6.09.2008
GAS PRICES, WEATHER, NO MATTER?
Got back from Milbank on Saturday night. Heading out on Friday, the weather was awful. Cleared up as we got into town, and it stayed pretty darn nice all day. I haven't been to Milbank in some years, but it seemed as though overall attendance, in sleds, swappers and people was down. Hard to say if the potential bad weather or high fuel prices kept people at home. Still, I think everyone there had a good time, and there was plenty of bargains to be had, and a lot of nice sleds to drool over.

Highlights for me was my camera being dead (again), Arctic Restorations getting their motor home stuck in the mud, "Rampage" on his scooter, two really nice RXL's there, a stunning collection of Thunderjets (3 from 1972 all in a row!), T-shirts that said "You can't scare me, I have daughters", Cruel Paul brought me some really sweet leaf-springs I needed for a project, Merc440Fan and his custom 'Wild One', Les Pinz' (formerly owned and restored by Dave Larsen) 1976 Starfire, Trucker and 'Cepterlicous's dog, the overturned outhouse....

There sure was a lot of Bull Session members there! I again got to meet a bunch of them. Great fun. Thanks to the show organizers and all the volunteers, you all did a great job!

6.05.2008
FIRING UP FOR MILBANK
I have not been to Milbank since 2003, I believe. I always liked the show, but schedule commitments kept me away for the last 4 years. Pretty good buzz about the show out there - if the weather holds, should be a great show. It's in a great park and the people running the show do a great job.

We'll be there with a ton of stuff from the vintagesleds.com store. Look for the vintagesleds.com banner and come on over and say hello. Still trying to decide if I should bring some sleds. Hope to see you all there.

WELCOME RUDE PUP!
Jay Carsely and wife Tatiana brought home a new addition to the family... all the way from Russia, Aleksander Sergei Carsley (aka 'Rude Pup'). I know Tatiana and Rude Dog have been looking forward to this day for a very long time, and Jay had to say no to a lot of great vintage sleds to make it happen. I'm jealous of Rude Pup - mom is a great cook, and dad has great toys!

Rude dog will now be accompanied where ever he goes by Rude pup.

SUMMER'S HERE - TIME FOR ASPHALT DRAG RACING!
Derek (no last name given) sent in these stunning photos of his 79 Ski-Doo Blizzard with a 2003 800 twin in it - ready for the asphalt. Nice looking sled Derek... send video of her heading down the strip! Click to see larger versions of the photos.

6.04.2008
WSVSA HELPS OUT BIG BROTHERS AND BIG SISTERS
On May 31, 2008, Alysia Downs from West Yellowstone Big Brothers and Big Sisters accepted a $500 check from the Western States Vintage Snowmobile Association.  WSVSA generated this contribution from the 5th Annual Vintage Snowmobile Roundup held in conjunction with the annual SnoWest Expo in March. Special thanks to Rexburg Motorsports and the community of West Yellowstone for their support. L-R - Jeremy Huidekoper, Jacob Moss, Eithan Stanley, Alysia Downs – Director BBBS, Brooklyn Conaghan, and Perry Hesteness, President WSVSA.

6.02.2008 PART II
MORE FROM THE CLASSIC SLED ROUNDUP
No question that Brad Warning's Kawasaki was a bit of a show stealer in St. Germain, and like anything new, it caused a little controversy. But by no means was it the only sled at the show! There was an arsenal of amazing machines there, and here's a sample... sorry it took so long!

This is one of my show favorites... a genuine survivor from the Winnipeg to St. Paul Race!	Pretty amazing display of Yamaha race sleds - including several factory racers. Leon Koch even fired up his SR 292 - see the video below!
Here's a shot your not going to see every day. These four sleds are originals from the original 1974 SnoPro racing series, back together for the first time since then. Bill Stull's Rupp is an original 3D racer he recently found, and it has some truly amazing equipment on it. The Suzuki, the Kohler and the Polaris all saw the race track at they same time - they are all 440's.
It's just not a vintage show without a Ski-WHiz!	One for Sulley (BS member) - an outstanding Skiroule "Super-Pickle".
The Smith Brothers finished this years Vintage SnoPro Series 1-2-3. Becky and Bill Stull presented the special Arctic Cat green trophies for the boys from Alaska.	Brad Warning and his monster Kawasaki 5-cylinder radial, with motor creator and builder Paul Groth... and below in the first video, they answer the question: "Does it Run?"

