Twenty years ago in Crested Butte, Colorado, an aggressive 27-year-old Vermont native by the name of Chris Vincent took his black No. 46 Scheuring Speed Sports Ski-Doo to the top of the heap when he won the Winter X Games snowmobile final. Vincent had to advance out of a field of 32 top racers who were invited to Crested Butte to gain a starting spot in the final, and then had to outrun historic racers like future hall-of-famers Blair Morgan and Toni Haikonen to earn the coveted gold metal.
Vincent punctuated his career-defining win with a… well, a thud instead of an exclamation point, as he tried a celebratory move over the finish line. As printed in the dearly-departed Snow Week magazine at the time: “At the checkered, Vincent performed…no, tried a heel-clicker on the finish line jump. What he did instead was put his feet up to his elbows and then land on his back when the machine landed before he had his feet back on the running boards. In perhaps the most bizarre finish in motorsports history, Morgan then did a less-than-stellar Superman after seeing Vincent on the ground in his landing strip. Morgan avoided hitting Vincent and jumped off his machine to aid the stunned, if not injured, victor.” Trevor John was the next racer over the finish line and now he had to avoid two sleds and drivers!
Either way, for a Throwback Thursday, we thought it would be fun to see where each of the 10 racers who made the final at Winter X 20 years ago is today. Here they are, listed in the order that they finished at the 1999 Winter X Games.
- Chris Vincent – Currently living in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he’s a territory manager at Bobcat of Charlotte. Recent pictures on his social media show him planning a snowmobiling trip to West Yellowstone in the very near future.
- Blair Morgan – After a motorcross accident left him paralyzed in 2008, Morgan disappeared from the snowmobile and powersports scene for a number of years but re-emerged after his induction in the Snowmobile Hall of Fame in 2013. Living back home in Saskatchewan, recently competed in the X Games Aspen event in the Adaptive SnowBike competition and has helped coach/advise some Ski-Doo racers in recent years.
- Trevor John – Owner of Lakes Area Lawn Care & Landscaping in his hometown of Crosslake, Minnesota.
- Kurtis Crapo – Working for the family business, Crapo Farms, a large potato growing operation back in St. Anthony, Idaho.
- Toni Haikonen – A senior software developer in his native country of Finland. Retired from racing in 2002 and was inducted into the Snowmobile Hall of Fame in 2012.
- Carl Schubitzke –Serves as the president of the ISOC Amsoil Championship Snocross (ACS) series, where he oversees the highest-profile snocross series in the world.
- Brian Call – Moved from his native Idaho to Arizona
- Aaron Scheele – Works as a Operator Trainer at Ziegler Caterpillar, and also supports the snocross racing efforts of his son, Anson, who now races for Christian Brothers Racing and currently sits 10th in points on the ACS circuit in the Sport class, utilizing his father’s No. 144 on his Arctic Cat race sled.
- Nathan Titus – Snowmobile specialist and marketing/logistics manager at Western Power Sports, a large Idaho-based powersports distributor. You’ll still see Nate around snowmobile events like Haydays plus big Supercross events, particularly if there’s a big Fly Racing booth there.
- Jeremy Crapo – Died in a tragic motorcycle accident in the St. Anthony Sand Dunes near his Idaho home in July of 2006 at the age of 28.
Incidentally, while we’re on the “Where Are They Now” mode, the guy who covered the race for us in 1999 was then-Associate Editor Tim Erickson – he’s currently a Senior Account Manager handling the BRP account at Lube-Tech. The designer of the cover shown above was then-Associate Art Director Nici Lawson. She just recently re-joined our company as our new Digital Solutions Manager overseeing the company’s websites and other electronic media.
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