The Herbst Race Team Connection

For me, one of the best parts about vintage sleds is chasing down history.

With any classic race sled it seems like there is two sides to the history of the machine: Where it started out as and what made the machine "famous", and what happened to it after that point. If and when I have the complete history of a machine – from when it was built till when it was in my care, I try and document everything I learn about it.

Out of the sleds I own, I have only been able to completely document a couple so far. In doing so, I often find out a great deal of information about a sled in someone else’s hands, and if they are interested, it brings me great joy to pass that information on to the current sled owner.

For example, in digging up the history of the 1979 Offset Todd Elmer RXL I own, I was fortunate enough to find a good chunk of the history on one of my all time favorite sleds – Steve Thorsen’s 78 World Championship winning 440 triple RXL.

Turns out, both sleds were owned by the same Montana based race team called Herbst Racing. Not too long ago, Steve Herbst was nice enough to fill in all the gaps with a nicely written story about the sleds.

The Herbst Racing Team consisted of Steve Herbst and brother Mike, and they owned a Polaris dealership in Baker, Montana, from 1970 up until 1992.

Way back in 1977, they made a trip to West Yellowstone to watch the Midnight Blue Express Polaris Professional Race Team compete on the now famous ice track there. This was the first time they watched the team in person. They took many pictures, while watching Steve Thorsen, Jerry Bunke and Brad Hulings. They often wondered how cool it would be to own one of those really cool red white & blue race sleds. Pictured is Mike Herbst on Steve Thorsen’s 1977 250.

Two years later, they made another trip to Jackson Hole, Wyoming to watch another race. Polaris no longer had the professional race team at that time, opting instead to help out promising independent drivers. At that race, they found out that Steve Caperton had purchased the 1978 440X RXL that Thorsen had won the World Championship on. They sat in awe that day, watching the sled with a plain, dark blue hood and the number 195 on the side of it. They have some photos from that race, including photos of Caperton. This was also the first race where they saw Todd Elmer and his team running an RXL 340 with a Rotax engine in it.

In 1983, Herbst Racing puchased the 1979 Todd Elmer sled from the owner in Michigan. They do not recall the name, but it came with a 340 Fuji motor in it, and many extra parts, including 3 hoods that all had Todd’s name on them. Pictured on the right is the Elmer sled as they got it.

In 1984, they worked out a deal on the 78 440X Thorsen sled from Steve Caperton. They drove to Wyoming and brought it home. They recall the sled being race ready and the first time they tried it, it was very, very fast. Steve went to Roseau that year to attend the Polaris service school. He mentioned the sled to Bob Eastman, who was working in Polaris Research and Development at that time. Bob smiled and walked away, but came back shortly with every 440 RXL part he could find on the shelf at Polaris and gave it to Steve. Steve was stunned at the gesture, and more than a little thrilled.

That brings us to 1985, when they purchased an RXL tunnel from a dealer in Wyoming. They built this new RXL from the ground up with a triple 650 motor, getting most of the parts from Western Power Sports. Lucky for the team, Western was closing out many of these parts at a greatly reduced price. Mike made a trip to Roseau to have Larry Rugland fit the pipes in this sled. By the fall of 1995, all three sleds were ready to drag race in the upcoming season, including racing the stock classes. The team raced until 1991.

In 1992, they put an ad in Snow Week to sell out sleds, and this is when Rob McMillian saw the ad and acted on it. Steve made the deal with Rob over the phone, then delivered the sled to helena, Montana, where he dropped it off at a motel his parents owned at the time. The RXL 440 was All buffed up, race ready and looking like new. Mike had recently moved there, met Rob and finalized the deal.

In 1993, Steve sold the business, Herbst Kawasaki and Polaris and moved to Billings, Montana. That fall, he took the Todd Elmer RXL and the Herbst built 650 to Hay Days, hoping to sell them. Steve sold the 650, but no one showed any interest in the 340. Mike ended up storing the old RXL in his storage shed, where it stayed until it sold in 2001.

In 2001, Steve was reading the ads in the paper when he found one from a person looking for old racing snowmobiles. He called and told him about a Yamaha SSR in Baker and the Todd Elmer RXL that his brother still had in Helena. Mike Johnson of Yakima, Washington was did not take long to get to Helena and Baker and buy both sleds.

Mike called me shortly after getting the Elmer sled and sent pictures. I knew what it was instantly and asked if Mike would consider selling it. It took some talking him into it, but eventually, it found its way to my garage.

As for the Herbst Racing built 650 sold at Hay Days in 1993, they do not know who owns that sled. If anyone has any information, regarding its whereabouts, Steve would like to hear about it. Steve has numerous pictures and still enjoys talking about the old race days. Like I always say, you can take the boy out of racing, but you can’t take the racing out of the boy!

My thanks to Steve for providing all the information and the great photos!

From Rob McMillan, here are the final photos of his work to restore the hood on Thorsen’s 78 440X sled. As far as we can tell, all the vast majority of the other parts on this sled are original.