Last year at the world championship snowmobile hill climb in Afton, Wyo., Matt McCray was eliminated in the qualifying round, not quite fast enough to take in the view from the summit.
This time around, he made sure not to waste his chance to reach the top of the heap at Jackson Hole resort.
He won the semipro modified and semipro stock classes and was second overall in the semipro improved class - a dominant showing for the 19-year-old rider from Prince George in what's considered the Super Bowl of snowmobile hill climb events.
Only the top five qualifiers advance to the finals in each class and those finals runs are on longer, steeper courses. McCray's best finish in 2017 was eighth in the semipro improved qualifying and he missed the final by three positions. But this year, McCray and his Polaris sled would not be denied. He qualified first in the modified class, first in improved class, and was fourth in qualifying for semipro stock.
"My goal was to kick my own butt from last year and try to qualify to get a shot at the top of the hill and with two firsts that was way better than my expectations, it was very good," said McCray.
"Qualifying was about 45 seconds and you qualify to the first bench in the hill and then it gets super-steep and technical after that when they open it up for finals on the top half of the course."
McCray covered the course in 1:24.97 to win the semipro modified final and reached the high mark on the mountain to claim the stock title. In the improved class final he clocked 1:26.51, second only to Sam Peterson of Wisdom, Mont., who won in 1:22.61. Peterson went on to capture king of the hill bragging rights in 1:17.79, ahead of second-place McCray (1:26.34).
After seeing the Jackson Hole course last year, McCray and his dad Kevin did their homework and took advantage of the deep snow conditions northeast of Bear Lake to build a practice course similar to what they encountered at the world championships.
"I had more riding time this year, I rode three times a week since the start of December," said McCray, who had his dad working with him in the pits keeping his sleds finely tuned.
"We had lots more snow this year so we were able to build better tracks. I've learned the fitness that you've got to have and the tuning and time everybody puts into it.
"With more sponsors now and with me getting better gear, that helped. We came back with different gear and a different setup this year. We went back this year knowing what we were up against, the people we were up against, and we had a good idea what we had to do and it worked out."
Kevin McCray competed six straight years in the world championships from 1996-2001 and won two classes and Matt says it's his goal now to nail down his third title next year - just to beat his dad.
Semipro rider Jason Gorman of Prince George also competed in the 42nd annual world championships, which wrapped up March 24, and finished ninth in qualifying for the modified class with a time of 50.03, compared to McCray's 45.72 top qualifying time. Gorman qualified 16th in semipro improved and 19th in semipro stock.
McCray's success this year has him considering making the jump to the pro classes next year and he might follow the Rocky Mountain States HillClimb Association circuit.
"I'm thinking about turning pro and then I can run bigger sleds and maybe run the whole (eight-race) series, but we haven't made any plans yet," he said.
McCray will be racing the next three weekends on the Western Canadian Hillcross Association circuit. He'll be in Dawson Creek this weekend, then Silver Star near Vernon and Sun Peaks near Kamloops.
