Stephenson aims for the ‘drive for five’ at 63rd Derby

Minnesota native Blaine Stephenson can stamp his name alone again at the top of the record books with a win at the famed Eagle River Derby Track this weekend during the 63rd World Championship Snowmobile Derby as the only driver to ever win five times in the event’s history.

When you talk about derby track history, Stephenson is probably one of the notable names that comes to mind for many. Not only is he the first-ever racer in Derby history to win four consecutive World Championships, but he is also just one of two drivers to win four WCs for his career. He won the 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 World Championships in a stretch of dominance that anyone had yet to see before the No. 102 sled did it.

P.J. Wanderscheid is the only other racer with four championships, winning in 2002, 2003, 2006 and 2011.

As Stephenson and his team prepped the sleds and got out on the practice track once more last week before this weekend, the hunger to secure his fifth WC is high after not being in the winners’ circle since 2021, despite close calls over the previous handful of years. Most notably in 2023, when Stepenson took the white flag with one lap to go, and a red flag came out due to a crash in turn four. That reset the field and caused Stephenson to fall back.

“The hunger is still there. Our team has worked very hard to give us a chance each time we go to Eagle, and we showed winning speed for a number of years,” said Stephenson. “So it drives me more to know we have great opportunities to reward everyone’s hard work and support.”

Stephenson will have just one race under his belt heading into this weekend’s festivities, which was in Beausejour, Manitoba, back in December.
He started the season hot and swept both the Champ 440 class and the Formula III finals during that weekend.

“It was a great weekend up in Beausejour. We unloaded pretty good, but we kept working on both sleds to get better, and I think we saw that with both of them,” explained Stephenson. “We are making subtle changes on both to be a little bit better and squeeze out a little bit more on each.”

With a light schedule ahead of the World Championships, Stephenson said that having more laps in is always best. It may seem like a devil in disguise, as he has had the time to rest and get into the gym, which will keep him fresh between races, but he wishes he had more time on the sleds.

“Not having races before Eagle is definitely not ideal. I would love to have more races on the schedule,” he stated. “We have put in some time on the practice track, and having come out of the box as well as we did in Beausejour makes us feel better about it. Not having as many laps in this season helps with fatigue, and I’ve been putting in time in the gym and feel fine, but sometimes the more laps we do, the better we feel.”

Stephenson will head to the track this week and unload the sleds for practice tomorrow, Thursday, Jan. 15, and time trials on Friday, January 16, starting at 10 a.m. He will be racing in the FIII World Championship class and will saddle his Champ 440 sled as the defending champ of the USSA Pro Star Cup.