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The 2008 USCC I-500,
the FIRST FOUR-TIME WINNER is CROWNED
SNO-X Magazine Vol 6, No 4, Feb 2008
Story by Jim Urquhart, Images by Tyler Mathwich.

The 2008 USCC I-500: The First Four-Time Winner Is Crowned

The United States Cross Country Snowmobile Racing Association (USCC) Red Lake I-500 is one of the most grueling snowmobile races on the planet. It’s 500 miles of ditches, rivers, lakes, woods and logging roads and various other terrain all mixed together into a sled-crunching, muscle-cramping event that is a challenge for even the best riders in the world. This year Mother Nature also showed up and threw sub-zero temperatures into the mix just to make sure everyone was paying attention. SNO-X Magazine was there knee deep in the competition (see sidebars) and went inside to bring you, the SNO-X reader, all the action. So follow along as we find out about fixing your sled in the ditch, riding into washouts and making history by winning a fourth I-500.

In The Pits
It’s Friday morning, the first day of the USCC Red Lake I-500. Diesel pickups are scattered throughout the pits next to Seven Clans Casino in Thief River Falls, Minnesota, on fast idle, struggling to stay at operating temperature in the -13 Fahrenheit air. Ski-Doo racer and reigning I-500 champion Bryan Dyrdahl jumps out of his Ford F250 Powerstroke, makes a quick walk to his black trailer and steps inside.

“Is it warm in here yet? He asks.

There’s already a buzz of activity in his rig. Talking about how he’s going to dress the first day, someone asks how many layers he’s going to wear.

“All of them,” he says. “It’s going to be cold on that river.”

Early in the season the three-time I-500 winner was having back problems, but he went to a chiropractor who fixed him up. He’s healthy and ready to go for win number four, but no one has ever won the I-500 four times. Surprisingly, he talks about hanging it up.

“I don’t know how long I’m going to keep racing,” Dyrdahl says. “It’s all I’ve done, I started racing when I was seven and I’m 29 now. We’ll see how the season goes.”

Hi mechanics, Todd and Jimbo, are on double time, readying fuel cans and shuffling gear between the truck and the trailer. Ski-Doo Racing Coordinator Tom Lawrence enters the trailer to talk to Dyrdahl about the course. Throughout this whole scene Dyrdahl is the picture of calmness.

Across the pits in the Black Magic trailer Arctic Cat racer Jeff Gruhlke scrambles to get things in order. He’s only ridden his race sled once and that was less than a week ago. Nervous? A veteran racer, Gruhlke’s got a District 23 250B motocross points championship on his resume, a Semi-Pro snocross National win and he damn near won the WPSA Semi-Pro National points titles in 2004. He knows how to deal with pressure, but the odds are stacked against him. With little machine setup and the severe cold, nothing is going his way and the clocks haven’t even started.

“I just need to get on the sled and ride it,” he says flatly. “Besides, it’s for the kids.”

Gruhlke’s racing for charity along with two other racers, anything he wins will be donated to Children’s Miracle Network and Gillette Children’s Hospital.

Back again on the other side of the pits, Alaskan Chad Gueco is ready to start his third I-500. He’s been on the road much of the winter already shooting the Yamaha OEM sleds, racing, testing and preparing to race the Soo I-500. He’s already got a victory there, now he wants one in the Red Lake I-500. “I’m an ice oval racer, but Yamaha asked me if I wanted to race cross-country a few years back and I said, ‘Yes,’” Gueco recalls. “I’m hooked now, it’s so much fun. I have a victory at the Soo and I really want to win this race, too. It would be huge for myself but it would be really huge for Yamaha to win this race.” Despite little test time, Gueco feels good about his setup and is maybe the most confident of the Yamaha riders.

Polaris rider Gabe Bunke is one of the race favorites. He’s on a sled package that’s a few years old so his setup is dead on and he’s finished second in this race more times than he’d like to count. He’s confident and looking to win.