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Show i mm i jm 'i imiiiijii ijf n n "yiw www Hp up mi' y $ w 5'ark ii Newspaper More ways to enjoy winter nmvp Races attract crowds in Heber and Midway Page CI Thursday, February 10, 1983 by Nan Chalat Skiing is just one way to pass the winter. Residents of a ski town might have a tendency to forget there are other snow sports too. But Wasatch County hasn't forgotten. Last weekend hundreds of spectators gathered at the Heber Fairgrounds Fair-grounds and at Wasatch Mountain State Park to watch some less common winter events. At the fairgrounds, cutter racing enthusiasts cheered for their favorite teams in the season-ending local finals. And at the park, the largest dog sled race in the state attracted more teams (and more spectators) than ever before. Cuttter Races The Heber-Kamas Cutter Racing Association wrapped up its 13-week season last Saturday. The top four teams will compete in the state finals in South Jordan Feb. 26-27 and those winners will go on to the World Finals in Elko March 25-27. As a spectator sport, cutter (or chariot) racing is as exciting as a professional horse race. Each team consists of two sleek horses (quarterhorses and thoroughbreds tho-roughbreds are the most common) pulling a driver in a one man chariot. The course is a straight quarter mile with two teams usually running neck and neck toward a photofinish. I ' - " .nil ! ! 11111 . 1111 111111111 .' !.l'""t: 1 1 11 111 1 -""' .-WiWjf .:H'fp?"-' -1 . ". . . " 1 " 11 11 . - , " V UZ- mm mMXTj..,r. . :; . -' :. iit - ' p -' . .)'. .. --....' - " ' ' i ' .i';v 'infN v's-;:':X , s . C f7 M r-- ts -i:! .v Ci J .... ... 3 1 I ll Many of the participants were anxious to see whether the Custom Trailers team, driven by Larry Wardle of Oakley, would finish the season undefeated. In a close race Wardle did maintain his unblemished record, just defeating Ken's Kash (driven by Ken Woolsten-hulme Woolsten-hulme also of Oakley). Wardle's winning team consists of two four-and-a-half-year-old thoroughbred-quarterhorse thoroughbred-quarterhorse crosses. Their fastest time on the quarter mile tract this season was 22.95 seconds. Wardle says he will be running against the best teams in the world and he said, "I plan to give them a good run." The top four teams in the Kamas Heber Association are: First place Larry Wardle, Oakley Second place Ken Wool-stenhulme, Wool-stenhulme, Oakley Third place Ben Remund and Lamar Christensen Fourth place Billy Harris, Oakley Eighth through twelfth place runoffs will be held at the Heber Fairgrounds next Saturday at 1 p.m. Spectators Specta-tors are welcome. Dog Sled Races The annual dog sled race at Wasatch Mountain State Park is always the biggest in the state. But according to park officials, this year's was the biggest ever. Fifty-seven Fifty-seven three-, five- and seven-dog seven-dog teams competed and the ABOVE AND BELOW, RIGHT: Cutter teams race for the finish line at the Wasatch County fairgrounds. fair-grounds. BELOW, LEFT AND BOTTOM, RIGHT: Dog sled teams charge away from the start, only to return dog tired. BOTTOM, LEFT: Cheer Painter finished third in both five- and seven-dog classes. sunny weather both Saturday Satur-day and Sunday attracted hundreds of spectators. The parking lot at the golf course looked like a chaotic kennel full of predominantly Alaskan-husky-Siberian crosses. In addition to the standard husky-type sled dogs, there were teams of hounds, setters and even mutts from the local pound. Many of the mushers have begun breeding their own ideal sled dog crosses. They breed for speed, endurance, tolerance to cold and minimal mini-mal weight. Often the dogs aren't much to look at until they start running in front of a sled. The rolling winding track on the golf course offered spectators a perfect opportunity op-portunity to catch all the action. The track, which included a series of three-, five- and seven-mile cutoffs for the different size teams, was set by Frank Vincent of Midway and the Division of Parks and Recreation. From several vantage points teams could be seen coming and going, which was great for the fans but sometimes confusing for the dogs. Sled dog racing appears to be a safe sport with a lot of comraderie between the contestants. con-testants. For those who are addicted to mountain winters win-ters but have found the novelty of skiing to be wearing thin, dog sledding might be just the thing to try. Local musher Diana Maxell, whose husband and son are photos by Nan Chalat and Jill Snyder both enthusiastic racers, says there are several good teams for sale. Those who are interested in the sport should attend the races and talk to the mushers. "The biggest problem is finding a place to keep them," she explained. The local Kanganark Mushers. with members in Park City, Oakley, Francis, Midway and Heber, will travel to Granby, Colorado to race next weekend. The next race in Utah will be The Uinta Summit Race March 21-22. The race will begin at the the Bear River Service Station on the Evanston side of the Uinta Mountains at 2 p.m. The course follows the Mirror Lake Highway over Bald Mountain Pass to Samak. This year the teams will lay over in Samak until the following morning before racing back to the start. Over the weekend local teams raced alongside nationally-known mushers. Mike Boaz's team of Alaskan Huskies from Truckee, California Cali-fornia took first in the five-and five-and seven-dog classes and second in the three-dog class. The seven-dog team completed the seven-mile course in 25 minutes 35 seconds on Saturday and 23:25 on Sunday. Gary Ja-cobsen's Ja-cobsen's team from Milad, Idaho finished second with combined time only 11 seconds se-conds behind Boaz. For more scores please turn to the Scoreboard section. |