Watercross: Racing Snowmobiles on Water

Photo: Joe Barrett/Wall Street Journal

What, you think that snowmobiles only go on snow? Joe Barrett of The Wall Street Journal explores the sport of watercross, where participants race snowmobiles on water:

Most people think snowmobiling is strictly a winter sport. Mr. McCurdy, a rider on the International Watercross Association circuit, disagrees. He and his fellow drivers wait all year to race their machines on northern lakes when there isn't a snowdrift or a patch of ice in sight.
"It's totally mind-blowing" for some people that snowmobiles can race on water, said Derek McPheeters, another driver and president of the association. "But they work excellent."

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It is always pleasant for the rest of us to be told about something by the Wall Street Journal like it is news when the rest of us have know about this since 1985.

Shame the Wall Street Journal won't hire people from this part of the country.

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They've been doing this in Iceland for ages. Not only that but they even do it with off road cars with sand scoop tyres. But of course once it happens in the US it suddenly becomes news.

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My dad used to say that with enough horsepower you can make anything fly. To demonstrate he strapped a model airplane engine to a shingle (the kind you see on the roofs of houses), and it flies, at least until it hits something.

The power to weight ratio on a modern snowmobile is amazing. Once you hit that 1x1 hp to pound point you can do almost anything.

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Also, I remember back in the 80s when people started doing this sort of thing.

I grew up in redneck country so we saw a lot of the sort of,

"Hey guys! Watch this!"

sort of shenanigans.

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