6.02.2008
Georgette Coupal-Villeneuve Passes Away
Got word this morning that the mother of Jacques (and Gilles) Villeneuve, Georgette, Coupal-Villeneuve passed away at the Joliet Hospital. Racing fans and vintage enthusiasts worldwide and those of us here at vintagesleds.com send our condolances and wishes to Jacque. Tuesday (June 3rd) the family will be in attendance from 1:00 till 3:00 PM at the Coopérative Funéraire d'Autray, 530 rue Frontenac, Berthierville, Qc. J0K 1A0. Telephone : 450 836-4552, E-mail: coopfunautray1@bellnet.ca.

5.27.2008
COMING DOWN FROM ST. GERMAIN
It can be tough to focus on a Tuesday when you have as much fun as I did last weekend. The weather in St. Germain held out just long enough to get the show and awards ceremony completed, thank you very much. The show was great. High fuel costs and a rough economy don't seem to be slowing anything down. There was a lot more swappers this year - and a lot more exotic

I'll have more photos and sleds of interest to talk about for several weeks. But today I'm going to focus on the sled the judges picked for "best of show". Brad Warnings 1977 Kawasaki SnoPro Custom named... uh, well, I can't print the sleds actual name. The sled raised every eyebrow there, as well as several questions.

The cylinders are extremely rare - they are original 77 Kawi SnoPro cylinders. The rest of the motor was completely developed from scratch.

Please take a moment to absorb that. The entire motor was built from scratch.

I became aware of this sled some months ago and I will admit, my first question was "why?" I could see it would be an enormous amount of work and risk; would such a thing even work? But as they showed some of these pictures to me, I began to understand.

It's a rare opportunity to work on and own something truly unique and special. It's a truly amazing piece of technology. It's a dream come true for Paul Groth, who has envisioned this motor in his head for decades, and now gets to see it come alive. It's about the uniquely American attitude of climbing mountains because "it's there".

That's a little on the "why". I asked Brad to fill us all in on the how:

"I have always enjoyed restoring and customizing snowmobiles. I always do as much work as I can on my own. But this project went to such an extreme, that I had to call in the three guys that I knew could pull it off. Paul Groth, Al Enno and Jim Costa.

The idea for this sled started in the fall of 2005, but spun out of control rather quickly. Because of my interest in flying, I wanted to adapt a radial airplane engine into a 1977 Kawasaki Sno Pro reproduction snowmobile chassis. I pitched the idea to Paul Groth ("The Bud Man") of Groth Tuning while he was visiting for the NHRA Fall Nationals. Paul said it would be easier for him to simply build an engine from scratch. He said that he had an idea for an engine, like this one, in his head for almost twenty years. Paul then proceeded to draw the motor for me on a napkin (I'm not kidding, he drew it on a napkin!!!), to illustrate how it would work. We settled on a five cylinder design using rare Kawasaki Sno Pro cylinders, heads and pistons. The only problem was that nobody had ever attempted to make a radial in this manner. It would all be custom. After many phone calls back and forth over the next few months, Paul started making the engine in February 2006.

The crankcase and covers were made from billet aluminum, the crankshaft and rods are steel. The crankshaft bolts to a right angle gear box. The Comet 108 clutch uses a chevy small block starter. The carb is a Weber, the carb intake is billet aluminum, the supercharger is from a Mercedes 230, and the blower intake manifold is billet aluminum. It would be cooled by the front radiator and heat exchangers.

Paul would spend the next two years making the entire engine. He sent pictures every week to show me what progress he had made.

