What’s that shiny new Arctic Cat doing on the front of VintageSleds.com? Well, it’s a good story of why vintage sledders are the coolest people in the world.

Sitting on his new Cat is Zach Kruger. Standing behind Zach in that really fashionable Cat SnoPro suit is Paul James. Paul, as you may recall from past posts, won the Hall of Fame raffle this winter at the induction ceremony. Paul won over $8,000 that he could use to go on a shopping spree at a dealer of his choice.

He did buy a new mini-Cat for his daughter and a spiffy new jacket, but the rest of the cash he spent on the new Cat. Zach is the surviving son of Tracy Kruger, who you may recall lost his life an a senseless act of violence some time ago. Tracy and Paul were good friends and drag raced together for many years. At a vintage drag race this winter, Paul delivered the Cat to one very happy young man.

Now that’s a good story.

Jordan Carlson (daughter of John Deere racer Jon Carlson) is just 18 years old, but has committed to raise 1 million dollars to fight breast cancer. She will walk to raise money – 720 miles in 12 cities over 12 consecutive weekends! 1 out of 8 women will fight breast cancer. You can help by visiting Jordans website, or the Susan G. Koman foundation.

Like golfing? The ISOC (International Series of Champions cross-country series from the 1990’s) has a reunion and CJ Ramstad memorial coming up on August 17th and 18th at the Mill Lacs Golf Resort & Marina in Garrison Minnesota. Download the brochure here. John Damiels, the ISOC and Sled Head 24/7 founder credits CJ as the man that helped him accomplish so much in the snowmobile world. What was to just be a reunion of ISOC members has converted to being a memorial golf outing for CJ.

At the Waseca city fairgrounds this past weekend, tons of people came together to support the surviving members of the Kruger family. As you recall, Tracy and one of his sons were shot and killed by a home intruder, and his wife Hilary was injured very badly. Since that time, Hilary has undergone many surgeries and will be in physical therapy for a very long time. The youngest son was not at the home at the time of the incident.

By ALL accounts, the festival this past weekend was nothing short of magical. There was a “three-ring circus” atmosphere to it, with auctions, shows, displays and activities happening all around. The people who told me about the event all said the event had the feel of one big happy family. Together for a sad reason, but happy to be there, be together and somehow make a contribution. I’m told even though Hilary is not yet well enough to have been there – they arranged a live internet feed so she could watch the happnings on a laptop from the hospital! How cool is that!

I’m also told a full 30 volunteers put in a ton of time, but the efforts paid off – everyone agreed it was one of the best get togethers of the year so far.

Check out all the photos from the event on the Bull Sessions. Lots of good stories there as well. I’m sorry I couldn’t get down there, but we did send some items from the store to auction off. Congrats to the family, the volunteers and everyone that worked so hard to make it a success!

Just got the news that writer, photographer, business owner, Hall of Famer CJ Ramstad and his son were killed in traffic accident here in the Twin Cities yesterday. No further information is available at this time, but I will let you know as we find out more.

UPDATE: Watch this page, or supertraxmag.com formore details, including funeral arrangements.

The MSDRS has posted results for last weeks vintage drag races for the Kruger family in Waseca, MN. Wolf Lake’s Bob Poirer can claim a “World Champions” title, as can Tony Prissel, Dale Sloper, Al Enno, Steve Hassel, and several members of the Kruger family. Looks like my rooky mistake still got me a third… I’ll take it! Thanks to Chris Hanson, the Kruger family and the whole gang of racers there. It was a great weekend.

Tracy Kruger

This past weekend was a huge one for all of vintage snowmobiling. There was so much stuff going on that it will be hard to get it all in. If I miss something, please forgive me. Jump on the Bull Sessions and let everyone know about your happenings!

First up was the Tracy Kruger Memorial Drag Race (also known as the Tracy Kruger “Point & Shoot” Vintage World Championship) in Waseca, Minnesota. It was huge. Organizers from Tracy’s family and Chris Hanson of the MSDRS did an outstanding job under very tough circumstances. Because the news of Tracy’s and his son Alec’s death was big news here in Minnesota, so was the drag race. It was the lead story on every Minneapolis/St. Paul television station, and featured some words by Tracy’s brother, an introduction of Tracy’s surviving boy Zak, and interviews with several racers, family members, friends, fans and well-wishers, including vintagesleds.com very own V-Man. See the coverage on each of these websites: kare11.com, wcco.com, kstp.com, and Fox9.com (my pick for best online coverage). Here’s a complete listing of stories from Google. About Tracy, Alec and the event.

Tracy’s record setting Custom Rupp.

Jim Haug, Neil Pierce and I took four sleds down: The clone 77 SnoPros (340 & 250), a stock TXL and I brought Todd Elmer’s oval race sled out of the garage to try drag racing it. I think Tracy would have gotten a kick out of that. I believe I could have won the 250 class had I not jumped the light by a billionth of a second! (Rookie mistake!) Jim got a red light with his super-stock 340 as well. The 340 SnoPro as well as the Elmer sled didn’t get to run… we couldn’t get the Prestone to flow through the motors on either one! It was COLD, and getting any of them to start was a healthy workout. But it was as fun as fun gets on a snowmobile just to have been there.

Wait until you see the photos of the display they had for Tracy’s machines and trophy’s. The trophies alone filled a semi trailer! I wish I cold express what it was too be at this event… but words fail me. All I can say is that the atmosphere at this event – the celebration of a life well lived, the joy of living, of getting together with other vintage sled heads, family & friends… this event was everything good that these old machines bring out in people.

This is going to be the big one! Click on the links above to bid on a NEW reproduction 73 Starfire hood (looks really, really nice) autographed not only by the 73 Polaris race team, but also the Arctic Cat race team! How about this – Larry Ruglands original 1975 leather suit! And his helmet (I think it’s his helmet from his time at Ski-Doo? It’s been repainted blue), not to mention the first of the autographed Frost Bite days posters, Ray Monsrud and Ken Beito’s flag and… 1973 World Champion Bob Eastman’s flag!

All benefits go to the Susan Koman breast cancer foundation, except the poster – those funds go to support the Snowmobile Hall of Fame in their quest to build a facility worthy of the collection they have.

Have fun!