Live On Skis was the most fun I’ve ever had there. Three days of perfect riding conditions on some of the best trails in the world – with what are clearly some of the best people in the world.
Despite my near perfect record of destroying every machine I was on, I had a blast! I went up with three machines, and borrowed one from Doc Jim. I managed to wreck a cylinder on the borrowed one, tore the track of my most trusted and mechanically sound 80 TX, and my nephew blew up his TXL Starfire he worked on all summer (story on that sled on the bottom of this page), leaving only my 76 250 Starfire in running condition.
But again, I digress.
The point is, the riding was so much fun, that I want to do it all over again, and I intend to. This weekend, I’m off to St. Germain to partake in the "Vintage Challenge" a very long ride on the vintage machines with some of the sports greatest legends. It’s all part of thee Hall of Fame’s annual induction ceremony (this year will see
Keith Vreeland, Clyde Seely, Ray Monsrud and Jim Dimmerman inducted) and annual fund raiser.
I’ve done this ride before and it’s a ton of fun. If you can get there, and you have a sled that runs, you will want to be there. More info is available on the Hall of Fame Site.
Since I don’t have sled that runs, I’ll be the one standing outside Thee Hall of Fame with sign that says "Sled Needed For Today’s Ride!*"
*Preferably a sled that does not qualify as NBR (Not Built in Roseau). Just kidding! Relax!
Whenever you make something this radical there is bound to be a few bugs. On her first attempt, the suspension didn’t do what it was designed to and instead of going really, really fast, it just went fast and dug some very deep trenches in the ice. When they take their next shot, we’ll let you know. In the mean time, I thought we’d get a picture of the final product up.
I have been trying to keep my mouth shut about this one for about 4 months now – and I can’t hold my tongue any more!
At that time I heard a rumor that Paul Groth, Jim and Bernie Warning and Jim Costa of Performance Concepts decided they wanted to go after the world speed
record once an for all.
A month later, I was staring at this baby in the shop as they got started developing it. It took just three months to get it from concept to ready for the ice!
This is a 3,000 horsepower (Yes, 3,000 H.P.), 2,000 pound Twin-Turbo beast that they have named "Frozen Assets".
This is the "other" stop-secret machine that was coming to Waconia. They were going to do some pilot runs and testing there.
However, the crew has decided to take it to Menominee Wisconsin this Saturday to try for the Guinness Book of World Records at the NSSR sanctioned drag race there.
Best of luck to the Paul and the crew – that’s a pretty big goal but if anyone can do it – it’s Paul!
Just got word that Matt Schultz led the entire race and came out the winner of the 2010 Eagle River World’s Championship for the late model guys.
The race went flag to flag with no reds, and one minor crash at the end – making this the safest Eagle River vintage and late-model weekend
ever!
PJ Wanderschied came in second and Jacque Villenueve we hear came in around 5th or 6th. More details as we get them!
Just got the scoop that none other than the Ski-Doo factory is going to add end of the year prize money to the crew at Pro-Vintage racing! We don’t know the amount or details yet, but
it appears that the growing popularity of vintage snowmobile racing has caught their attention. Over 800 entries at Eagle River probably helped! Ski-Doo joins Arctic Cat in sponsoring
vintage – Cat sponsors the spring show for the Hall of Fame in St. Germain. Congratulations to Ski-Doo and PVR! More details as they become available will be forthcoming.
In the 440 IFS SnoPro race in Eagle River, things got a little dicey when Jocelyn Lessieur, riding his Ski-Doo made a hard charge into turn three to try and catch leaders Devin Fackrell and Brent Miller. Turned out he went in just a little too hard, and dumped the sled over – and right into Fackrell’s leg. That was enough to give Brent Miller the opening he needed, and brent won the 440 title on a brand new machine from Pro Vintage Performance that he’d barely sat on till that day. Here’s how the crash looked in a series of photos from Scott Anderson.
Oh and if your wondering, Lessieur was not hurt. Fackrell’s leg was as big as a tree trunk from the bruising, but he’s okay and was back at work earlier this week.
Tony joins a very small group of only two drivers to ever win the Vintage World’s Championship twice!
When the sleds lined up for the driver introductions, one driver, Tony Pettinelli Jr, walked away from his sled. He walked to each driver in the line up, offered up his hand, and wished each driver good luck.
From the beginning, it looked like 2006 winner Jacob Goede was going to find that luck and pull off his second win. His Starfire was clearly fast, but Tony was in second place and kept charging hard to catch him.
"I made a decision to slow down instead of falling off and wrecking the machine again." Jacob said after the race. "By lap 8 I was only going about half throttle."
