Todd Palin's Snowmobiling Raises Interest in Sport

When Sarah Palin accepted the nomination for Vice President last week, she mentioned that her husband, Todd Palin, was a champion "snow machine" racer. Snowmobile aficionados asked themselves the question: What brand of snowmobile does Todd Palin race?

Minnesota is home to two of the biggies in Snowmobile Racing: Polaris and Arctic Cat. Polaris Industries is based in Roseau and Arctic Cat is based in Thief River Falls. Minnesotan's are extremely loyal to their brand, in a competitive way, even if they are not involved in actual racing.

It's important to have a snowmobile jacket that matches your sled, so everyone can see if you're an Arctic Cat or a Polaris rider. Families stick to the same sled manufacturer.

I did some digging at the Tesoro Iron Dog Championship Race website and found out that Todd Palin races an Arctic Cat F6 600 in the Pro-Class and he wears bib #22. He has raced 15 times, and won it four times, the last time in 2007, where he won with co-racer Scott Davis. In the 2008 race, Palin was thrown from his snowmobile and broke his arm. The team still finished fourth after a quick stop to the hospital.

The Iron Dog is the world's longest, toughest snowmobile race and traces the path of the Iditarod race with an extra several hundred miles added to reach Fairbanks. It is a team race, consisting of two racers and two snowmobiles. It starts in Todd Palin's hometown of Wasilla, travels to Nome and ends in Fairbanks, for a total of 1,971 miles.

Todd Palin's snowmobile is built to take a lot of abuse. According to Arctic Cat, the F6 is powered by a 125-hp 600 laydown twin with 46mm EFI throttle bodies. It is featherlight with a stiff chassis and rider-forward ergonomics. It needs to be super durable with the tough, cross-country Alaskan miles that it needs to endure.

Todd Palin was seen yesterday, signing autographs at the Hay Days Grass Drags in Forest Lake, Minnesota. He was signing autographs along with the other members of Team Arctic Cat.

Hays Days is a huge event held every year. You can see snowmobile racing on grass tracks, shop at the huge number of booths set up by snowmobile product manufacturers, and haggle at the swap meet. You can also share set up tricks with high ranking racers. Well, that's not going to happen, but you can get an autograph.

We used to drive a RV there every year and camp for the entire weekend when a family member was part of Team Arctic. It gets your blood pumping for snow.

Todd Palin still plans on racing next February in Alaska unless plans are forced to change. Go Team Arctic!