Chainsaw Racing in MN

As the self appointed HLS chainsaw GTG attendee, I rolled into Rush City, MN at 4pm on July 23, 2016 to witness friends with saws compete in various classes of chainsaw racing. There were folks from a widespread area of America present.

Here's how it all went down.

In January, @SarahDodgeGeek and @AndyDodgeGeek (Sarah and Andy are shown in this photo) announced that they would once again host a chainsaw GTG at their place in Harris, MN. As in the past 4 years, they'd move their crowd over to the county fair, the location of the actual chainsaw racing.

By the way, the hosts, Sarah and Andy, have "DodgeGeek" in their screen names because they have a bit of an addiction: old Dodges. They either fix 'em to be pretty, or run 'em lookin' as they found them. Their daily driver is not a rat rod, but it looks original, though it is now a 4x4.

Chainsaw Racing At the Fair

Of the 40 or so visitors at their place, probably half competed in the chainsaw racing at the fair. In the rain. Everyone was friendly and had beaucoup fun cutting wood. Plenty of wood was cut for sure. Visitors from the past GTG had shirts saying, "Stand back, I'm about to cut on!" Yeah, there was a lot of camaraderie.

The county fair put up plaques for winners, and HL Supply put up OPEforum tee shirts. Everyone was happy — even in the rain for over half of the event.

The Chisago County Fair is a very rural setting. There were some small rides, some food vendors (loved the funnel cake), and surprisingly, a classic rock band (not Country). Oh, and lots of livestock. So yeah, it's a great location to put on a chainsaw racing exposition. Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate as far as the audience was concerned. Contestants didn't care though. They all carried on in the rain and mud.

Andy had just finished a sturdy cant stand to hold some very heavy trees prepared for the competitions - greater thicknesses for more powerful class saws. Plenty of firewood was left afterward.

Chainsaw Carving

On the sideline, Chad from CarvingForChrist put on a show of making anatomically correct bears appear out of tree trunks. Chad's a great spirit, with eclectic background. He's been a chef, restaurant owner/manager, small engine mechanic, and carver. A very talented chainsaw carver from Kansas. He takes his show on the road for certain events. Mostly for charities' fundraising. Chad's been a good customer of HLSupply for a few years. He even added some ideas of parts in demand that we could add to our inventory. Thanks for the tips Chad!

All in all we were very pleased with the turn out, and so were the Dodge Geeks. Looking forward to meeting more sawyers at future chainsaw racing events. (West KY is next in the fall.)

Parts & Help

If you need to get your saw running fast for chainsaw racing, look up our chainsaw parts here, or get advice and tips on http://opeforum.com/forums/chainsaws.33/. Want to go to a chainsaw GTG to see some chainsaw racing? You'll find some posted here: http://opeforum.com/forums/chainsaw-gtgs.67/ and here is a bit more written about what to expect at a chainsaw GTG.

Hope to see YOU at a chainsaw GTG sometime. Cheers!
— Steve (a.k.a. @exCanuck on OPEforum.com)