Way back in 1973, Nick Youker got a 1973 650 EXT to go racing with. He raced all over Minnesota and Wisconsin. His father Ken Youker was the mechanic, but also drove the sled sometimes. They raced it in 1974 and into 1975 as well, and often worked with the Porters and Arctic Cat to try and squeeze a few more ponies out of her.
The Nick and Ken have so many great memories from the machine that just thinking about it makes them smile. But over the years, the sled just sat, gathering dust, then dirt, then animal debris then rust and decay.
Last March, Nicks decided the sled was too special to meet its fate by rotting. So he packed it and all the parts he had for it up and hauled off to Jerry Leggit and Bill Adams of Arctic Restoration Specialties.
With a very tight deadline, the boys went to work on the sled. They tore it down to the last rivet and started cleaning and rebuilding. The vast majority of the parts are genuine Cat parts, but the tunnel was just too far gone. So they replaced it with a repop from Arctic Restorations. Just before July 4th, the whole sled was done. That has to be some kind of record doesn’t it?
I really dig the restoration of the sled – it looks as close to it did from the factory as you can get – maybe just tad nicer on the details. Ken Youker was particularly pleased to see the old sled redone and hasn’t lost the smile from his face yet I’m told. Congratulations to Ken, Nick, Bill and Jerry!
Here’s some before and after shots.
Before they got started.
Nick Youker’s got the vintage sled bug bad… his collection has been growing by leaps and bounds lately!