Snowboarder Nick Baumgartner Wins Off-Road Truck Race

Crandon, WI – The worlds of snowboarding and off-road truck racing collided recently at Wisconsin’s Crandon International Speedway when U.S. Snowboarding team member Nick Baumgartner, of Iron River, Mich., locked down a 1st place finish in his second-ever Traxxas TORC Series race.

The hard-charging Baumgartner – a 2010 USA Olympic Team member and 2011 ESPN Winter X Games gold medalist in boardercross – entered a U.S. Snowboarding-emblazoned truck in the TORC Series’ Sportsman Stock Truck class. Strong-arming the wheel, Baumgartner pulled the high speed holeshot in the “Land Rush” multi-truck MX-style start and towed the rest of the field to the finish.

“I can’t begin to explain how excellent this feels. I’m so pumped right now,” Baumgartner said from atop the TORC Series podium to the 12,000 fans in attendance. “That start was insane and the speeds were a lot higher than I expected. My crew did a great job preparing my truck and I absolutely had a blast out there. Can’t wait for the next race in Bark River.”

With the win at Crandon, coupled with his 3rd place finish at RedBud MX, Baumgartner took over first place in the TORC Series’ Stock Truck class. The pro snowboarder caught up with the TORC team to describe his race:

TORC: Nick, right out of the gate here … talk about your first time racing trucks on the Traxxas TORC Series a few weeks back at RedBud MX. Seemed like you had quite a good time out there.

Baumgartner: I can’t begin to explain how rad that was. Such a rush. I’d only even been in an off-road race truck a couple times before, practice at Crandon and at Baker Built Motorsports in Shannon, Ill. So the TORC race at RedBud was just a flat out incredible experience … one that I’ll never forget.

TORC: And to win here this past weekend at Crandon … that had to be incredible.

Baumgartner: I knew we had a fast truck. So if I wasn’t able to push it and do well, we’d know it was my fault – and not the truck’s. But yeah, winning at Crandon is a memorable one. Ranks right up there with making the Olympic team and winning at X Games.

TORC: Growing up in Michigan’s U.P. – you lived in an area that’s pretty much the Wild West in terms of motorsports. Anything goes up in the “Yoop,” from dirt bikes to snowmobiles and such. Did you race any motocross/snocross before you got so heavily involved in competition snowboard racing?

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According to a news release, a Wisconsin state trooper responding to the report of a possible crash at Sznaider and Colby roads in Bayfield County at 2:38 p.m. found driver Knuuttila intoxicated. Knuuttila was tested and arrested for ninth offense OWI. He was also charged with felon in possession of a firearm, bail jumping, open intoxicant in a motor vehicle and no proof of insurance. Knuuttila was transported for an evidentiary chemical test and incarcerated in the Bayfield County Jail. " The reason this man was not already locked up is because it had been a while since his last OWI...08/09/08 was the most recent, he had done his time. I looked his record up online & from what I can make of it, it is only his 7th, not his 9th. His records go back as far as 1995(14 yrs. ago). He got his 4th in 1995, his 5th in 1997 & his 6th, which is marked as a 2nd offense. His records dont go back far enough to see the 1st through 3rd, but they had to be over 14 years ago. If you remember, a few years ago they changed alot of the drinking/driving laws so now they go back further. I agree Kay, there is something wrong here, they are making it public that this man got his 9th OWI when he only got his 7th. I know that is bad, but hey....dont overdo it & make this man look even worse. " " Catwoman, you may want to look again...and pay attention to the birthdates. The citations in 08 you refer to belong to Jr...and Sr just picked up another one earlier this year. Not saying this to offend, just need to be careful...there are a lot of people out there with same names! Nonetheless, is sad to see that our current system is obviously not working for this gentleman!

Public documents of the State of Wisconsin, being the biennial reports of the various state officers, departments and institutions, ...

Iron River, Wisconsin centennial, 1892-1992

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