Locally Owned and Operated...Celebrating Our 100th Issue January 18, 2015
Photos by Enrique Photo Art
SLEDFEST 2015 Brings Sledders to “The Beach”! With the success of the Inaugural SLEDFEST in January 2014, Extreme Motorsport Entertainment and Beach BOOSTER Group started working right away on the 2nd Annual SLEDFEST as we knew this will be a much anticipated annual event in Wasaga Beach. Although the town of Wasaga Beach is best known as a summer resort with its “World's Longest Freshwater Beach”, at one time “The Beach” as Wasaga Beach is affectionately known, was also called “Ontario's Snowmobile Capital”. The organizing of this World Class snowmobile event on the beachfront took months, although the Official Announcement was made at the Toronto International Snowmobile & ATV Show in October. At our Show Booth we boasted of not only the return of Drags to the 2nd annual event, but the addition of a CSRA Snowcross Race as an exciting component of our Event Weekend. As the big event weekend approached and mild temps reduced our snow cover in Wasaga Beach, with the help of The Town, volunteers and many supportive local businesses we started the huge task of moving clean snow to our beachfront in order to build the Snowcross track. As the Christmas Holiday arrived we felt that with several hundred truck loads of snow added to the beachfront had provided what was needed. Christmas Day not only brought warm temps and torrential rain, but extreme winds that drove the waves of Georgian Bay onto the beachfront and washed away over 50% of our stock piled snow. It was with much disappointment that after Christmas, we had to make the decision to run SLEDFEST without the Snowcross component as with limited time, we were unable to build a professional track with the remaining snow on the beach. For the event weekend (Jan 3 & 4) with the help of volunteers and community groups, we created an exciting “Festival of Snowmobiles” on our beachfront, including vendors and displays on Beach Drive and 2 drag lanes of flat and 2 lanes with exciting jumps to recognize the Snowcross component.
Over 300 racers registered on Saturday and provided the thousands of spectators a full day of excitement as all classes raced on the 4 drag lanes created on the beach. Parking lots in town were filled with cars, trucks, trailers and sleds and the town was buzzing with activity. Although freezing rain and the many warnings hampered some folks in getting the beachfront on Sunday, the racing continued and our exciting ANYTIME Fitness SHOOTOUT took place with 7 time Canadian Snowcross Champ Iain Hayden and Tyler Billings fighting it out with several runs over the thrilling jumps! Wasaga Beach is a Snowmobile Friendly town and our SLEDFEST visitors enjoyed the easily accessible restaurants, services and motels, all within a short sled ride to the Main Beach and the trail network. SLEDFEST 2015 is another step as Wasaga Beach regains the status as a “Snowmobile Capital”. We hope to see you at “The Beach”! ......Joe Bickerstaff