9/14/2006
The photo is vintage writer Hal Armstrong on his original 1972 Polaris ATX 335. He’s wearing his dads original suit from 1971. You likely recognize Hal’s name from many of the articles he’s written for snowmobile magazines about vintage snowmobiles – including one in the current issue of Snowtech on the Brut.
Hal picked up this sled in October of 1971 with His dad. Pop Armstrong was the western Canada sales rep for Polaris at the time, and he worked out of the Polaris office in Beausejour, Manitoba.
Hal got to travel down with his dad to Roseau in the Polaris sales van and they actually got to watch it get assembled! The sled was then loaded right into the sales van. Hal and his father raced that sled for two years. Hal took a 4th in Junior 340 in 1972 with it at Beausejour that year.
The sled was later used for trail riding, hauling moose out of the bush and even driving it in the summer in the muskeg pulling a skiboose to get minnows. This was prior to ATV’s. One guy would sit in the skiboose the other drove the sled. The swamp would keep the sliders cool. We would drive it into the small lake where we had our minnow traps. The minnows were dumped into a plastic garbage bin and the guy in the skiboose would sit with the garbage pail between his legs so they would not spill. The sled was fired up and they dragged the skibosse back to the road.
The sled is totally restored now and Hal always takes it to the Lake Belwood Vintage Rally in Fergus, Ontario each year.