As far as sports arenas go, Chilkat Lake is hard to beat. Saturday’s Chilkat Snowburners’ Chilkat 100 carved through an untouched track marked on the lake’s frozen surface, in a natural bowl with 4,000 foot peaks for a back wall. The only thing missing from the usual was a parking lot: with the only way into the lake in the winter by snowmachine, racers, race vehicles and race watchers alike all commuted in the same way – along with a supply of food, drinks, and trophies for the winners.
What started as a crisp morning quickly warmed, filling with a haze of running engines and roasting hotdogs. As drivers gathered for a pre-race meeting, four-time racer Gable Sage said that smell was how he knew he was home. “The fumes in the air,” said Sage. “It’s just awesome.”
This particular iteration of the 20-lap, 100-mile race has been organized by Snowburners for the past five years, though the history of racing snowmachines on the lake goes back at least to the 1980s. Organizer Chris Brooks, a multi-time Alcan 200 winner, said the more low-key racing format draws competitors who may not have the time, energy, or resources to compete in a race like the Alcan.
Sure enough, Saturday’s race had a number of first-time snowmachine racers, including father-and-son team Ira and Dalton Henry, who would go on to win the 651 open liquid class division.
Father Ira Henry said snowmachining has long been part of the family, though only on mountain sleds. They were able to enter the race after Brooks loaned them proper racing sleds, which Ira Henry said are lower profile and have shorter tracks – built for speed – compared to their mountain sleds. He made sure to note that Brooks had been kind to loan them good ones.
His son Dalton Henry said he was feeling pre-race nerves but had low expectations. “We came out for fun,” said Henry.
“I’ve never done this before, so I don’t have [stuff] on the line,” his father added.
High-schooler Brody Ferrin also made his debut, racing all 20 laps solo. Whereas other teams were able to swap back and forth at pit stops, Ferrin handled all the racing and refueling himself. Ferrin said that while he was feeling nerves before the race, he was able to draw confidence from a lifetime of riding sleds.
Of Ferrin’s friends who made it out to the lake, he’s the first to hit the track as a racer, though friends Winston Brooks, Corbin Brooks, and Evan Knight said they had been coming out to ride at the lake for much of their lives. They all agreed on one thing: it’s all about the speed.
“The best part is just that feeling of the speed,” said Winston Brooks. “That’s something you have to experience yourself.” Ferrin agreed, and said the one thing that would be on his mind once the race kicked off would be, simply, “go fast.”
After the 20 five-mile laps, Ferrin and the Henrys were among a number of top performers from the day:
Open Fan Class
1st: Randy Sloper
0-500cc Liquid
1st: Chris Brooks
2nd: Steven and Sean McLaughlin
3rd: Brody Ferrin
651 Open Liquid
1st: Ira and Dalton Henry
2nd: Rick Campbell and Rod Young
3rd: Lowell Narum and Tony Gregory
Other big winners on the day included a group of young fishermen who were able to supplement their roasted hotdogs with fresh-caught fish. Huxley Dunbar pulled a roughly foot-long cutthroat through the ice and decided to join the post-race award ceremony with his trophy. “Isn’t she a beaut,” Dunbar proudly declared to the assembled audience, to many laughs and smiles.
