Olympus crews, volunteers help make races happen

By BRYAN HELLIOS

[email protected]

Ironwood - The Ironwood Snowmobile Olympus featured USSA Prostar racing Saturday and Sunday at the Gogebic County Fairgrounds.

Race Director Tom Auvinen said the crews, volunteers, and USSA officials did an "excellent" job to create a good weekend of racing.

Gunnar Sterne, who finished first in both the Champ 440 and Champ Prostar Cup races on Saturday, said although the paycheck helps, the points for coming in first are critical for Prostar Cup Tour standings.

"Just to be able to come out here and win is something I strive for," he said.

He said every straightway they hit 100 mph because the half-mile track at the fair grounds is one of the larger tracks and "it can be pretty quick."

Sterne said he goes as fast as he can, but controls his speed down to avoid loosing control.

"You don't want to go to far and crash," he said.

Brandon Grendzinski, who finished fourth in the one of the heats, said he was happy to be back racing after an accident in a previous race "mangled" is sled. He and his crew were able to fix it and he said he was happy to "go around the circle."

He said the number of fans in the stands help fuel the enthusiasm of the racers which makes them want to "push a little harder." He said racing in Quebec, Canada, to an audience of more then 35,000 fans gets every racer pumped up.

"It all comes down to that roar," he said.

Auvinen said the turnout for Saturday's event was a "little disappointing," estimating there were about 300 people total, including the racers and their crews. The numbers were a little better for Sunday.

"I figured there would have been a lot more people here on this beautiful day," he said.

Numbers of fans aside, he said there was a lot of great races.

There were 23 races on the schedule, including a number of junior races for various youth age groups.

Results are available at ussaprostar.com.