Archive for 2007

Monday, December 10th, 2007

Early reports from the season opener in Beausejour suggest a good outing, although many teams are struggling with new equipment. Gary Moyle, PJ Wandersheid and Terry Wahl all found themselves squashing bugs in the spiffy new machines.

In the vintage classes, Polaris driver Aaron Johnson walked away with the 340 and 440 leaf spring class, while Ski-Doo’s Duncan Reid won convincingly over Ken Kitzman’s Rotax powered Cat. Aaron Johnson won all four races he entered. Aaron sent an email this morning that he feels he just got lucky in 440. “Rob Schultz had an extremely fast Yamaha, but he had a carb ice up or some other mechanical issue, and I was able to get around him for the win”.

Brian Bewcyk led the Champ class over former vintage racer (now driving a in the big leagues for Wahl Brothers) for 10 laps, until Dustin Wahl got around both for the win.

Sounds like everyone had a great time! Here’s a few photos sent in by Dale Neduzak.

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AN INCONVENIENT PAUSE IN GLOBAL WARMING

Friday, December 7th, 2007

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!

Posted in Vintage Living, Vintage Rides | No Comments »

THE ORGINAL CAT SNOPRO MACHINES – WHERE ARE THEY NOW?(PART II)

Monday, December 3rd, 2007

So just where did these sleds go after the initial SnoPro season in 1974? How many were made? In what sizes? Who drove them? Well, let’s see what we can piece together.

First, just how many did they make. Well, from looking at some videos and pictures, you get a pretty clear idea that that each driver was in at least two classes. Special sleds may have been built for Eagle River. Some would have been trashed before and during the season, from testing and accidents.

Stephen Knox (aka SKNOX on the Bull Sessions) runs a little website you may have visited called The Boss Cat Legacy. He’s done a great job of archiving and keeping track of all kinds of information on vintage Arctic stuff, including keeping track of a lot of the 74 Cat SnoPro photos that have been posted here on vintagesleds.com over the years. Stephen did work at Artco in the early 1990’s but it was the fact that he grew up in Cat country by Arctic engineer Paul Eggebraaten and very near to other Arctic legends like Denny Ray, Dale Cormican, Vern Ricard, as well as 69 World Champion Roger Janssen. All in all, a great place to grow up a Cat fan.

Here’s the numbers Stephen had:

1. Four or five 650cc machines were built
2. Five or six 440’s were built
3. Five or six 340’s were built

Larry Coltom lined up on one of his #33 machines, West Yellowstone, Montana, March of 1974. Photo from bosscatlegacy.com

That means there originally was somewhere around 14 were built, but the truth is, we don’t have an exact number. Stephen confirms that after the first race, the team needed to lose some weight on the sleds to keep up with the lightweight Polaris and Yamaha sleds. At least two machines were destroyed in the process of trying to put them on a diet.

That means means we are down to around 12 machines, maybe less. However, more could have been destroyed. Other sources tell me that after 1974, the factory had a salvage sale to get rid of last year’s race “junk”, and likely a lot, if not all the sleds were sold – however, it is VERY doubtful that any got out completely in tact.

The old chassis were used to test ideas for 1975, and there is a good chance more were destroyed this way. If a chassis did get sold with a lot of their parts, there is a good chance that they were not the original parts. That is, during testing, for example, Coltom would grab a new motor and put it in Chassis A, throwing the old motor aside. To assist in his testing, he would put a seat on the machine from Chassis B, and handlebars from Chassis C. When he was done, the motor would get taken out, and Chassis A, (now containing Chassis B an Chassis C parts) was, at some time, sent to salvage for sale – without the motor and hood.

See how this gets really complicated to figure out?

So who drove what? Well, let’s keep in mind what we learned in part one: Larry Coltom was #33, Charlie Lofton was #11 and Dave Thompson was #22. This is also VERY confusing… because most people associate the #22 with Larry Coltom – because in later years, that was his number. Not so in 1974. Keep that in mind. Also, we have Tom Marks driving as #44.

So in looking through the books and magazines, I’d say each driver ran two classes. This would make sense, because it would give each driver a chance to breathe between races. What I can tell is:
1. Thompson: 340 & 440
2. Coltom: 440 & 650
3. Lofton: 440 & 650
4. Marks: 340 & 650.

That’s just 8 sleds folks. Now assume there was 3 or 4 for Eagle River, that would make 11 or 12, tops, and the sleds built for Eagle River were likely never sold. The reason? Larry Coltom himself once told me that the sleds made for Eagle River were light, they would have been too dangerous to allow anyone else to drive. They were so thin, he couldn’t stand up on the running boards – they would bend!

