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Gordy Vogelaar bought this 79 RXL hood out of the store some time back to put it on his Formula 340 race sled. Instead, he tore the whole sled down and started over, building clone RXL from an 81 Indy. It took 2.5 months of fabricating – but man oh man did it turn out sweet!
Nice job Gordy and we look forward to seeing it on the ice!
Rumor mill is running absolutely wild over this one… could the late model oval racing guys be making a move to gain back the popularity of oval racing that it once enjoyed?
What I’ve heard is that the racers themselves have decided to create and run their own corporation/association to run and promote races and the race drivers. The really exciting part? They want vintage oval racing to be a big part of the show! The big rumor is of a "pilot" race this winter (perhaps at the track in Sauk Centre?) to test the concept and the response.
Boy do I hope this is true. Nothing would make me smile like seeing thousands of fans out watching oval racing where ever it goes again. It’s going to take a lot of work, and the Internet will be absolutley key to the marketing success of such a venture… but I believe the drivers and race teams taking charge of thier own sport is the right way to go.
More to come …
UPDATE: THE RUMOR IS TRUE!
Check out this post in the Bull Sessions. From the post: "The Oval Racers Alliance is very happy to announce the 1st Annual Am-Can Nationals Ice Oval Race at I-94 Speedway in Sauk Centre, MN February 5th, 6th, and 7th, 2010. This organization was formed to help promote the sport of Ice Oval Racing and bring it back where it belongs as the premier form of Snowmobile Racing. Although the ORA was formed primarily by late model racers and crew members, we knew early on that including the Vintage Racing community was going to be essential to gain the membership and fan base that we would like to attain. We will have more details on the event itself in the next week or so, but as of last evening, the date is set and the race is ON!"
All in all a great day at the Rip Roarin’ ROLA days grass drags in New York Mills last Saturday. The event staff was doing a great job running races quickly, one right after the other. I must have talked to 3 dozen people out there, and all of them were in a great mood – despite the cloudy weather and occasional rain. It never rained hard enough to scare anyone away, so the races went on as planned. Enough of my blathering – here’s the photos.
"Reverend" Dale Sloper (middle) with Vance Elfering (magnumman) on the right. The bone stock Rupp F/A was one of the days big winners. I got to peak under the hood of that sled. It’s so clean we could have a nice dinner off of it. But it’s not just for show. This Rupp is tuned to perfection and kicks.
Dave Delaughter and crew lit up the cloudy air with this new Yamaha powered triple monster. We got some video of it running below.
The ever popular "Kawasaki Kate" is always gracious and sweet – till she gets behind a throttle and hammers on the boys till they cry for mercy! Kate, her dad and her brother were all having a great time. They must of run 2 dozen races.
Jeff Lausten gives his son some last minute top-secret advice before the race. "Now remember, the nitrous button is on the left!"
Top secret photo of a Mikuni powered Cuyuna engine with a stock {{cough, cough}} pipe.
Yesterday I spent several hours at Rip Roarin’ Rola days in New York Mills. This is their annual grass drags and get together. I have photos and some good video coming. For now, just wanted to say thanks to the guys putting it on and congrats to all the winners in the days events.
Out in Midland, Michigan it’s the Erskine Marine vintage show and our intrepid roving report Joe Desarmoux (“Demo”) is out there interviewing anyone who will stand in front of the camera. He got this really great footage Friday night of a restored sled with a special "emergency" kit in it. Check out the thread for updated photos and more videos.
Could this be the photo of the year for 2009? Rob Bye of RobByePhoto.com caught this moment in time at the March race on Beausejour Manitoba last winter.
Troy Lefko on the Ski-Doo is running head to head with Troy Pierce on his RXL. Most of the race was like this, but Troy Pierce on the Polaris did come out on top when Lefko ran into some mechanical problems.
What I love about the photo is the clarity, the detail and the subject matter. Notice how well Both machines look, and how well both drivers outfits blend in with the machines. All in all, with the sun light, the action – neither driver willing to give an inch. This is an excellent shot.
Have a great weekend – if you’re out and about, we’ll see you at the Erskine Marine show in Midland Michigan! You can discuss the photo on the Bull Sessions.
I’ve known Mike Meagher for quite a few years now. When I started racing, it was Mike I looked up to as the man to try and keep up with. His Arctic 250Z was the terror of Wolf Lake. Lately his son has been driving the 250, and Mike had been hauling the mail sometimes on a 340Z and a lot on a 440 Yamaha that is wicked, wicked fast. He’s got more wins under his belt than I could list here.
