Al Gore is collecting his Nobel Peace Prize as you read this for his efforts to convince us the world is going to hell in a basket. All of us, of course are to blame, and if you listen to Al, we should all toss out our cars, trucks, snowmobiles and ATV’s and walk everywhere – or take a bicycle. Maybe get a horse – except they also expel greenhouse gasses, so no, we have to walk everywhere.
Of course Al will take a private jet or limo everywhere he goes. He’s much too important to the world to have to live by the same rules he would have us live under. However, I hear he did opt for public transportation on the way to the ceremony, to save the gas his limo would have taken up. That crazy Al, he just keeps on giving. What a guy.
But here in Minnesota it’s cold. December cold. Typical Minnesota cold. And we have snow. About a foot or so around my neck of the woods. I’d say this weather is clearly putting a big question mark in his whole theory, but I’ll leave that up to others to argue.
I’m too busy enjoying the fact that the earth has turned white and I have to wear a heavy coat every where I go. Winter’s here and the sleds are out in near full force – we are still waiting for the lakes to catch up, so a lot of trails are not open just yet.
And the vintage season gets started officially tomorrow.
Up in Beausejour Manitoba, the first race of the season gets started. Late model and vintage racers will be going head to head on the big oval. I wish I was on my way up there, but the schedule is a little hectic at the moment. All I know so far is the Wahl Brothers have a truly crazy new race sled, and Gary Moyle’s new Arctic Cat’s look outstanding.
In the vintage racing world, all I’ve heard so far is that Aaron Johnson may have his new 73 Starfire up there – if it got done in time. I’ve visited with the Smith Brothers – they’ve got 6 (yes 6) new race sleds up on stands in their new Minnesota shop, with last years Z’s and EXT’s all ready to rumble. It’s going to be a huge display of Arctic race power where ever they go. Bill Stull’s name comes up every time I talk to anyone at a performance shop – it will be interesting to see what he’s up to. Last year’s SnoPro winner Jay Sperry should have new sleds at Eagle River, and I hear he’s built some sleds for others as well. Mark Anderson will race a few classes at Ironwood and Eagle River… always fun to see Mark out there.
One of our Bull Sessions members is on his way to Beausejour and promises photos – so check back on Monday.
Speaking of the schedule – I am officially booked every weekend from tomorrow until the weekend of March 8th with vintage sled events. It’s crazy. I’m looking forward to everyone of them. I just hope the truck can keep up – she’s in getting serviced as I write this, with more work being done to it over the weekend. Hopefully, the last of the work on the sleds that started way back last spring will be completed this weekend as well.
Then the fun begins. Testing, then racing in Rock Rapids Iowa on December 29th – the first race in the 2008 Vintage SnoPro series. After that, I’m at a race or a show every weekend. I hope I can catch up with as many of you as possible. Having Polaris the featured sled at Waconia is keeping me up at night. I can’t sleep thinking about it. Rumor has it folks – and you read it here first – Bob Eastman will be bringing the Shooting Star, and Jim Bernat will be bringing his 1975 World’s Championship 650cc PDC racer – probably thee most valuable vintage race sled in existence!
Have you noticed how much the ‘mainstream’ sled and even regular press has started talking about vintage sledding? She’s picking up steam folks. This is just getting good. Last night I caught a special on a Minnesota channel about the Scorpion reunion last year. Virtually every magazine now has a vintage story or section. Radio talk shows are even mentioning us now on a regular basis.
On the website I got some fun surprises coming. You know, a lot of really great sleds are coming out of the wood work. A lot of you are building some really interesting custom sleds and putting together some really neat old riders. I want to see them all!
The next installment of my quest to identify and find the 74 Cat SnoPros is coming up early next week, there will be several more parts to the full story. After that, I will expose the 5 sleds I have been hunting down since I started this hobby. I’ve been very quiet about it now, because I didn’t want to jinx it. I was down to just one sled that I could not find, when lo and behold – it showed up in my inbox one day from a total stranger. The puzzle pieces just fell together when I saw these photos – I found all five of the original sleds. Can’t wait to tell you about it.
Grab your hats, get your boots on, dust off the camera and the video camera (this will be the year of vintagesled videos on YouTube!) and get out there and have a good time before Al Gore finds out!