LINCOLN – Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines.

Buoyed by Wednesday’s blizzard, the Lincoln Snowhounds Snowmobile Club’s eighth annual Sno-Cross Races are expected to draw several hundred snowmobile racers and several thousand spectators to town on Saturday and Sunday.

“It’s going to make a well-prepared track perfect,” club President Alan Smith said Wednesday of the snow.

“We worked up there all weekend shaping the track. In fact, we just finished it last night, so this will be all froze up perfect for the snow today. Today’s snow is like icing on the cake.”

Public Works Department and club volunteers hauled 4,200 cubic yards of snow to make the half-mile oval racetrack, Smith said. That’s enough to make a snowbank 9 feet high, 9 feet wide and about 1,400 feet long.

With race registration from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. Saturday and Sunday and no pre-registration required, it’s impossible to tell how many snowmobile racers will be on-hand, Smith said. Yet the heavy snowfall will draw many amateur and professional racers to town.

Many will likely ride the more than 100 miles of snowmobile trails in and around Lincoln right to the clubhouse to register. Club members will start grooming trails today on the club’s two large groomers to prepare for sledders this weekend.

“The intent is that all the trails will be groomed by the weekend. It’s very likely to happen, barring any breakdowns of equipment,” Smith said.

“Not counting the snow today, the trails are passable, but with marginal coverage. They are rideable, but you just have to watch for the sticks and rocks,” Smith added. “Once they get this snow, they should be excellent. A foot of snow would make them perfect.”

The races are an economic windfall for many town businesses – everything from restaurants to motels and gas stations, Town Manager Glenn Aho said.

“It’s a really good family event and a good way to get people out enjoying the winter weather,” Aho said. “It’s fun to watch, too, like any other form of racing.”

Town hotels and motels reported heavy booking activity Wednesday as snowmobilers started to plan trips. The Lincoln House Motel had 85 percent of its rooms booked for the weekend; the Briarwood Motor Inn had about 90 percent, and the Thomas Motel had a handful.

“This is the first weekend that the weather has done me any good for snowmobiling,” Lincoln House owner Jan Clifford said. “It’s been pretty quiet prior to this snowstorm, but I am booked up solid on Saturday night.”

“We are definitely going to be full this weekend. I think the sledders are coming anyway, just because of the snow, not just for the race,” said Sue Troulis, manager of the Briarwood Motor Inn.

Thirty-nine businesses and 246 members from the Lincoln area belong to the club, and 36 businesses sponsor the event, said Joni Smith, Smith’s wife and a club member.

Besides maintenance of the clubhouse on Town Farm Road, the annual event, Alan Smith said, pays for maintenance of the town’s 100 snowmobile trails.

“If we can draw the crowds that we can draw in the past and the professional racers put on the show we expect, it should really be a great event,” Alan Smith said.

Lincoln’s 8th annual sno-cross races

WHO: Lincoln Snowhounds Snowmobile Club

WHAT: Youth, men’s and women’s amateur and professional snowmobile racing

WHERE: Lincoln Snowhounds Snowmobile Club, Town Farm Road, Lincoln

WHEN: Feb. 17-18. Pre-registration 8 a.m.; races start at 11 a.m. Make-up dates March 17-18

HOW MUCH: $8 for spectators ages 13-older; $5 for children ages 5-older. Amateur racers, $15 per event; professionals $20 per event

FOR MORE INFO: Visit lincolnmaine.org

SOURCE: lincolnmaine.org