"Snow Goer" Since a particularly nasty and injury-inducing snowmobile racing accident in 2017, Matt Goede’s racing career has epitomized the concept of a comeback story. But Sunday in Eagle River, Wisconsin, the driver of the No. 28 Ski-Doo completed the story with an epic World Championship victory on an ice oval track. His will be the 60th name on the Snow Goer Cup.

       Goede, 34, led most of the 25-lap World Championship final, but was battling the rough track, dulling carbides, lapped traffic and highly iced-over goggles that obscured his vision. Then he got passed and was running a distant second place to four-time World Champ Blaine Stephenson when the drivers took the white flag.

       However, Stephenson’s own teammate crashed in turn four and brought out a red flag and eventually a green-white-checkered restart. On that restart, Stephenson’s sled lost traction while Goede hooked up and jetting into turn one. He then opened a big lead and stormed away to a historic victory.

        After an emotion victory lap with his daughter, Goede was soon hoisting the Snow Goer Cup over his head as the sport’s World Champion, cementing his place in history before a large and rowdy crowd in Eagle River.

       “Blaine should have won,” an emotional Goede said after the race. ‘We definitely got lucky with that caution. The biggest thing is I couldn’t see at all anymore, my goggles were completely iced over. Without that red flag we weren’t going to win but that’s kind of the way it goes sometimes, and I’d rather be lucky than good.”