Contact: Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon
E-mail: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org
Surnames: Kruschke, Wagner
----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI) 2/13/2019
Kruschke Wins Snowmobiling Championship (Ava - 2019)
By Valerie Brecht
Winter tends to be a divisive season. Some people embrace the snow and cold weather, while others try to avoid going out at all costs. For the Kruschke family of Neillsville, winter is one of their favorite seasons because it means it’s time for snowmobile racing.
Ava Kruschke, 8, and her brother Axel, 5, compete in weekly snowmobile races at various locations across the Midwest. The weekend of Jan. 19, the two competed in the Amsoil World Championship Snowmobile Derby in Eagle River as part of the Great Northern SnoCross Series (GNSS). Ava took first place in the 120cc improved stock division for ages eight to 12. It was her first time competing there and the first time she won a championship.
Ava Kruschke got to meet Miss America Brittany Wagner at her recent snowmobile race in Eagle River. Kruschke is Little Miss Neillsville First Princess. Submitted photo
Ava Kruschke edges out a competitor in the final curve of the Jan. 19 championship race in Eagle River. Ava placed first in the eight-to-12-year-old 120cc improved stock division. Submitted photo
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Ava Kruschke of Neillsville won her division in the Amsoil World Championship Snowmobile Derby in Eagle River the weekend of Jan. 19. The race was part of the Great Northern SnoCross Series (GNSS). Kruschke is shown here with Eagle River Royalty. Submitted photo
“It felt really good to win,” said Ava, who is in her second year of snowmobile racing. Ava received a FLY racing jacket and a trophy for her efforts. The icing on the cake was Ava getting to meet Miss America Brittany Wagner, who happened to be at the event. Ava is royalty herself – Little Miss Neillsville First Princess.
The Jan. 19 race wasn’t the first race the Kruschkes attended this season. Along with competing in the Great Northern SnoCross Series, the Kruschkes race in the SnoCross National Series. The weekend after Thanksgiving, they were in Duluth for one of the series’ races. They went to Deadwood, SD the weekend of Jan. 26, where Ava placed fifth in her heat, sixth in her second heat and made it to her first national final. Last weekend, Ava and Axel attended the Soaring Eagle SnoCross National in Mt. Pleasant, MI.
This weekend, the family will travel to Plymouth and the weekend after that, they will go to Westby, which will be considered their “home” race. They have a race every weekend from Jan. 1 through March 18, said mom Andrea Kruschke. The kids typically race eight times in a weekend, four times on Saturday and four on Sunday.
“It takes up a lot of our life,” Andrea admitted. “But I like to see my kids enjoying what they liked to do. It’s a very expensive hobby, but I love to see my kids having fun.”
Part of the fun of the sport is that each course presents a unique challenge. The family has been to a course that was all level ground except for two jumps, in comparison to the Deadwood race, which was at a ski resort and had all kinds of jumps and moguls.
There are some similarity among courses, thought. All courses have an oval shape and have a “table top” plateau at the finish line. In the first two rounds, riders take four laps around the course and the finals are 10 laps. Each snowmobile has a transponder attached to it that acts as a GPS and shows the rider’s location as a dot on a computer screen.
Ava races a 120cc Polaris. This year, she also started racing an Arctic Cat snowmobile in the 200cc division. The 200cc division has no age restrictions, but riders are generally ages eight to 12 because of the size of the snowmobile. She likes both divisions but is still getting used to the 200cc snowmobile.
Axel races in the four-to-five-year-old division, the youngest division. The divisions go all the way up to age 40-plus, which is the adult division. A lot of the racers are from northern Wisconsin, but there are plenty from other places as well. The Kruschkes have met racers from Alma Center, Three Lakes, Wisconsin Dells, Baraboo and West Bend, as well as Ironwood, MI.
The love of racing goes back to Ava and Axel’s dad.
“My husband Rick is a motorhead and does mud races in the summer,” said Andrea.
“When Ava was three or four we bought her a snowmobile, but two years ago, she was taking a ride around the house and tipped it on its side and was like ‘never again.’”
Andrea said they thought that was the end of Ava’s interest in snowmobile riding. However, the family talked to some friends and decided to try one weekend of racing for Axel. It was a frigid day in Hayward with a wind chill of -42 degrees Fahrenheit.
“As soon as we got there, we were signing my brother up,” said Ava. “We talked to some people and I said, ‘I should be racing’”
Some fellow racers loaned gear for Ava to use and the rest is history.
“She raced it and loved it,” said Andrea. “She did really awesome in her group and pushed really hard.”
Andrea said it’s been fun to see her kids improve in their sport and it’s been a learning experience for her and her husband as well.
“We went into this not knowing as much as a lot of people,” she said.
For example, contestants can only wear certain gear and have to dress in layers that will be warm enough, but not to the point of getting overheated. They are also required to have a certain amount of blaze orange showing on their clothing.
Andrea has enjoyed watching her daughter break into a sport that is largely dominated by boys. There is only another girl in each of the two divisions Ava competes in.
“I told her she could do ballet or gymnastics if she wanted to be with other girls, but she wanted to do this,” said Andrea. “It doesn’t bother her being with the boys. They treat her really well.”
Through spending time with the other competitors, Ava has developed friendships, and gained skills in interacting with new people and showing good sportsmanship. Andrea said that those things ae really what the competition’s all about.
“My kids have really good sportsmanship. I told my kids that even if you get first, second, third, fourth – it doesn’t matter, you go up and congratulate the other kids,” she said.
Ava has apparently taken that lesson to heart.
“It’s about having sportsmanship and having fun,” she said.
As for future plans, Ava is hoping to make it to the SnoCross Grand Finale in Lake Geneva March 15 to 17. Last year, Ava qualified for the event by placing in the top three in her division. Beyond that, she is looking forward to continuing to race each year while having lots of fun doing it.
