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End of an Era?


D-rail

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This is a thread I put on HCS a couple days ago. I know some guys can still access that site, but for those who don't get on there... This is pretty much a copy and paste.

 

Had to go look today. In the past 25 plus years, the Snocross circuit began here in Duluth. A lone gun sits on top of the hill,, awaiting orders to broadcast white gold. I walked to the main ski hill areas, and yes, the two foot thick snow is groomed and other guns have been busy.

 

The skiers got their wish.

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As a track worker for the event for over a dozen years, we were dissed many times, as the management(s) tended to claim that the ski hill did just fine without the snowmobilers. We were treated like we were second class citizens, except when the guys who started the event were running the show. The greenies frowned upon other events that involved snowmobiles, too. "Visit Duluth" was kicked out of the promotional programs, the city said they weren't needed. Anything to cut the costs. The venue grew exponentially, especially the last four years or so. There's no way the event caused the ski hill to lose money, when the weather was decent. I know it's been a struggle to get the track up and in shape for many years due to its early slot in the schedule. Today, looking at the amount of snow they had made for the rest of the slopes so far, no reason to think it wouldn't have been enough snow this year, like 95% of previous ones.

The city has had liberal mindsets when it came to supporting functions like this. I don't know that the skiers themselves put a consortium of naysayers about any of these, I feel they do tend to be put off by gasoline powered/motorized anything. If the council wants to keep the ski hill a viable enterprise, they should reconsider engaging these events. It brings more awareness, and what else the city has to offer, for recreational activities. I heard the management is once again changing this year.

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I’m gonna really miss not being trackside tomorrow.  We all had a feeling Spirit mountain and these liberal imbeciles were gonna screw this up.  And BINGO!  They hated sleds on their mountainside even though it was the biggest draw and most lucrative event they had all year, basically funding their woeful mismanagement through every season.

Sad….and to be expected when children are in charge.

Some great times many of us had their every t-giving weekend.

 

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2 minutes ago, racerdave said:

Not a snocross fan, so that's why I ask. Was attendance dwindling?

Numbers were supposedly hitting records every year.  Crowds were massive.  Well, except that blizzard weekend.

The money this brought in was huge.  But, they sidled up to the city for more taxpayer money instead (they’ve been struggling financially for years and years).  Fact is, they never really liked sleds on their hill and didn’t like us there at all.  And like they do, emotions got in the way of intelligent financial forward thinking.

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11 hours ago, Zambroski said:

Numbers were supposedly hitting records every year.  Crowds were massive.  Well, except that blizzard weekend.

The money this brought in was huge.  But, they sidled up to the city for more taxpayer money instead (they’ve been struggling financially for years and years).  Fact is, they never really liked sleds on their hill and didn’t like us there at all.  And like they do, emotions got in the way of intelligent financial forward thinking.

just increase the ski pass to make up for it and be sure to tell them why

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For some reason, I thought Spirit Mt was completely done.  It’s a great ski hill, and the Thanksgiving race was a huge asset for the city.

I was in Duluth 2 years ago during the blizzard and that was a freak storm of epic proportions.  If I hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t have believed what a mess that was.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Well, well, look at this turn of events.  Seems at least someone involved with Spirit Mountain is starting to rethink things. 

The cross country will race there April 2-3 plus hold their banquet there.  Good to see this for everyone involved and maybe a step towards bringing back those day after Thanksgiving races.  @Zambroski @D-rail

Quote

As we enter the 11th season of the Cor PowerSports Race series we constantly have been working on growing and expanding the series. In 2015 we started running spring ski hill races and over the past six seasons have held numerous ski hill events which continued to grow in popularity and bring our sport into the light of new fans and sponsors.
This fall at Hay Days, one of the events that most everyone is looking forward to is Whitecap Mountain; the opportunity for a spring cross country race on a ski hill is still one that many racers get excited about, just as we had been excited 7 years ago when we started processing this type of event.
When in those planning stages we made a list of what ski resorts were our “bucket list” venues and over the past 6 years we had run events at all of them except one… 4 weeks ago we received an email from the ONE asking if we’d be interested in bringing the cross country national series to their venue and with that we started finalizing our bucket list venue and from discussions with our sponsors and manufacturers it is something that is going to bring a lot of excitement and exposure for the series, our racers, and sponsors as it puts cross country right in the center of a large populated area… With that we are ecstatic to announce that Spirit Mountain will now host the Cor PowerSports Cross Country series April 2-3, 2022 which is also our season final event and banquet location.
Spirit Mountain is located in Duluth, MN and has a very long history in snowmobile racing, when we were contacted by Ann Glumac we were very cautious because of the legacy. In conversations Ann stated "Spirit Mountain is excited to welcome Cor PowerSports Cross-Country in April as part of our mission to offer multiple outdoor recreation opportunities and to attract visitors to our community," said Ann Glumac, interim executive director at Spirit Mountain. "In addition to the professional racers, we're pleased that local racers are welcome to compete, as well.  We look forward to hosting the racers and their teams and the spectators to this family-friendly event."
The event will feature a 5 mile course routed over the ski hill and what is special about Cor PowerSports is we have classes for just about everyone, from kids as young as 10 years old to classes for the die hard racers in their 60’s. Majority of the snowmobiles competitors will be racing on are the same exact sled that you can buy off the showroom floor which goes back to the old saying “Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday”. 
Cor PowerSports is a family based cross country series based out of Somerset, WI. The 2021/22 race season is our 11th season of running the race series and will be our 2nd season as the pro national series; for more information on Cor PowerSports and our series please visit us online at www.corpowersports.com

 

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