72tx340 was one of the first guys to hop on the Bull Sessions and contribute fast and furious to the fun there. he disappeared for awhile, tending to the loss of his father, Don Merritt.

I didn’t know Don, but his son posted a link to their family website. I;d never seen it before, but Don was quite a fan of vintage snowmobiles. I found this photo from his website. I don’t know the story behind it but WOW! What a shot!

Wow! Does that make you want to go for a ride or what?

Jeff Steinke sent in a whole slew of photos when I interviewed Jim Dimmerman. They were all taken at Eagle River when Dimmerman became World Champion in 1984. Well, Jeff sent in a whole heck of a lot more photos of that race, including one scary picture of Darcy Ewing laying on the ice in agony.

Next up, Steve Dvorak sent in some really nice photos from Aberdeen, South Dakota in December of 1979. All pictures taken in the pits while the SnoPro drivers of the era wait for the weather conditions to clear up before racing.

Thanks to both Steve and Jeff for sharing!

Joko watches the races from the pits, Eagle River, 1984.	Woody’s racer Steve Thorsen converses with former Scorpion team mate, Brad Hulings, Aberdeen, S.D. December, 1979.

Dimmerman makes his move on Dave Wahl.

7/07/06

Jeff Steinke sent in 5 rare, never before seen of the competition at Eagle River in 1984. It was the last year a single tracker would win the race for many, many years. There are some great photos of this event in C.J. Ramstad’s “Of Ice and Engines“, but these are photos from different angles – very cool – and thank you Jeff!

Speaking of Jim Dimmerman – don’t miss tomorrow’s update: Part one of my interview with the 84 World’s Champ – the first interview Jim has done since exiting the snowmobile business some years back!

Tom Anderson sent in some more photos from Eagle River, 1976. Featuring the Boss Cat II, and the Gilles on his SnoPro Skiroules. Thanks Tom (sorry for the delay in getting them up!).

Something Blue This Way Comes… Stay tuned!

Oh yeah. Today’s crop includes Doug Hayes, Larry Rugland, Some cross country racers getting excited for the race start, Brad Hulings with a SnoPro win on his 76 Merc and a nifty looking 72 Thunderjet complete with a liquid motor!

Master Rugland at Speed on one of his Bomber Moto-Skis.

Waiting their turn to start in the I-500, 1977.

1976 “overnight” success Brad Hulings shocks this huge crowd by beating the factories!

Very cool liquid cooled 1972 Thunderjet.

Enough said. I think the photos speak for themselves!

Polaris Race Truck, Circa 1976

The Bomber truck, same race. Notice the guys in the “Snow Jock” hats.

Doug Hayes, 1976

1977 Winnepeg to St. Paul I-500 Start

Mike Trapp’s 1976 Ski-Doo SnoPros

Fresh from the weeds – a 76 TX 440cc and an 80 340cc TXC. The Rupp Man and I found them while riding bikes last weekend. Now what the heck do I do with them?

Yet another shot – this one also from Alexandria, Minnesota, December of 1976. Bobby Elsner’s 7 SnoPro just before it got steamed over by the Midnight blue Express. Arctic would go on to buil their own IFS sleds in just a couple of weeks – from scratch!

The 76 Merc SnoPros, St. Paul MN

So guess how many 1976 Merc Snopros were driven by Stan and Doug Hayes? Could one assume there was also some spares? Are all these sleds accounted for? I’m pretty sure Bob at Image Enterprises has one or two of them? Didn’t Lee Frederickson have a couple at ome time? As I recall Jeff Biddescombe raced some of these in 1977 correct? What else do we know bout them?

I always liked the looks of these sleds, although the 75 with the free-air motors sticking out of the hoods were awesome as well. Nothing says “Hayes Brothers” like the Merc SnoPros.

Outting up the shot of the Goodwin sled was really interesting. I got all kinds of great email with really good information about the sled. Thus, I was able to edit the post from the 17th about the sled and arrive at a much better understanding of it. For example did you know the paint scheme came from the fact that they were to be sponsored by Diet Coke? If you think back to the cans of that time, you can understand the reason for the stripes. Plus they just look racy don’t they?

So lets tackle these classic Merc SnoPros guys. What do we know about them?

While we are on a Ski-Doo theme from yesterday, here’s the commercial sewing twin tracker – originally driven by Greg Goodwin in 1991. Rumor has it This sled has recently arrived at the home of a well known Ski-Doo restoration guy – Kurt Krueger and is on its way back to looking as good as it did here in its glory days. The picture was taken in Eagle River, I don’t remember what year. Maybe some else does? in 1993 when Al Fenhous drove for Goodwins and won. Thanks to Loren Anderson at the Hall of Fame and Kurt Krueger for the info!

76 Ski-Doo SnoPros

Just another shot out of the stash. This one is from St. Paul Minnesota in 1976. It’s alwasy good to find photos of the old race sleds with the hood off. If you blow this one up, you get some pretty nice detail of what’s going on under that hood.

Sammy Sessions 1976 SnoPro machines