So we are talking about a total of 8 sleds for sure, perhaps a couple of more that were spares – or never completed sleds the factory never raced. In any case, there was 8 complete ones near the end of the 1974 season, so lets go with that.

So now we know what we are looking for – sort of. Over the years, I’ve seen several sleds claimed to be a 74 Cat SnoPro, but they turned out to be modified 73 EXT’s or even later model Z’s with older hoods and parts grafted on. It wasn’t until I met Andy Avelis that I started to get an idea of how to identify these unique sleds.

Next: How to identify the genuine article.

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THE 2008 HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES

Thursday, November 29th, 2007

Drum roll please….

We interuppt this story of fabled Arctic Cat racers to bring you the following announcement:

The Board of Directors of the Snowmobile Hall of Fame (SHOF) and Museum are proud to announce the 2008 Inductees. Four distinguished honorees will be enshrined on Saturday, February 9, 2008 at the banquet held at the Whitetail Inn, Hwy 70 W, St. Germain, Wisconsin.

They are ANDY BAKER of Beausejour, Manitoba, CHRISTOPHER TWOMEY of Thief River Falls, MN, C. J. RAMSTAD (p) of Deephaven, MN and CLAYTON NUEMAN (p) of Coon Rapids, MN.

The Induction Banquet is the finale of an exciting weekend and is the concluding event for the 25th annual RIDE WITH THE CHAMPS by Modine HotDawg Garage Heaters. The RIDE is one of the SHOF’s major fund raising events of the year. The RIDE begins at the Whitetail Inn at 7:30 am with registration and breakfast and ends with the autograph session and cocktail party at 6:00 pm with the banquet at 7:00 pm. Friday, February 8, 2008 will be the dedication of the RAMSTAD LIBRARY AND MEDIA CENTER at the SHOF’s new expanded museum building. Watch the web site for detailed information about this event the day before the RIDE WITH THE CHAMPS. For more information, email the Hall of Fame.


Andy Baker	Christopher Twomey

CJ Ramstad	Clayton Nueman

Andy Baker
DATE OF INDUCTION: January 9, 2008
CAREER SPAN: 1966 –
BRANDS REPRESENTED: Polaris, Moto-Ski
AGE AT INDUCTION: 51
Beginning his snowmobile racing career in 1966 at age 10 in his hometown of Beausejour, Manitoba, Andy Baker immediately developed a love and dedication for the sport and its people. Baker’s respect and commitment to snowmobile oval racing produced two championship titles, presidency of the Canadian Power Toboggan Championships at Beausejour and annual devotion to the races made famous by his hometown.

Andy Baker Competing with the help of (and alongside) his dad, Baker’s personal racing success began early and focused on regional events around Manitoba. While at the height of his career, Baker succeeded his father as the CPTC President in 1977 and 1978 while simultaneously racing with great success on an independent Moto-Ski distributor team. Baker won the Manitoba championship and wore the #1 bib for 1979 and 1980, before retiring from active competition that year. He has continued to help run the famed Beausejour races every year since and was instrumental in the features that have made the track famous for its speed and safety.

Extremely humble and quick to credit the amazing people of Beausejour for any personal recognition he’s received, Baker’s love of snowmobile racing is surpassed only by his appreciation and respect for the racers, crews and workers who comprise the world of snowmobile racing. A true friend to all in the sport, Baker and his family embody the spirit of dedication and comprise a significant portion of the great “backbone” of snowmobile racing.

Christopher Twomey
DATE OF INDUCTION: January 9, 2008
CAREER SPAN: 1983 –
BRANDS REPRESENTED: Arctic Cat
AGE AT INDUCTION: 59
A business tactician who guided the important business principles at Arctic Cat, Chris Twomey of Thief River Falls, Minn., led the company’s transition from humble reemergence to industry innovator by combining solid management with a work environment that fostered creativity and passion. As President and CEO of Arctic Cat beginning in 1986, Twomey guided the company through more than a decade of unprecedented growth and success.

A leader who clearly understood the importance of answering customers’ desires with progressive product development, Twomey’s close-to-the-customer approach was as natural as it was effective. He backed it up by focusing company resources towards its prized and dedicated engineering department to respond to customers’ expectations. Likewise, his belief that racing could shape the development of industry-leading snowmobiles fueled an unprecedented period of success and race-influenced product development, including the 1990 EXT Special and 1993 ZR series.

Twomey was certain of the need for industry solidarity, which is why he worked aggressively with other industry leaders to create the International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association. His leadership and responsibility to the sport coupled with his understanding of land-use politics helped save snowmobile use in West Yellowstone National Park during a tumultuous period beginning in 2000. In a watershed moment, Twomey gave the go-ahead to unveil a prototype Arctic Cat powered by a four-stroke engine, which helped sway government officials to preserve snowmobile operation in the park.

