In its fourth year of existence, and second year with ample snow, the SnowBowl is going big, and hoping to draw big crowds.
Maine’s largest snowmobile event, held between venues in Caribou and Presque Isle, is a weekend-long celebration of the sport, a major economic driver and tourism pull in Aroostook County, where there are more than 2,300 miles of trails.
“When I came up here, I’m a snowmobiler, and I quickly recognized, one: I love the area, two: that there was a need to put on some sort of celebration of snowmobiling, the industry itself,” Jim Gamage, one of the event’s organizers, said.
Set for Feb. 27 through March 1, the SnowBowl is introducing snow drag races this year, as well as a night of racing involving go-karts, bikes and all-terrain vehicles on the ice at the skating rink in Presque Isle.
Snocross will also return to Spud Speedway, the racetrack co-owned by Gamage and Caribou businessman Troy Haney, for the first time since the inaugural event.
Those races — which are essentially motocross on snow — have been held at the Aroostook Centre Mall the past two years amid mild winters.
To ensure the track’s viability this year, organizers spent the first week of February trucking in snow from the surrounding area.
“We cannot depend on the snow,” Gamage said. “We’ve hauled in 650 dump truck loads of snow. That’s a lot of snow. And we did it in four days, just constantly hauling.”
The weekend kicks off on Friday, Feb. 27, with a party at Evergreen Lanes in Caribou featuring a snowmobile stunt show put on by the South Portland-based Rave X Motorsports in the venue’s parking lot.
Snocross and drag races will begin the following morning at the speedway, the latter taking place along a converted grass drag track.
That night, doors will open at 6 p.m. for two hours of Xtreme International Ice Racing at The Forum in Presque Isle. The Star City is one of nine stops planned this year for the professional race series. Others include Colorado Springs and Kingston, Rhode Island.
“It’s something you don’t get to see every day,” Gamage said. “They race go-karts, four wheelers, three wheelers, bikes, mini bikes, both electric and gas, and then they have speed bikes, which are specifically designed to race like this. They go zero to 60 in three seconds and they don’t have any brakes.”
Gamage said he purposely schedules events in both Presque Isle and Caribou, Aroostook County’s largest cities, during the SnowBowl, to try to bridge a perceived divide between the communities.
“I was told, and I didn’t believe everybody, that there was a wall between Caribou and Presque Isle,” he said. “You want to keep that wall up and have a competition with sports and high schools and rivalry? I’m all for it. But that wall serves no purpose when we’re trying to bring people here and work together … We’re too small to work independently.”
The weekend will wrap up March 1 with “Sunday Funday.” That involves more snocross races, including some over smaller, rolling hills that “anyone with a snowmobile” can enter. A vintage snowmobile show will be set up at the speedway during the day, leading up to a parade of the vintage vehicles around the track at 2 p.m.
Throughout the event, there will also be an oval for kids to race and vendors and food trucks on site.
“To be able to see the whole community come together and thrive, and to see Presque Isle, Caribou and the surrounding communities are busy, hotels are full, sleds are out on the trails, it’s those things [that are] the highlight, not one particular event,” Gamage said.