Way back in September of 2011, Bull Sessions member Philh posted up some photos of the 295cc Starfire he was about to start restoring. Right away I was hooked on watching how this went.

When I was just a kid, my dad let me get a job. As soon as I proved I could hang on to the job, he let me borrow $400 so I could buy a used 1973 295cc Starfire. I loved that sled… although the motor only lasted about a day. I put a 530 in that we had laying around, and me and my friend Darrell rode that beast all year and had so much fun.

Anyway, Phil found this one sitting outside in the California sun and went to work. And boy did he have some work cut out for him. Hours and hours and hours later, he got this classic sled in tip-top shape, ready to ride.

Congrats to Phil on a job well done!

See it run!

Their new marketing video made its debut at the banquet as well. Congrats on another fine season to the crew and racers from the Oval Racers Alliance.

Top Juniors in PVR – Juniors really are the future!

PVR’s annual banquet was held Saturday, April 20th in Abbotsford Wisconsin. The place was completely packed, and the presence of a lot of TV cameras, directors and sound engineers was a pretty different thing to see in the world of Vintage Snowmobiles.

PVR packs a lot into their annual meetings – rule changes, board of director changes, awards… all in all it makes for a full day of activity. Once it’s done, everyone lines up for dinner and then the real party begins.

PVR President Tom Persha with PVR’s Super-Seniors winner, 81 year old Bill Haske

For me, one of the highlights was 81 year old Bill Haske winning the super-seniors class. I couldn’t help but smile and hope that at 81 years old, we all could be in good enough shape to go out there and do battle on an old sled. I also liked the special recognition of the clubs Junior racers.

The nights big winner was none other than Freddy “The Bullet” Smith, who also got a huge round of applause for being one of the founding members of Pro Vintage Racing. Another big round went to Tom Persha, the clubs always positive, always helpful, always energetic President.

Fred Smith – PVR’s Big Winner for 2013

Film Crew At the PVR Banquet

Saturday, April 20th from 1:00 until late at night, Pro Vintage Racing will be having their annual banquet at Allison’s Steak House in Abbotsford, Wisconsin. While that may not be earth shattering front-page news, this is: Four film crews will be following various PVR board members around to film them for part of an upcoming reality TV show.

I know I will be watching! Good luck to all the PVR members and keep all us “little guys” in mind when you become huge mega-stars!! More information to follow as it becomes available.

We lost another asset to the vintage sled community in the last few days. “Spike”, aka Mike Dickson. Spike was not really a “people person”, but he sure liked anyone who liked vintage sleds. Spike was a regular fixture at Live On Skis since the event began. Only in the last couple of years did his declining health keep him away. Some of you may recall Spike’s TX that he equipped with a 530 free-air Fuji motor was one of the first sleds ever to take the “Ride of Shame” when Spike forgot to tighten down a cylinder enough. Spike just laughed it off, got it fixed and was on his way.

Mike as an avid reader – there wasn’t hardly a book I could mention that he had not read. And likewise, he was an excellent writer, often contributing his stories to the Bull Sessions. We have now dedicated the thread People for The Ethical Treatment of Tillotsons, a thread Spike was a heavy contributor to and where he will always be listed as the “Public Relations Director”.

God speed my friend!

Mike “Spike” Dickson on his 530 equipped TX.

1973 was a great year for almost every manufacturer when it came to race sleds. All of them were pretty darn good and no one had totally domination. Rupp, Arctic Cat, Ski-Doo, Sno*Jet, Polaris, Alouette and everyone else had machines that were on par with each other, and pretty much anyone with an inclination towards racing could buy one. Today, any of these sleds are amongst the most sought after collectible sleds for just that reason.

One that really captures a lot of people’s attention is the Alouette Super. I’m sure that Gilles Villenueve’s win in Eagle River in 1974 with an Alouette Super has a lot to do with the legend of the Alouette, but a lot of people did very well with them in 1973.

Nick Youker found this gem of an Alouette Super 440cc race machine in pieces not so long ago and wanted to get it restored to it’s former glory. He engaged the services of Paul’s Garage in Ramsey, Minnesota a few months back and Paul went to work.

