Snowmobiles are about as common in Sumpter as ponderosa pine trees, but the speedy machines that gather in the old mining town this weekend won’t be there to take scenic tours on the nearby mountain trails.

These sleds are coming to race.

A regional championship event is scheduled for Saturday and Sunday at the Sumpter Fairgrounds at the southeast corner of the town.

Sumpter, population around 210, is about 28 miles west of Baker City.

Bill Sproul, a member of the Grant County Snowballers snowmobile club who is serving as race director, expects 80 to 90 racing snowmobiles to compete in several classes on the quarter-mile oval race course.

Sproul said riders will be coming from Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Utah.

“Sumpter has the facilities for a wonderful snowmobile event,” he said.

It certainly has the snow.

More than 4 feet fell in Sumpter, elevation 4,400 feet, during February, said Mike Bogart, president of the Sumpter Valley Blue Mountain Snowmobile Club.

Like Sproul, Bogart is excited about this weekend’s races.

Part of their anticipation has to do with the racing machines, which are not the sorts of sleds you’re likely to see on groomed trails.

This weekend’s races are for “vintage” snowmobiles, Sproul said.

Those are machines built before 1985 and that have leaf-spring suspensions rather than the comparatively sophisticated independent suspensions that modern sleds have.

Sproul said this weekend’s races will also have a separate class for somewhat newer snowmobiles, those built as recently as 1997.

Sproul, who has been racing snowmobiles since 1985, said vintage racing started about a decade and a half ago.

“The idea behind it was vintage snowmobile shows,” he said. “A lot of the guys who were very passionate about snowmobiles were racers back in the day. And some of them said, ‘I wish we were still racing them.’ ”

Sproul said one of the first vintage races in the West took place more than a decade ago at West Yellowstone, Montana, as part of that resort city’s annual World Snowmobile Expo.

“And it’s grown quite a bit since then,” he said.

But not in the winter of 2020-21.

Not in the year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sproul said restrictions related to the pandemic have prompted organizers to cancel several events across the region.

That includes a major three-race series at Priest Lake in Northern Idaho.

Sproul said that when he heard those races were canceled, he immediately thought of Sumpter as an alternate venue.

There have been two vintage races at the Sumpter Fairgrounds this winter, the first in January, put on by the Sumpter snowmobile club, and the second in February, which the Grant County Snowballers coordinated.

Sproul called Bogart to ask about scheduling a third race at the Fairgrounds.

“We said sure,” Bogart said.

He said he’s grateful for the assistance of Sproul and other members of the Grant County Snowballers, because they have the knowledge of vintage snowmobiles and the experience needed to host races.

He said the Fairgrounds is a good site for the races because there’s ample room for people to spread out.

“Our footprint out here is so large it’s really not an issue,” he said.

There is no admission charge for the races, which start at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday and at 9 a.m. on Sunday.

Sproul expects races to wrap up between noon and 1 p.m. both days.

Volunteers from Sumpter will operate food booths, and Sproul said multiple snowmobile dealers plan to have demonstration sleds as well as one with “snow bikes” — motorcycles equipped not with wheels but with a snowmobile-like track in the rear and a ski in the front.

According to Oregon health regulations, for counties in the moderate-risk category — which Baker County will move into starting Friday, March 12 — there is a 150-person limit for “outdoor recreation and fitness establishments,” which includes “outdoor recreational sports.”

There are no capacity limits for outdoor parks.

Sproul said many of the racers he talked with were “ecstatic” to find out about the Sumpter event.

“A lot of these guys have spent a lot of money building racing snowmobiles this year and they had no place to go,” he said.

Sproul and Bogart said they’re happy that Sumpter will be hosting the races instead.

So is Daisy Garber.

She and her husband, Jeff, bought the Depot Inn motel in Sumpter in December 2019. She said their rooms have been booked for about three weeks, mainly by vintage racers.

Garber said the earlier races, in January and February, also brought people to town.

“We like it,” she said. “They’re a nice group of people.”

Justin Long, who owns the Sumpter Nugget restaurant and marijuana dispensary, said he also expects a boost in business from this weekend’s races.

That was the case with the races in January and February, Long said.

“I think most of the business owners here in town are hoping to have that traffic, especially given the past year,” he said.

Future snowmobile events in Sumpter

Sumpter has long been renowned as a destination for recreational riders, with its reliable snow and location as the hub for hundreds of miles of groomed trails.

But Sproul said the area’s potential as a site for vintage snowmobile races, shows and other events has scarcely been tapped.

“We could have a heck of a big deal there every year,” he said. “I would like to see that happen.”