Snowmobile breakdown leads to nailbiter finish in Fort McPherson, N.W.T., race
'I knew he was going to make it eventually,' onlooker says
The win appeared to be in the bag.
At a snowmobile race in Fort McPherson, N.W.T., this past weekend, James Arey had been leading the way for some time.
He was taking on 12 other competitors in the 160-kilometre race. But as he rounded the last lap, just metres from the finish line, disaster struck: his machine broke down.
"I could hear something grinding in my chain case or something," Arey told CBC North's Wanda McLeod Monday. "I was hoping it would hold out until the last lap."
It didn't.
"Can't go. Can't move," says Edward James Kogiak, in a video of the race he broadcast live on Facebook.
"Gotta push it for the win!"
And that's exactly what Arey did. He picked up the snowmobile and started thrusting it towards the finish line.
'I tried to push as hard as I could'
The crowd went wild, with horns honking and people screaming and cheering.
"I just caught my second wind and I tried to push as hard as I could," Arey said.
The tension mounted as onlookers, and Arey, saw the snowmobile in second place gaining on him. As it rounded the corner of the final lap, Arey kicked it into high gear.
It wasn't enough. The sled whizzed past him taking the top prize.
Arey dropped the machine and threw his helmet off — but it wasn't in defeat. It was sheer determination.
He started pushing again as another racer sped by him into second place.
"I knew he was going to make it eventually," Kogiak said. "He came pretty close to second."
Arey finally pushed the snowmobile to the flag, finishing a heart-breaking, though hard-fought, third-place finish.
"My arms are [still] Jello-y," Arey said.
He's already competed in several snowmobile races in the area this spring, and plans to enter more.
Now it's time to work on his snowmobile.
"Gotta get it ready for Tuk, eh?"
With files from Wanda McLeod