Wolf Lake had an “open house” this past weekend for anyone that wanted to come up and test their race sleds. The Poirier Boys showed up
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The Poirer Boys new triple Rotax “Beast”.
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with a small army of sleds, including one really original Jag, and a new Ski-Doo triple they hope will help them beat the Johnson. More on this baby later.
Last years IFS SnoPro champ, Devin Fackrell was there testing his 78 440 Ski-Doo, as was Kenny Kitzman on his Champ sled. The VSCA even came out for some photos.
We (Jim Haug and I) brought both 77 Polaris SnoPros up to test. Jim’s 340 needed small adjustments and minor tweaking, but was running pretty good. I was supposed to just run my 250 for a couple of laps and see if any bolts rattled loose. It felt pretty good, so I went into a corner hard. The next thing I knew, my head hit the ice and I was staring at the pretty gray sky. I had been making jokes all morning about “I’m just going to go roll it over once and scratch the paint just to get it out of the way” and lo and behold, my “wish” came true.
I’m okay (just sore) and the sled just lost some gelcoat, spark plugs and has a host of new cracks. Later we learned I had about 1″ of “toe-in” and my ski pressure was way too much, causing the back end to break loose, and the carbide to dig in and flip me. Randy Sims, the Gulbransons, Devin and Jim all pitched in to help me get the skis and suspension setup, and I was back in the saddle and feeling much better by the end of the day.
Lesson learned, I will not repeat the same mistake twice. I assure you. Thanks to everyone that called and emailed to see if I was okay!
Next weekend is the Strathcona opener on Saturday, and Wolf Lake’s opening weekend on Sunday. The trails are open, the weathers cold, the Hall of Fame is getting the new building… life is good.