
There are 25 drivers who are attempting to become the 62nd World Champion at Eagle River, Wisconsin, this weekend. But if Friday night’s racing is any indication, there are four drivers who are, at this point, one step ahead of the pack.
Four-time World Champ Blaine Stephenson, two-time defending World Champ Matt Goede and the two fast Michigan drivers who finished second to Goede the last two years – Zach DeWald and Joey Burch – were consistently faster all night than any of their competition. Between the four of them, they won heats, ran one-two in both semi finals and then took the top four spots in the Friday Night Thunder Formula III Sweet 16 final.
Ultimately, Stephenson set himself up as the man to beat. He first set the fast time in Friday morning time trials. Then, he earned Friday’s lone front-row spot in Sunday’s World Championship final by stalking early leader DeWald for most of the race before slicing past him and taking the win in the late going.

Ski-Doo mounted Goede was at times every bit as strong as Stephenson, but some bad luck, an itchy trigger finger and a nasty crash in a different class turned his night into a bit of a circus on Eagle River’s famed high-banked ice oval. There’s no doubt he’ll be back strong on Saturday and Sunday. And Burch? The former Soo I-500 enduro winner is tough, fast and only getting better.
Stephenson also won the USSA ProStar Cup points race in Pro Champ 440, making it a banner night for the Wahl Bros. Racing driver from Hutchinson, Minnesota.
World Championship Time Trials
The Formula III class that will again determine the World Champion in snowmobile oval racing is packed this year with quality drivers on strong machines.
In Friday morning time trials on the paperclip oval, Blaine Stephenson set the fast two-lap time at 35.525 seconds, with Matt Goede third (35.710), Zach DeWald fourth (35.773) and Joe Burch fifth (35.981) – foreshadowing much of the day’s racing.
Also interesting, though, was a blistering 35.579 second time by 22-year-old rookie Reed Klinger that locked him into second, and Tanner Foss put up impressive laps to notch sixth, followed by Tom Olson, Andy Shoemaker, Tavish Perry and Gavin Peterson in the top 10. Lots of young guns in that crowd!!
Onto The Sweet 16
When the sleds squared side-by-side on the track on a Friday night that started balmy and ended frigid and gusty, though, some big names climbed to the top.

Stephenson won the first heat race ahead of Zach DeWald, with Thomas Olson third, Gavin Peterson fourth and Mason Schuette advancing to the next round in fifth.
Burch grabbed heat two ahead of Luke Olson, with Shoemaker, Dustin Schwandt and Ryan McCaig advancing. Klinger was scheduled to be in that heat but didn’t make it out onto the ice for the race.
The third heat saw Goede dominate ahead of Tanner Foss, Gunnar Sterne, Tavish Perry and Zach Rogers.
The 15-sled field was then narrowed to a 10-sled final via two super exciting semi finals. In the first, Goede and Stephenson put on a marvelous display, running truly nose-to-tail for most of the race. Geode won, but Stephenson was right on his snowflap, often literally inches away from touching bumpers through much of the race.

Sterne finished a distant third and advanced along with Luke Olson and Zach Rogers. Notable in this race, Dustin Schwandt had a super-scary crash on the backstretch but walked away.
The second semifinal brought the best of the Michigan contingent, and Burch and DeWald staged a slugfest up front with Shoemaker in their wake. Gavin Peterson and Perry also advanced.
Run For The Spot
Eagle River’s very unique qualifying process allows the winner of the 16-lap Friday Night Sweet 16 race to advance directly to the final, while every other competitor must re-start their quest for a front-row starting position on Saturday. Nine will advance through a round of heats, quarter finals and semifinals Saturday, and then Sunday two other drivers will earn second-row starting positions in a Last Chance Qualifier.
When the flag was raised off the starters boot in Friday’s finale, the sleds poured through the first set of turns, with the Michiganders DeWald and Burch leading the way after some bumping and banging on the first lap as the sleds sorted themselves out. Stephenson and Goede, meanwhile, raced side-by-side about five sled lengths behind them.
Burch bobbled, though, and Stephenson pounced – jumping into second and leaving Burch and Goede in his snowdust. Goede then moved past Burch into third on lap four, but then Burch fought back immediately – with those two trading that number three spot several times over the next couple of laps. Sterne sat in fifth, followed by Shoemaker.
But then the race was halted by a red flag after Tavish Perry crashed in turn one, stuffing his No. 85 Ski-Doo into the haybales.
The first attempt at a restart with six laps in the books was consequential, as Goede lit up the track on his Ski-Doo early. That brought out another red flag and Goede was sent to the rear of the field.
The second attempt went much better. DeWald again led Stephenson, and the two of them soon opened a gap on third place Burch, who opened a bigger gap on Sterne and then Peterson.

Stephenson’s stalk of DeWald went into hyperdrive. He was trying different lines behind the second-generation racer and was appearing to be getting a better launch coming out of turns. That really paid off on lap 12 when Stephenson powered past DeWald and into the lead coming out of turn two. Stephenson then built on that lead over the last few laps and won by more than 2 seconds over DeWald. There was then a gap to Burch in third, with Goede benefitting from a pass on the penultimate lap to claim fourth ahead of Sterne. Peterson, Rogers, Olson, Shoemaker and the parked Perry rounded out the field.
Words With The Winner
As noted earlier, Stephenson not only won the Sweet 16 final in the World Championship Formula III class, he also won the USSA ProStar Cup racer earlier in the evening on his Pro Champ 440 sled.
After the Formula III win, Stephenson admitted to being much more comfortable on the Pro Champ sled than the stock-snowmobile-based Formula III Polaris.
“The Champ sleds are just so snappy and agile, and there’s so much more you can do with them,” Stephenson told us. “It’s like comparing an Indy car to a NASCAR, that’s kind of the way that it is.”
He credited some recent testing with the F-III sled, some handling work done by his team and some advice he got from both Jordan Wahl and Terry Wahl for helping him hone his skills on the bigger chassis.
“It was a lot of hard work by Wahl Bros. Racing on the Polaris,” he added in an interview over the P.A. system. “We made some changes to this sled in particular, and the guys in the shop just gave us a whale of a sled. The job’s not finished – we’ve got to come back on Sunday and, the drive for five (World Championships) is on!”