When he’s not racing, working or spending time with the family, he and his wife Judy are the people behind the VSCA.
Last year at Eagle River, Mike pulled off one of the most exciting near misses I’ve seen in all the races I’ve ever watched. First turn, 440 mod liquid class final at Eagle River. Mike and big pack of screaming 440’s came flying into the turn one. Mike went to grab for the brake, but a bump sent him flying into the hammer… for a split second the sled was facing the wrong way in some nasty, snarling traffic. Somehow, Mike got that sled pulled back around, pulled out a near fatal fishtail, survived getting smacked by a few guys and getting smacked himself.
Not only did he get it turned around – he won the class.
This year, Mike may be concentrating on being the race director at several Midwest races, but he will be racing wherever time permits. If you get a chance, you’ll want to try and catch him!
I’d like to introduce those of you who don’t know about it to Time Benders Vintage Garage, and owner Dale Neduzak.
Hardly a week goes by when I don’t get contacted by someone looking for RXL clone information. Well Dale has completed a new website to show the RXL clone parts and machines, as well as the new 81 Ski-Doo bird cages he can build for you. The website contains a complete parts and price list, as well as a story I contributed on the history of the Polaris RXL – complete with some never before seen photos.
My 340cc RXL that Mark Anderson and Jacob Goede raced last year started out at Time Benders Vintage. I have another one that I am slowly working on. I can’t tell you what a delight it is to work with new aluminum after restoring so many aluminum and magnesium machines.
Make no mistake, building a clone RXL from the ground up is not for the faint of heart. There are a lot of parts in one of these machines, and having someone like Dale around to make parts available is a very good thing.
So if your looking for a clone to build for show or for race, Dale can help with a 77, 78 or 79 model, as well as the 81 Ski-Doo chassis. He’s got copies of the original stuff as well as competition version of some parts. These are parts (like the trailing arms) that we have learned need a little extra support to survive modern racing conditions.
My thanks to Dale for all the help with my projects over the years, and the new site.
This coming Sunday in St. Germain Wisconsin it’s the Classic Sled Roundup to benefit the Snowmobile Hall of Fame. It’s a show that always brings out some exotic, interesting and really nice sleds. It’s a swap meet that every year that I have been there, yields a bunch of stuff no one has seen in years, or is impossible to find. It’s also a brief award ceremony for the Vintage SnoPro Series, with trophies presented to the class winners, as well as our overall winner.
This year we have a repeat from Smith Brothers Racing on their Arctic Cats as a winner – but a different driver. Mike Smith of Wasilla Alaska, running several classes came away with the most points this year, defending his brother Steve’s title from 2008.
Mike has been racing since 1975. Last season the Smith Brothers Racing team was short a couple of members. Steve and Sean decided to stay home in Alaska, but Adam came to Wisconsin to go to college. Mike and Adam decided that since Adam was here already, they might as well go race.
One would expect that with two fewer drivers that Mike and Adam would scale it back a little. But no, they showed up at Rock Rapids Iowa for the first race with a fleet of Arctic Cat liquids and free-airs that would have made the original 3 tough cats proud.
The thing Mike had going for him this year was consistency. Either Mike won the race he was in, or he came in the top three. That’s a tough thing to to when your racing with so many talented, hard charging guys.
It was very interesting for me this year to watch Mike and Adam in the series this year. They had a buzz going – kind of a fan club. At each race I would run into people that just came to see what they called "them crazy Cat guys from Alaska".
It seems more than a few people were interested in seeing how a couple of dedicated Cat guys from Sarah Palin’s home town would stack up against the rest.
They were not disappointed.
Congratulations to Mike – and he has confirmed that he will be at the Classic Sled Roundup on Sunday to collect his trophy.
There’s some other surprises coming to St. Germain that I know of … One is green has not been seen since the late 70’s in this form. One is black and green and is the first real 75 Cat race sled to be seen at the Roundup. Rumor has it that not one, but two 75 Yamaha’s will be there.
Oh boy. This is going to be interesting.
Photos courtesy of Kelly Anderson, Larry Preston, Mike Smith
Matt Spies and his team shows you one great way to promote your racing team and do your part to get more people to come on out and watch the best kind of racing anywhere. This is his teams T-Shirt design for 2009-2010.
He’s light, strong, determined, hard-working and is getting some help from one of the industries very best. He got his first sled going this year and definitely made an impression at the race in Cable Wisconsin. Here’s Brent ripping along at Cable last season, and we look forward to watching him have a good time next year.
