Love of the sport

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- They're called hill drags out here in northern Brown County and people come from all around just to watch them.

Starting at 3:30 on a grey and slightly chilly Saturday afternoon, close to 100 people went out to Golden Gate campgrounds to see about 75 snowmobile drivers race each other in hopes of winning the honor of King Of The Hill.

The grounds in front of the chalet were awash in sleek new snowmobiles accompanied by drivers in bright new snowmobile suits. Yamaha, Ski-Doo, Arctic Cat, Polaris... you name it, the River Valley Dutchmen Snowmobile Club races it.

The hill itself was a chewed mess of light brown snow with sled tracks pressed firmly into the ground.

Each new race starts off with the announcer calling the pairing to the starting line. Once they're ready, they hit it, bouncing twice friskily over the jumps before the big scamper up the hill. Occasionally, a driver falls from the sled, prompting the crowd to gasp and the EMS team to sit up and take notice.

"It draws a lot of local racers. They come from within a 40 mile radius of New Ulm," explained club president Gary Kuelbs of New Ulm.

Spectators warmed their hands over open fires, sipped cold Schell's or hot cocoa and munched on the burgers and hotdogs inside the chalet.

The hill drags help raise the funds needed to maintain some 65 miles of marked snowmobile trails around Brown County. The club has the financial support of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. It also recently got a federal grant to buy a snow groomer.

But fundraising is not the main purpose of the races, say club officials.

"People come out to watch snowmobiling. We're not here to make money," said member Karen Stadick.

Doug Sullivan of New Ulm said he came out to see the hill drags out of a feeling of camaraderie with the River Valley Dutchmen. Sullivan rides his motorcycle with the Flying Dutchmen Motorcycle Club each summer. And each summer, his club has a similar event for motorcycles.

"It's good for people to have something to do on a Saturday," he said. "It's got something for everyone."

The races have five categories--stock, for regular snowmobiles; modified for sleds that have had some mechanical tweaking; women; legends, for people over 40 years old and King Of The Hill, where the winners of all the classes vie for the title in one last race.

Here's how the system works: each race has two sleds that run in a head-to-head competition. The tournament is double-elimination, meaning that if you loose twice, you go home. Each registered sledder makes at least two runs over the jumps and up the hill.

Totally, there are about 95 people who count themselves as River Valley Dutchmen members. Kuelbs said he thinks all snowmobilers in Minnesota should belong to clubs to prevent problems that the sport sometimes incurs, like riding across private land.

"My pet peeve is that people are complaining about how the trail isn't marked well or groomed," he said. "If we had more people, that wouldn't be a problem."