Skijor Bangor Returns With 44 Teams, Reviving Maine's Triple Crown Chase
The horse-drawn ski race came back after a year off, giving racers another shot at sweeping all three of Maine's skijoring stops.
Skijor Bangor returned to the Hollywood Casino Raceway on Jan. 31 after a year off, with 44 teams competing in single-digit temperatures, the Bangor Daily News reported.
In skijoring, a sport with roots in Norway, a rider on horseback tows a skier by rope down a timed course of about 1,000 feet. Skiers can take optional jumps and try to grab rings hung along the track. Novice and professional teams each get two runs.
Many competitors were new to the sport. Westbrook's Kevin Kimball was on skis for only the fourth time. Practice is hard to come by because the track setup is specialized and Maine has just three events: Skowhegan, which held the state's first formal race in 2019 as an economic development effort; Topsham, which followed in 2022; and Bangor, which began in 2024. Bangor's return revives the chance at a triple crown across all three.
Organizer Jodi MacGregor runs the event with roughly 45 volunteers, including many childhood friends from the surrounding Bass Park neighborhood. Crews hauled around 50 dump truck loads of clean snow from Bangor International Airport to build the track and jumps. MacGregor said skiers usually outnumber available riders, and pairs often meet online and compete without practicing together.
Topsham will hold its race Feb. 7, followed by Skowhegan on Feb. 21.
This story was first reported by Bangor Daily News.
