Labrador City, NL, March 8, 2014 – The 2014 winner of Cain’s Quest, the world’s longest and toughest snowmobile endurance race, is Team #73 Watkins-Willmott of Labrador City, NL, who crossed the finish line at 11:08. In second place is Team #77 Backcountry Ravens of Happy Valley-Goose Bay, with a time of 11:41 and third place, Team #7 snowXcapes.com of Ontario with a time of 13:24. The prize purse of $100,000 will be paid out as follows:
1st place $50,000
2nd place $30,000
3rd place $20,000
This year has been the toughest yet for Cain’s Quest racers. They left the start line in Labrador West on March 1 in frigid temperatures and that trend continued during most of their 3,300 km run throughout Labrador. They also experienced a lot of night riding and incredibly tough terrain. The route exceeded the 2012 route by 800 km, adding another daunting level of endurance to the race.
“The first leg of the race went really well with near record times into Happy Valley-Goose Bay, but the south and north coast of Labrador was much slower going than we anticipated,” said Todd Kent, Chair of Cain’s Quest Inc.
Conditions were incredibly rough in the northern interior, causing the board of directors to make a decision to change the route on day five of the race.
“Our checkpoint officials spent four days trying to get into one of our remote checkpoints between Nain and Churchill Falls and couldn’t because of weather,” said Todd. “With safety our number one priority, we decided to have racers backtrack down the north coast and westward to Labrador City.”
The 2014 Cain’s Quest has been the most socially engaged race to date. Anxious fans had their eyes glued to the Yellowbrick tracking page at cainsquest.com. Thousands of posts, photos and stories have been shared amongst Cain’s Quest fans on Facebook. The Cain’s Quest Inc. page quickly grew to 20 times its size to almost 6,000 likes throughout the week and was viewed over 30,000 times.
“We’ve had so much feedback from our Facebook followers. The checkpoint communities were the most engaged of any race and we loved seeing the footage of the racers meeting the dedicated fans in each corner of Labrador,” said Todd.
But it was not only Labrador fans following the race. Cainsquest.com received hits from 71 different countries, had 57,335 unique visitors and received 752,304 page views during the week of the race.
Twenty-nine teams signed up to race, with less than 1/3 of the teams crossing the finish line. The Quest may be over, but the stories of camaraderie, sportsmanship, determination, hardship and celebration will be forever. Any racer who dares to challenge the legend will be left with the experience of a lifetime, whether they finish or not.
A celebration of racers, volunteers, organizers and sponsors will be held tonight at the Labrador City Arena. The top three teams will be presented with their awards.
“Any racer who signs up is to be commended,” said Todd. “The question about the world’s toughest snowmobile endurance race has been answered – Cain’s Quest in Labrador, Canada.”
For more information on Cain’s Quest, visit cainsquest.com. Follow us on Twitter @cainsquest, use #cq2014 or join the conversation on our Cain’s Quest Inc. Facebook page.
Cain’s Quest is the world’s toughest and longest snowmobile endurance race. It is an incredible off-trail riding adventure where teams of two battle in an all-out race through deep snow and thick wooded areas in some of the most remote parts of Labrador. The race is managed by Cain’s Quest Inc., a volunteer-run, non-profit organization.
-30-
Media Contact:
T: 709-944-5011
C: 709-280-5965
