After Alynn: how they're changing the I-500

Over in the Michigan Soo, at the end of West Fourth Avenue near the I-75, they've started to build a mile-long oval ice track for the 2005 I-500 snowmobile race.

After last year's race, the bloodiest in the 37-year history of the event considered by many to be the Super Bowl of Enduro racing, much is being done differently this year.

Including the track layout.

At the spot where Alynn Burke, a 24-year-old youth co-ordinator at Enterprise Centre Sault Ste. Marie, was killed when a racing sled shot over a snowbank and slammed into onlookers, a second snow berm is being added, race co-chair Jan Bailey tells SooToday.com.

"We looked at the physical layout of the track," says Bailey, who has been a volunteer with the I-500 since 1978.

"We had a meeting this summer with the teams and they came up with some ideas and we looked at some things as well."

30-foot safety zone

Spotters, photographers and other observers will have to stand on the second berm, which will have a 30-foot safety zone between it and the first berm directly beside the track.

No one will be allowed to stand on the first bank beside the track.

Another change I-500 organizers are implementing this year is to restrict the number of people allowed in the pits.

Each team will be limited to 12 pit passes and security will be increased in the pit area to ensure that only legitimate pass-holders are there.

Bailey says some older fences have been replaced and a double fence is being added to the front straightaway by the start/finish line.

More time trials

And the not-for-profit I-500 committee has also decided to change the way time trials are run.

Bailey says that organizers found no correlation between driver inexperience with the I-500 track and accident rates, but it was decided to offer drivers more opportunities to get to know the track.

"Time trials in the past have been run where the driver pays $150, then takes up to two attempts on the track for a qualifying time," Bailey tells SooToday.com.

"So what we looked at was the question of, was the financial side of it restricting them so they were only putting two or three of their best drivers out there to qualify and the other guys weren't getting a chance to be out there on the ice."

'We're going to have sleds on the track continuously'

This year's retooled time trials will require each team to pay $500 for the sled and first driver plus $50 for each additional driver, for unlimited attempts to test their skills on the track and reach a qualifying time.

This is expected to put many more sleds on the track and offer fans more opportunities to watch at a cost of $5 per person.

"Our goal now is we're going to have sleds on the track continuously," Bailey says.

Bailey believes that International Snowmobiling Racing Association-approved modifications, customarily made to skis, suspensions and tracks on racing sleds, probably contributed to the accident that killed Alynn Burke and injured two others last year.

She says that no one predicted the possibility of sleds climbing banks the way Sled 86 did last year when Burke was killed while watching the race as part of her boyfriend's team.

What happened to Alynn

Burke had been counting laps off and on during the morning and was among three people hit by a sled belonging to Henry Sabourin.

Sled 86, which was not operated by Sabourin at the time, bounced off the track banks twice and then shot over a berm after coming out of the northwest turn of Lap 173.

Bailey says that the man injured in that accident said he regretted looking the wrong way, even for an instant.

"We looked left," he told her, "and you don't turn your back to the sleds."

"He had turned to watch his team go by and when he turned around he said, 'damn, I turned around and I could see the belly pan of that sled,'" Bailey says.

Mother of race winner hit by same sled

Also among the people hit by Sled 86 was the mother of last year's race winner, John Hoos of Ossineke.

She sustained a broken ankle and was taken by ambulance to hospital at the same time as Burke and the injured man.

At the time of the fatal accident racing was suspended and it never resumed.

Hoos was declared the winner shortly after sunset when the race was officially ended.

ISRA regulations

Bailey says some snowmobile racers aren't happy with the regulations imposed by the International Snowmobile Racing Association because they feel they're too strict.

But she argues that the need for enforcement of those standards was apparent last year when a short tunnel enclosure on Nathan Dzurka’s sled allowed his leg to be so badly entangled in his track that it took emergency workers, Bailey among them, more than 30 minutes to separate him from the machine.

Dzurka's leg was nearly severed in that accident, which happened during Lap 133.

He was stabilized at War Memorial Hospital, then air-lifted to Petoskey, where his leg was surgically repaired.

Dzurka has since made a near full recovery, Bailey says.

Incident Command Bus

In a further change to this year's I-500, a motor home has been converted to serve as an Emergency Medical Services Incident Command Bus, which will serve as headquarters to EMS volunteers and law enforcement personnel.

In past years Bailey, a qualified emergency R.N. and first responder, has been the lead emergency response person at any incidents.

"I told them [Chippewa County Emergency Response people] I can't respond, assess patients, dispatch out more people, take care of them and oversee the whole thing at the same time," said Bailey.

So Tim McKee and other volunteers from Chippewa County Emergency Services have joined Bailey and the rest of the team to be stationed in the new command bus.

They're currently fine-tuning their emergency response plans, which will include having added staff on duty at War Memorial Hospital for race day, said Bailey, who's also a nurse supervisor at the hospital.

This year's schedule

Time trials are scheduled to run on Monday, January 31 to Wednesday, February 2 from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Thursday, February 3 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Senior Classic and Tired Iron (vintage sled) race, hot laps will start at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, February 3 and those races will follow the hot laps.

A parade is planned for Friday, February 4 through downtown Sault Michigan at 6 p.m., then kids Mini-Z races to follow at the track at 7 p.m.

Race Day Parade Lap is scheduled for 9 a.m. on Saturday, February 5 with the green flag dropping on the start of the 37th I-500 at 10 a.m. that day.

SooToday.com background on last year's race

I-500's day of calamity began with first turn on first lap I-500 will continue, organizers promise Celebrating Alynn: arrangements announced for Friday Bloodshed and booze: New York Times visits the I-500