At first, the idea was to try and restore it back to what it looked like when it came from the factory back in the day. But Alouette’s have a special challenge that they share with Sno*Jet ThunderJets: an anodized, aircraft aluminum tunnel. They can be painted to look really, really good, but they don’t look original that way. When Paul got all the parts cleaned up, he came up with a better plan.

After looking at all the parts, one thing was clear: All the parts with the sled were the more than likely the exact parts that had come off the same sled. The hood, seat, tank, motor, pipes, track, suspension and skis could easily be identified as probably being the originals by how minor scratches lined up, where things were cracked a little, and from what little history they had on where the sled came from.

Paul called Nick and advised against going to far with the restoration. Instead, he thought it would be better to just clean it and put it back together and maintain it as a fantastic survivor. Nick agreed, and Paul had the sled looking like this in no time.

Personally, I love this. Except for some missing driver numbers on the hood, this is probably how this sled was last run. How cool is that? And speaking of the driver numbers, Nick would really love to know if anyone might know who drove this Alouette with the number 182 on the side of the tunnel. If you have any information on that, please contact him.

This was taken a few weeks ago on the Buzzle Lake Vintage Snowmobile Association Annual Ride. This is a private ride and this photo was taken on the trail just after they got done grilling burgers and brats on the kitchen cutter with an ice cold cola! Now that’s how you do a vintage trail ride!

Courtesy of Rex Rules from the Bull Sesssions

After a 30 year hiatus, the Winter Spectacular is returning to the Historic “High Flyin’ Half Mile” Viking Speedway in Alexandria MN on January 30 – February 1, 2014.

A group of businessmen led by Jeff Karrow is working hard to bring the Viking Speedway back to her old glory as she was in 1974 to 1985, when the Dayco Holiday Spectacular was one of the crown jewels in the snowmobile racing world.

In the spirit of vintage and late model racing, they will be using core (best) classes from ORA and PVR and USSA.

This is a herculean task-and they are not in it for the money. Breaking even will be considered a huge success, as this will be an expensive venture: 2.6 million gallons of water (purchased from the water utility), fuel and manpower hours to build the track, rent for the track, insurance, trophies, coats, ambulance, advertising, snow removal, etc. The group has estimated that this show will be incur $65,000-$ 75,000 in expenses.

The race will crown four Spectacular Champions: A Superstock Leafer (10 laps) Champion, A Modified (10 laps) Champion, A IFS (10 lap) Champion, and a Champ (20 laps) Champion complete with on track driver introductions. The 2014 Spectacular Champions will automatically secure a back row start for the 2015 Spectacular, amongst the other prizes to be announced.

There is a covered grandstand and we will also have a heated “race village” where they will have food vendors, beer sales and bringing back a 70’s favorite: HOT DR. Pepper!!

Thursday, 1/30 will be a Test/Tune day, Friday, 1/31 will be heats/round robins, qualifiers-full show for Champs, Saturday, 2/1 will be all finals-another full show for Champs. Everyone will be able to go home for the superbowl on Sunday.

So save the date….January 30 – February 1, 2014 @ the Viking Speedway, Alexandria Mn.

Grab a seat, Grab momma and hang on cuz’ they are about to turn Ice Oval racing loose at the Historic “High Flyin’ Half Mile”. The Winter Spectacular….it’s going be like watching jet fighters in a silo!

Elk River (Minnesota) Motorsports park is having their annual VINTAGE SNOW OVALS on Thursday, March 21st starting at 5:30 P.M. This is a very different type of oval racing. Bring what you have and run it. No studs or carbides required. The track will be an oval made of fairly deep snow, so be prepared for some rooster tails!

Learn more at the ERX website.

Classic snowmobile music from back in the day. Stompin’ Tom who wrote and performed this classic tune passed away on March 6th.

From a message passed along from Tom’s family: “It was a long hard bumpy road, but this great country kept me inspired with it’s beauty, character, and spirit, driving me to keep marching on and devoted to sing about its people and places that make Canada the greatest country in the world.”

Thanks for the tune Tom.. it’s been stuck in our heads since it was new!