C.J. Ramstad
DATE OF INDUCTION: January 9, 2008
CAREER SPAN: 1969 – 2007
AGE AT INDUCTION: Posthumous
CJ Ramstad The most influential and prolific writer and photographer in the sport’s history, Clifford John (C.J.) Ramstad set the standard for snowmobile journalism while a creating a historical record that will forever aid and reflect the industry. His tireless involvement at all levels of the sport, from land-use advocacy to club promotion and race history preservation, made him one of the most influential and recognizable figures in all of snowmobiling.

Ramstad began his career in the snowmobile industry in 1969 as a copywriter for Arctic Cat. He later founded Snow Week magazine and would write for and/or edit nearly every snowmobile publication during his career, including Supertrax, Snowmobile, Snow Goer and Minnesota Snowmobiling. He wrote four books about the sport, including “The Collected Works of Pappy,” “Legend: Arctic Cat’s First Four Decades” and “Of Ice and Engines.” In 1983 Ramstad helped conceive and launch the Snowmobile Hall of Fame and served as an invaluable board member for 24 years. He helped introduce and promote the Jeep 500 in 1987, and was a behind-the-scenes force and mentor in innumerable snowmobile racing, industry and club activities during his nearly four decades in the sport.

A legend in every aspect, the Deephaven, Minn., resident embraced every aspect of the sport with excitement and purpose. His tragic death, along with his son J.J., in an automobile accident in May, 2007, at age 62 was a crushing blow to an industry and sport that was so completely influenced by his work. Yet his amazing legacy is a powerful reminder of his unbridled enthusiasm and passion for the sport and people he dearly loved.

Clayton Neuman
DATE OF INDUCTION: January 9, 2008
CAREER SPAN: 1972 – 2002
BRANDS REPRESENTED: Arctic Cat
AGE AT INDUCTION: Posthumous
Clayton Nueman A creative, innovative engineer from Coon Rapids, Minn., who epitomized the “independent” racer/tuner, Clayton Neuman began his storied career in snowmobile drag racing in 1972 and continued for more than 30 years. He was as passionate about drag racing as he was creative in his engineering approach, combining the two with great success at all levels, including the ISR World Series of Drags, MSDRA and events across North America.

Starting with a 1972 Puma, Neuman’s fascination with high-performance was borne on a 1972 Arctic Cat Puma, which was heavily modified and raced by his younger brother, Lloyd, beginning a long run of the family-based Neuman team. Always searching for higher performance, Clayton ran a series of more powerful machines before building his custom 1977 Z 250, which featured crankcase induction mounted on the front of the engine, revised port designs and other ideas of his own creation. Driven by his son Steve, this machine dominated the 250 Mod class for many years.

In 1990 Clayton built an experimental 800cc, opposed four-cylinder engine that served as a test bed for new ideas and was raced with great success by the Neuman team. Along with brothers Lloyd, Gordon and Frank, he made the Neuman Race Team a household name in snowmobile drag racing, and one whose legacy is more than just winning races, but also a friendly, family-oriented approach and smart, clever sled building. Clayton learned of his induction just weeks before dying of cancer at age 73.

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WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

Saturday, November 24th, 2007

Looking at all your old snowmobile magazines, your old copy of Warriors of Winter and all 4 of the Race & Rally books, have you caught yourself wondering where in the heck are all these really neat old race sleds?

Well for me, it’s been an obsession going on eight years now. In that time, one of the smartest things I did (among a pile of really dumb things I also did) was to go ahead and write about my adventures of hunting down one of my favorites – the 1977 Kawasaki SnoPro “Shark” sleds.

In searching for a lot of other machines, I have not been quite so forthcoming.

There are several reasons for this, number one being that there is only so much time in a day, a week, a month, a year – even eight years. In some cases, the people that do have some really rare stuff do NOT want it made public what they have. Another reason is not knowing for sure if something is the “real deal”. I had to learn about them. It has been an on-going education, one I now know I will never graduate from. Every time I get arrogant and think I know something about these sleds, I prove myself wrong – or at least I find reason to question an earlier assumption.

I also didn’t want to make a big deal out of some of these sleds until they were restored so we could enjoy them in their full glory. Of course, to restore a sled, and restore it accurately, is not a simple task – it can take years.

But lastly, I have to confess I didn’t say anything about the whereabouts of certain sleds because I was trying to obtain them. I don’t know if that was very fair, or even very nice of me, but frankly, I couldn’t help myself! I plead insanity!

