Valdez Mayor's Cup Turns Twenty and Still 'Ain't for Babies'

On March 17th the Valdez Mayor’s Cup Snowmachine Race will be celebrating its 20th anniversary. Curt Wilson participated in the race from 1982 through 1984, traveling to Valdez to do so. He thinks the original event ran from around 1975 through 1985. When Wilson moved to Valdez in 1996, he asked what happened to the Mayor’s Cup. The event had fizzled and hadn’t been run in years. So Curt decided to revive it. The reborn Valdez Mayor’s Cup Race debuted in 1998 and has been run annually ever since.

This year’s races include a 200 mile Pro event, 150 mile Semi-Pro, a 100 Mile Veteran, a 100 mile Women’s and a 50 mile Snow Bike as well as a Fast Lap. A first place purse is approximately $3,500.00. The winner of the fast lap receives $500.00 and 16 cases of energy drink. All proceeds from the event, including entry fees between two and three hundred dollars per registrant and sponsorhips, are paid out in prizes. Major support for the race comes from City of Valdez, which donated ten thousand dollars. Six local businesses donated five hundred dollars a piece. Wilson says that racers include people from all over, ‘all the big names’. Over forty entrants have already registered.

When asked for one memory or story about The Mayor’s Cup, Wilson admits to saying, ‘it ain’t for babies’. To his embarrassment, people picked up on the phrase and even had it printed on tee shirts.

Snowmobiles were invented sometime between 1911 and 1925, depending on what story you read and what you consider a snowmobile. Racing was taking place by 1926. Early models varied from motor cycles with skis attached to modified Model Ts in which the undercarriage was replaced by a track and skis.