A warm sunny day combined with a lack of vintage snowmobile drag races made Nipawin’s Shiver by the River a success.
“Everything went well. It went smooth,” said Cam Livingston with the Twin Lakes Trail Blazers. “We had a great turnout: largest number of heats and sleds run ever, I believe, so it was a record year, which was good.”
There were 170 registered sleds running 284 races at the March 4 event.
“We were only the second race of the year,” Livingston said. “Other races had been cancelled, so everybody was looking to get out, which probably helped with the numbers.”
Despite the warm weather, there were no problems for the snowmobiles.
“We had a great foundation for our track and it held up really well, even though it was warm,” the event co-ordinator said.
The races had to be moved back because there wasn’t enough snow on the original date.
The drag races began 16 years ago, as a fundraiser that helps the Twin Lakes Trail Blazers maintain 228 kilometres of trail.
Livingston first got involved in the event as a racer.
“I’ve been involved with the vintage snowmobile races as a racer and wanted to get more involved in our own club here and I took the reins over just this last year.”
He takes over from Al Pinkney, who co-ordinated the event for the first 15 years.
“Al has done a great job and he’s made it very easy to get involved and take over his spot there.”
For Livingston, vintage snowmobile racing’s appeal involved the group of racers he works with.
“Everybody is out to have fun, it’s quite relaxed, great atmosphere, great racers, great people and to be racing sleds that are older than you are, it’s pretty cool.”
The event co-ordinator acknowledged the efforts of the sponsors, volunteers and the club, who make the race possible.