So, starting today, I’m going to just go ahead and spill the beans on what I know, and share the journey with everyone. I’m going to start with the year that got me hooked on all this stuff when I was a kid: 1974. I’m going to start with what i always though was the sexiest looking Arctic Cat sled ever made: The 1974 Arctic Cat SnoPros.

Enjoy the trip!

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WHERE ARE THEY NOW: THE ORGINAL CAT SNOPRO MACHINES (PART I)

Saturday, November 24th, 2007

I’ll never forget that ad. First page, inside cover of the new Race & Rally. “What’s tomorrow’s Cat doing today? Winning Races.” It took me a long time to turn the page and look at the rest of the magazine. There were the 3 drivers in the ad: Larry Coltom, #33, Charlie Lofton #11 and Dave Thompson, #22. There was some copy about the new engine, chassis and some of the components. But most important, there was 3 sleds in the photo, a 340 and 2 440 machines – and that hood. Mostly black with green ‘flames” fading back into the black, They were low, wide and totally wicked looking.

I’m a Polaris guy. I make no bones about it. I bleed blue. But staring at that picture that day, I seriously wondered if the boys fro Roseau could pull it off – the early promo pictures of the Polaris SnoPro was not nearly as impressive. These sleds (and the new uniforms) looked amazing. As a consolation, I thought that if Polaris couldn’t win, then I was always hoping it was Cat. In particular, these Cats.

As it turned out, The Starfire Kids from Roseau did dominate the first ever year of professional snowmobile racing. Yamaha did very well in the 440 class, but Polaris locked up 340 and 650. Stan Hayes wound up #1 in points with his 340 & 650 Polaris sleds. Larry Rugland nearly knocked him off that perch, missing it by just a few points. In third was Arctic’s Larry Coltom. In fact, most of the year found Arctic and Polaris battling it out for the top spots.

What we have learned since is that the original Cat SnoPros turned out to be a good design – although a little too heavy when racing against the Polaris sleds (made almost entirely of lightweight magnesium) and the 3/4 scale Yamaha’s made up of magnesium and titanium. So very early in the year, the Cat SnoPros went on a diet – in one video, they claim as much as 50 pounds were cut off each sled. They did this by removing any pieces that were not absolutely critical to the structure. The suspension (which were absolutely unique to this sled) were cut, shortened and drilled. The chassis had a lot of new holes drilled in them.

The net effect was that by the last race of the year, Team Arctic got the sleds dialed in just right, and walked away with a ton of trophies at the years last race.

So where did the sleds go after 1974? Well, since there are a finite number of these machines, lets first figure out a little more on the history of them: How many were there, in what sizes, who drove them and can we piece together the story of where they went after 1974? How do you identify one of these? How do you verify what parts are correct?

We’ll tackle all these questions and many more when we reveal “Where are they now”. Stay tuned.

Do you have information to share about the 74 Cat’s? Please email me, or jump in on the Bull Sessions.

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HOW PIPES WORK

Tuesday, November 20th, 2007

This was sent to me anonymously, but it’s a great little demonstration of how a 2 cycle pipe works. So I’m told.

2 cycle pipe

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A NEW COLLECTOR

Monday, November 19th, 2007

Meet Gordon Kimbale – collector and restorer. I stumbled across this report on the Gordon from YouTube. The report says Gordon over 85 running, restored machines. Way to go Gordon.

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LIVE ON SKIS!

Sunday, November 18th, 2007

This video is just fun. Really does capture the good time we had on the ride last year. More info on Live On Skis is available here. Enjoy.

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MORE IRONWOOD NEWS

Thursday, November 15th, 2007

I got this info in the inbox today about the return of racing to Ironwood’s historic track:

Michigan’s Western Upper Peninsula invites you to be a part of the biggest snowmobile extravaganza the upper Midwest has ever seen! January 4th through the 12th will be jam packed with fast races, exciting events, snowmobile shows and activities for ages in an amazing event called Sledfest ‘08.

USSA sanctioned Oval racing and Vintage Pro racing kick off January 4th through the 6th at the Gogebic County Fair Grounds in Ironwood, Michigan. Friday is test and tune day. Racers will be around for autographs and pictures. Check out the Expo building for food, snowmobile gear and more. Saturday, racers take to the track at 10 A.M.; the day will feature a memorial race for the late Jim Adema. In addition to racing, the weekend features a Vintage Snowmobile show, snowmobile swap meet, vendors and exhibits. All are invited to a reception at the Hurley Inn for cocktails, buffet dinner, awards presentation, and music. Sunday concludes oval and vintage racing from 10 A.M. until dark.

For more information, please contact the Western Upper Peninsula Convention & Vistors Bureau in Ironwood, MI at 906-932-4850 or bigsnow@westernup.info.