ORA had their annual banquet on the 13th with over 120 souls attending. That was the largest banquet they have had to date. It was reported at the banquet that the number of racers who run with ORA is up 20% from last year as well.

Their new marketing video made its debut at the banquet as well. Congrats on another fine season to the crew and racers from the Oval Racers Alliance.

Top Juniors in PVR – Juniors really are the future!

PVR’s annual banquet was held Saturday, April 20th in Abbotsford Wisconsin. The place was completely packed, and the presence of a lot of TV cameras, directors and sound engineers was a pretty different thing to see in the world of Vintage Snowmobiles.

PVR packs a lot into their annual meetings – rule changes, board of director changes, awards… all in all it makes for a full day of activity. Once it’s done, everyone lines up for dinner and then the real party begins.

PVR President Tom Persha with PVR’s Super-Seniors winner, 81 year old Bill Haske

For me, one of the highlights was 81 year old Bill Haske winning the super-seniors class. I couldn’t help but smile and hope that at 81 years old, we all could be in good enough shape to go out there and do battle on an old sled. I also liked the special recognition of the clubs Junior racers.

The nights big winner was none other than Freddy “The Bullet” Smith, who also got a huge round of applause for being one of the founding members of Pro Vintage Racing. Another big round went to Tom Persha, the clubs always positive, always helpful, always energetic President.

Fred Smith – PVR’s Big Winner for 2013

Film Crew At the PVR Banquet

After a 30 year hiatus, the Winter Spectacular is returning to the Historic “High Flyin’ Half Mile” Viking Speedway in Alexandria MN on January 30 – February 1, 2014.

A group of businessmen led by Jeff Karrow is working hard to bring the Viking Speedway back to her old glory as she was in 1974 to 1985, when the Dayco Holiday Spectacular was one of the crown jewels in the snowmobile racing world.

In the spirit of vintage and late model racing, they will be using core (best) classes from ORA and PVR and USSA.

This is a herculean task-and they are not in it for the money. Breaking even will be considered a huge success, as this will be an expensive venture: 2.6 million gallons of water (purchased from the water utility), fuel and manpower hours to build the track, rent for the track, insurance, trophies, coats, ambulance, advertising, snow removal, etc. The group has estimated that this show will be incur $65,000-$ 75,000 in expenses.

The race will crown four Spectacular Champions: A Superstock Leafer (10 laps) Champion, A Modified (10 laps) Champion, A IFS (10 lap) Champion, and a Champ (20 laps) Champion complete with on track driver introductions. The 2014 Spectacular Champions will automatically secure a back row start for the 2015 Spectacular, amongst the other prizes to be announced.

There is a covered grandstand and we will also have a heated “race village” where they will have food vendors, beer sales and bringing back a 70’s favorite: HOT DR. Pepper!!

Thursday, 1/30 will be a Test/Tune day, Friday, 1/31 will be heats/round robins, qualifiers-full show for Champs, Saturday, 2/1 will be all finals-another full show for Champs. Everyone will be able to go home for the superbowl on Sunday.

So save the date….January 30 – February 1, 2014 @ the Viking Speedway, Alexandria Mn.

Grab a seat, Grab momma and hang on cuz’ they are about to turn Ice Oval racing loose at the Historic “High Flyin’ Half Mile”. The Winter Spectacular….it’s going be like watching jet fighters in a silo!