizzy from the rough weekend of racing.

After the restart Bewcyk fended off Moyle’s efforts to pass and soon pulled away in the straightaways. After a few more laps the leaders hit lap traffic. By lap 18 Moyle had managed to catch up to the leader and made his move in corner 4, grabbing the lead.

One lap later Nicholas Van Strydonk (#13 Polaris) crashed into the haybales of corner one, which he later said was due to the rough track.
As medical crews helped Van Strydonk and his team cleared his machine off the track, Moyle’s crew was desperately trying to get his machine to turn off and cool down. They couldn’t, and on the restart he lost the hole shot and the lead to Bewcyk.

Fenhaus kept strong behind Schulz but couldn’t manage a pass when suddenly Schulz pulled off the track in lap 21. His machine had inexplicably shut down, but the race went on.

After the race Fenhaus said he didn’t know if he would have been able to make take third place. “He was running good and strong and it kind of sucks that we couldn’t have ran until the end together, but I guess that’s kind of what happens.” Both men are from Wausau in north-central Wisconsin.  Ironically, 1993 champion Al Fenhaus is the name of Schulz’s uncle.
None of the leaders came close to another pass and they sailed to the finish independently. At the awards ceremony Bewcyk received his $10,000 prize check. The only Canadian in this year’s race held his oversized prize and joked on the slipping value of the US dollar. “Five years ago I would have been three times as excited as I am now, but I’m still pretty darn excited.”

Earlier Yamaha grabbed an important win for its young snocross team when Yuji Nakazawa became Snocross World Champion. “Yes, it’s very good day. Horigato very much,” he smiled, struggling to find the proper English.
Yamaha continues to run its new four-stroke sleds in the WPSA snocross series but brings Nakazawa to other series as it continues its research and development. The Eagle River race doesn’t attract the caliber of racers as the WPSA pro series does, but many of its semi pro and sport riders compete there. In 2003 the winner was Tucker Hibbert, considered the best snocross racer today

It was an important win Sunday after last year’s disappointing finish in the WPSA series, and the CEO of Yamaha’s worldwide headquarters was on hand to see it. Nakazawa and his Nytro grabbed the hole shot and held the lead throughout, riding the jumps sculpted in the center of the world-famous oval track.

“The suspension is good. The sled is awesome,” he said. “Very, very cold, but it’s ok.”

Just competing at Eagle River is a great honor, says #24 Rob Boussum. His Arctic Cat didn’t manage a top finish, but each year this race is the highlight of his season. “I’ve been here since I was six years old, so 14 years.  2001 was my first time racing. I have an oval racer too. When I first started we got a sled so I could run juniors and I never did it. The next year we got a Z Sno Pro from Cat and I’ve been sticking with it ever since.”

He saw the first snocross races at Eagle River and once, following a nighttime of Eagle River adventures, “One of my buddies said, ‘One day you’ll be up there.’ I said, ‘Yeah, right!’”

Since 1975 the main flag man and announcer has been Ted Otto, but the Floridian is retired after the last race. “You may see me around sometime, so come say ‘hello.’ It’s been a great ride,” he said.