No one would fault Jacob for backing down; In 2009, when he charged hard over 10 laps, several red flags and restarts, he crashed hard on the second to last lap when hanging on to that monster sled was no longer an option. Besides, prior to the World’s Championship, 3G racing with Jacob and brother Matt driving won every single final they were in, including Super-Mod Liquid 340, Sport-Mod 340, 340 IFS and 340 IFSX. Goede was already having an amazing day.
Tony needed a little break, and his fast-and-steady approach would find him getting closer and closer to Goede as the race went on, passing him on about the 7th lap and holding lead to the checkered.
Brandon Gentz, who was also in the final said “You don’t really drive these big machines. You just hang on." That was evident as each of the drivers picked clean and careful lines, and were obviously respectful of the drivers around them. For the first time in Derby Track History, the final ran the full ten laps without a single crash or a single red flag.
I think that’s a testament to the respect these guys have for the track – and the machines that carry them around.
Our congratulations to Tony and his crew. They did their homework and ran a perfect race!
Here’s a video of the sleds coming to the introductions.
When the last motor is finally shut down after the Eagle River weekend, you get kind of a buzz from everything you witnessed over the last three days, and your mind just keeps replaying highlight reels for days afterwards. This morning, my highlight reels are in overdrive.
The weather was very good all weekend, with a stiff breeze making it seem colder than it was on Friday and for part of Saturday. The track held up very well, there was few accidents, and thankfully only minor injuries on the ones that did happen. All in all, I think a lot of people walked away with a lifetime of memories from this past weekend.
We got a ton of pictures to come. But for now, I wanted to start with the winner of the VintageSleds.com 440 F/A Cup, Brandon Gentz. I had some time to visit with Brandon and his crew that included ed several mechanics, motor builder Norman Ball, personal help, chassis guys, even a personal cook inside the trailer who could cook up a hot dog any way you want it. I was impressed with what a tight-knit group they are, and the obvious team work they have in getting Brandon and team mate Nathan Feuchts sleds running and out front.
Mark Anderson who took a brief hiatus from retirement, borrowed Aaron Johnson’s red hot smoking Polaris and won every heat, quarter final and semi final he was in like it wasn’t even a fair fight. Fast Freddy Smith had his Ski-Doo close to Mark, and it looked like he was holding back… every once in awhile he’d really punch it, and you could see Freddy had a lot more than he was going to reveal fully in a heat race. It’s no secret that these two are not each others biggest fans; So it looked like the race might come down to a battle royal between Anderson’s Polaris and Smith’s Ski-Doo. Classic Polaris Vs. Ski-Doo, with the best of the best driving.
But no one else in that starting field could be counted out! Bill Stull was running fast and furious on his Rupp, as was Tom King on his Polaris sled, and Jeff Lausten on his Yamaha.
From the start, it looked like all Anderson, all the way. But Mark made it a mere lap when his bulkhead snapped, he threw up his arms coasted off the track in turn two. That left Freddy Smith a wide open run, and he took advantage of it. Fred pulled away, and kept pulling away with each lap… getting close to a half a lap ahead.
At that point, the real race was for second. Gentz, Stull, King and Lausten all battled back and fourth in some of thee most exciting racing I have ever seen. None of those guys was going to give an inch or back off. Bill Stull finally pulled off the "Stull Swoop" in turn 3 and four, taking the high line and passing all three of them in one swift, decisive movement. Bill was taking second place comfortably when a small miracle happened.
Freddy Smith threw up his arm coming out of turn two and coasted to a stop, just in front of his biggest rival, Mark Anderson.
Bill Stull was now leading, and the race was really on. All of them battled as hard as they could. Gentz was gaining a little ground on Stull when his might Rupp started to slow… Bill was slowly burning down! Gentz went flying by, Lausten and King in hot pursuit!
When it was all over, the smooth driving, pacing and strategy of Gentz proved to be the best of the field. He made all the right choices, and all the right moves. At the end, Gentz and Lausten came to the podium to take their prizes, but someone had to let King know he had come in third – he was a little late to the podium, but got there in time for the photos!
All in all, great fun, great racing, great sportsmanship by all, and a great race run by the Derby Crew.
Can’t you almost smell the klotz in the air when you look at the photo below? Taken today at the historic Derby Track, you can see ice is being made around the clock for the festivities that start soon.
Word is that ice in Rock Rapids will not be a problem – so we should see some fine racing two weeks from today! How’s a fella supposed to sleep knowing that??
**Keep checking the SnoPro page to see who has signed up as a driver for 2010! We keep adding them every day – over 20 drivers so far!!**
By now you may know that VintageSleds.com is sponsoring a $5,000 feature race at the 2010 Classic Vintage World Championships Weekend in Eagle River, January 8th-10th.
I thought it might be fun to go back and see whose won and who has been competitive in that class over the last few years – so here you go!
Mmmm, I see an awful lot of Vintage SnoPro series champs in this class! Place your bets and be there to see who takes home all the cash, the trophy and the bragging rights!
