How to Build a Subaru Winter Experience Course

With only a few days until the third Subaru Winter Experience, work on this year’s course is nearly done. But the preparation for this year’s event started long before Christmas.

“There’s a lot of work going on to make these tracks, especially during a winter like this when Mother Nature has not been on our side,” explains Subaru Winter Experience founder and Subaru Motorsports USA driver Patrik Sandell. “Some years you’re more lucky with the weather than others, but our team does a fantastic job creating the best possible course for our participants. We’re excited to show off our hard work as we kick off our biggest year yet next week!”

Together with everyone at Boatsport Marina in Eagle River, we’ve put in hundreds of hours of hard work to prepare Dollar Lake for this year’s event. This is how it’s done, step by step:

Step 1: We design the tracks on the computer, starting with the previous year’s design and using last year’s experience to develop an improved course.

Step 2: We walk around the lake and drill holes to measure the ice, making sure that it’s thick enough for us to start building.

Step 3: Patrik drives a snowmobile around the lake to put the design from the computer into reality for the first time.

Step 4: We pack the snow on all tracks using a snowmobile, and use a roller to pack the snow on top of the ice so the snow doesn’t keep the ice from

getting thicker.

Step 5: We mark out each track. This year, we used our over 400 sticks to make our tracks.

Step 6: We use a tractor with snowblower to plow all tracks. This process took four days this winter.

Step 7: Leading up to the event, we continue to maintain the tracks and keep them open so the ice can continue getting thicker and thicker beneath the

snow.

Step 8: Our final check: we use a specially designed GPS radar that measures the quality and thickness of the ice on all tracks to ensure that they’re 100%

safe and ready to be driven upon.

Step 9: We open the doors to kick off this year’s event and welcome the first group to Subaru Winter Experience 2020!