USCC Pine Lake In Pictures

It was the first USCC cross-country race of the season and the first cross-country lake race in over a decade. It was also the answer to the question: Where do you race sleds if there’s no snow? Read on as we block our shocks, sharpen our studs and carbides and slam it down for the ice at the USCC Pine Lake event.

The riders meeting is always interesting.

After the main riders meeting USCC Race Director Jesse Strege asked the Pro riders to stick around. He threw out the idea of starting the Pro 600 final heads-up. Reception was lukewarm.

The only place you might actually need your headlight is at an early season USCC parade lap.

Rick Strobel was busy all week helping people with shocks so they could lower their sleds.

Hangin' out in the Christian Brothers Racing rig. Joe Lesmeister, Corey Berberich and Brian Rust talk with Roger Skime, Arctic Cat VP of engineering. Joe said he and Brian got in about one day of testing before Pine Lake.

The pits. 230 entries for the race, not bad. When is the last time Pine Lake saw that?

Yamaha is back racing and one of their Semi-Pro riders is Jake Jorgenson. He was telling us about the broken nose he suffered when he traveled out West a few weeks ago.

That's Jolene Bute and Mike Carver of Carver Performance. Jolene rules the USCC Women's class.

Pro and Semi-Pro riders in staging. Seeing as how it was the first race of the season (and a lake race at that) the mood was surprisingly laid back.

D.J. Ekre warms up while his sled warms up on the stand. Ekre's been to Pine Lake before, but the last time he raced here he was probably on a ZR.

Gabe Bunke gets ready to ride. Bunke has a lot of experience on the ice and he was one of the favorites going into the weekend.

Ryan Simons stretches out while Corey Berberich warms up his sled. Simons no longer races snocross, he's strictly cross-country. He's also reigning USCC Pro 600 points champ.

Lined up in Semi-Pro is Chase Nordstrom. Chase has risen through the USCC ranks and has a lot of talent. He flies planes too. The guy on the far left is Tom Kallock.

This warm up stand has been to Pine Lake before for sure. Heck, it's probably older than some of the kids who were there racing.

Some guys busted out the old sit-down iron hoping to have an advantage. I thought for sure there would be some ZRs or XCRs there, but nope.

A 10-mile lap goes by surprisingly fast and the Pros were already into the lower classes on their second lap. This is why you always need to be looking over your shoulder.

With almost no snow, the lake became a maze of course markers. It was difficult for the riders to figure out where to go until a groove got established.

Dillan Dohrn's track came apart on one of the two 1-mile straighaways. Corey Davidson's sled spit out a track too making for a wild ride for the No. 3 sled. Corey wasn't hurt but the sled was junk.

Bobby Menne and Ryan Greening talk about how it was easier for them to win last year in Semi-Pro. Both of them bumped up to the Pro class this year.

Aaron Christensen talks with some of the other Pro riders after they have a second riders meeting.

So much goodness here. The beauty of the USCC is you can race a sled like the Sno Pro 500 and have fun all day. The beauty of the Sno Pro 500 is you don't need a new one to go racing as demonstrated here by Tom Clement who is riding a 2010.

Ice racing is fun until...

Roger Skime again, this time with Paul Dick (L), Brian's dad and partner for the Iron Dog this season. Paul has raced Cain's Quest the past couple years and he's raced and finished more I-500s than probably any other rider so don't think he's the weak half of the pair.

Nathan Titus with Eric Josephsen, Yamaha's Race Manager. Titus just got a job with Western Power Sports. Josephsen holds an AMA Pro license. They're lined up waiting for the Pro qualifying lap.

Davidson was able to get a buggy together to run the Pro qualifying lap, but it was pretty much a stock sled so he was at a disadvantage since it wasn't lowered.

That's Cale Anseeuw. His uncle Jamie used to race for Team Arctic and was manager for Blair Morgan Racing Team. Cale finished 4th in Semi-Pro 600.

The Semi-Pro 600 race got pretty crazy a couple times. Here Spencer Kadlec leads two other riders into a corner. With this many sleds you run out of room quick!

That's Arctic Cat Snowmobile Product Manager Joey Hallstrom showing off his '79 Cross-Country Cat he used to win the USCC Vintage I-500 last year. The guy sitting on the sled is Tom Lawrence, Ski-Doo Race Coordinator.

The lady in the Ski-Doo jacket is Sharon Dyrdahl-O'Brien. Ya, she's Bryan, Chad and Brady's mom.

Brian Dick sez: "Well, let's run it!" You can see the start chute into the first corner behind him. Hey Brian, didn't Team Arctic get you any 2012 race gear?

Hey, it's Dan Ebert. Dan messed up his elbow during the snocross race at Canterbury and will be out for a few weeks. The guy behind him is Mike Kloety, Team Arctic Race Manager.

Your Top 3 qualifiers - Brian Dick, Ryan Faust and Ross Erdman. Erdman was fastest.

Erdman was blazing fast all day and looked like a good bet to win the Pro 600 final. The guy in the black and blue FXR jacket next to him is his long-time mechanic, Terry O'Brien.

Front row, ready to go. At this point it was getting a little tense.

Rumored to give you 2-3mph on the straights and/or a ski length on the start, Justin Tate wasn't taking any chances on not running a sledracer.com sticker on his buggy. Oh, by the way, this is a sure way to get a picture of your sled posted in a story.

Sure enough, Tate got the holeshot in the final. You're welcome.

Next time around Dick had gotten by Tate and was out front ahead of D.J. Ekre.

Tate, Faust and Erdman were on the gas trying to catch Dick.

Simons, Bunke and Chad Lian were also looking to get to the front.

Faust made up a ton of ground and within a lap was on Ekre's bumper.

It took a couple laps but Faust would eventually get by Ekre. Ekre was definitely feeling the heat here.

Aaron Christensen, who has ice racing experience and missed winning the Pro 600 points championship last year by just 12 points, was a ways back.

Faust and Ekre switched roles and Ekre chased Faust trying to get back second place for about the last half of the race.

Tate settled into 5th place but moved up to 4th just before the final lap when Erdman went out with a cracked oil tank.

With two laps left Brian Dick comes into view with no other riders near him.

Soon Faust and Ekre come into view, Ekre still chasing. Ekre took the second place spot back on the last lap. I don't know what happened, but I think Faust must have spun out in a turn or something.

Erdman comes around for the last time before going out of the race. He said his sled was losing power for some reason even before the oil tank cracked. Once the system lost oil the sled shut itself down to save the engine. These are the things you learn when you go racing.

Dave Dirkman's an old school ice racer and he's also not afraid to wear his duck hunting camo when he goes racing. He said getting his sled ready to go lake racing was "a lot of work."

We haven't seen Re Wadena in the Pro class on the USCC circuit since 2006. He finished second in the Red Lake I-500 one year.

Wadena pins it down one of the straights on Pine Lake. A lot of riders were complaining about how sketchy their sleds felt going down these straights. Fastest speed I heard of on the radar gun was Ryan Simons at 97mph.