With the first lake race in over a decade just one week away, the Bunke Racing team was holed up at a secret location in Northern Minnesota dialing in its USCC cross-country sleds to run on ice. The high-sprung, snocross-derived Polaris IQ600R machines are definitely not made with lake racing in mind, but the sled proved surprisingly adaptable to the new venue. We hung out with them for a day and even got to burn some laps with them. Here’s some stuff that happened in no particular order.
You'd think testing would be just a lot of fun and riding with your buddies. Really, it's just a lot of work. Here the guys take orders from Gabe as he figures out how to get the race trailer level.
To quote the great Formula 1 racer Michael Schumacher, "To find the limit you must go over it." Gabe wrecked a sled the day before after he found the limit.
Ice testing means lots of extra work. Keeping studs and carbides sharp is a pain in the butt and ski-boots are a must.
Bobby Menne is multi-talented. Here he applies graphics to Gabe's backup sled. He put the graphics on all the sleds.
The team rolls the rest of the sleds out of the shop. It looked like a great start, but later on they'd all have to come back apart.
Gabe is a professional. Do not try this at home.
Here's Bobby showing off more of his sled prep talent.
Not sure if that buggy would pass tech at a USCC race.
Gabe had to transfer all the settings from his wrecked sled to his new sled so he could start where he left off the day before. It would prove a challenging day for him and at one point he said, "I don't know what to do." He figured it out though and was fastest in the group by day's end.
Gabe pitches it into a chicane while Bobby chases him. With no ice racing experience Bobby and Spencer Kadlec followed Gabe all day.
Right-hand turns are not as fun (or easy) as left-hand turns.
At one point Gabe and Bobby parked their sleds and just looked at them, checking ride height and how they sat. More discussion ensued.
And more adjustments. The team tested with and without swaybars. The Walker Evans shocks have a trick cupped piston that preloads the shims making the shock stiff as the piston starts to move and then getting softer as the shock starts to stroke. The setup ultimately proved better than a swaybar.
Spencer Kadlec is jumping way in the deep end with lake racing. He had never even ridden a sled before he started racing cross-country last season. He made a ton of changes and kept up with the team no problem. He's a crazy fast dirtbike rider so he knows how to race.
Even with these new snocross-style sleds some cross-country setup stuff never changes. Pass the caulk, please.
The 35-degree day was nice for wrenching. This is what snowmobile racing is all about.
Gabe even busted out his Soo sled and burned a couple laps. With the race only a month away he wanted to check some stuff with the engine.
Kadlec comes in hot. His confidence went from almost zero to almost 10 in one day. That's what a successful test session can do.
Spencer and Gabe talk setup. Starting to see a pattern here? Gabe, Spencer and Bobby all admitted they were nervous about the coming lake race. I'm betting they're not the only ones as there's an entire generation of cross-country racers who have never had to go lake racing before.
That'll be worth money someday.
If you've never heard a 600cc race engine going across a lake at full smoke you're really missing out. Sounds like a jet engine. Two of them sound even better. Those Polaris engines are thirsty buggers though.
The sun was getting low when the team decided to bring the sleds back to the trailer and start prepping for the next day. They had a long list of stuff to do ahead of them.