In the summer of 2007, Paul was ready for the chassis to continue the mock up stage. It only took one call to Al Enno (Sno Pro Unlimited). The complete rolling 1977 Kawasaki Sno Pro reproduction chassis was built to Paul's specifications and delivered in just two weeks. A temporary IFS front end was installed just for mock up.

When it came time for balancing the crankshaft, it was sent to an aircraft machine shop. They said it would run good at 1800 rpm, but would probably shake quite a bit since radials are known for that. Paul explained that the motor would have to idle at 1800 rpm and rev to almost 9000 rpm because of the radically ported Sno Pro cylinders. When they said that was impossible because most radials do not spin past 2500 rpm, Paul told them to send it back and he would balance it himself.

The ignition was the next problem. After several calls to MSD and Mallory went nowhere, Paul met with their respective technicians at another NHR A event. After getting the deer-in-the-headlights look from the book-smart-only technicians, you guessed it, Paul decided to build his own ignition. He then drilled the carb jets as big as he could to get maximum fuel to the engine. Next was the exhaust which had to exit out the back. By February of 2008, the engine was complete.

Paul bolted it into Al Enno's chassis and cut a gigantic hole in the Shark hood. After putting the rear end on jackstands, he added coolant, fuel and primed the carb, the moment of truth had arrived. Seven hundred hours of Paul's hard labor were all on the line. Suddenly, my cell phone rang. All I could hear was a very loud noise and Paul yelling in his best Dr. Frankenstein impersonation, "IT'S ALIVE, IT'S ALIVE!!!"

The engine idles at 1800 rpm and the clutch engages at 3500 rpm. The only problem was that even with the jets drilled out as far as they could be, the engine was still starving for fuel. He pushed it to 6000 rpm, but he did not want to go higher until the fuel issue could be resolved. The engine does NOT shake one bit at any time, at any rpm. It is perfectly balanced. The carb would have to be taken off and every fuel passage drilled out to the maximum. But, there was no time to fix it. The sled had to be at the Classic Sled Roundup on Memorial Day weekend and there was too much fabrication yet to be done. I made a quick trip to Paul's and picked up the sled.

The sled was then taken to a race vehicle fabrication shop called Performance Concepts which is owned by Jim Costa ("JayCee"). Anything and everything which has to do with racing gets custom built there. I had to book my spot two years in advance because the waiting list is that long to get in. I never got to help on the engine or the chassis because Paul is seven hours from me and Al is ten hours away. But this would be different because Performance Concepts is only five minutes from my house. Watching JayCee work is better than watching any custom fabrication show on television. We started by putting in two to four hours a day on the sled. But, the last two weeks before the show were anywhere from eight to twelve hour days.

The temporary IFS suspension was removed and an entire custom IFS suspension with race car shocks and springs took it's place. The entire steering and rear seat section are also custom. The hood was too hard to take on and off, so it was cut into three pieces and heavily modified. While Collision Revision painted the hood, Tom Kelly lettered the top of the engine and made all of the decals. The dash would be carbon fiber and the tach and blower gauge were a must. I wanted to use several antique airplane gauges but only the engine hours and directional gyro would fit. I had to include the working 300 mph speedometer which Paul had given me. He used on his first Budweiser Sno-King (which was Boss Cat II) and he went 168 mph with it.

Keith Warning stopped by for lunch one day at the shop and said that the sled would look great with a parachute. JayCee got out one of his old ones and I bolted it on. That was exactly how this project went from day one. Anytime someone threw an idea out there, there was a good chance it would stick. Three days before the St. Germain show I realized I had made a critical mistake. I forgot about a seat. I ran to Mark's Custom Interiors, and even though they are backed up for almost eight months, Mark dropped everything and made the seat!

The sled was still not complete. It needed heat exchangers, the carb reworked, a clutch guard, a tether kill switch and a battery box. But all that would have to wait. The St. Germain show was only twenty four hours away.

For the show, we decided to remove the drive belt for safety. Then there would be no need to put the back end up on jack stands, rev the motor and risk an accident. We had found out earlier that the engine revs very quickly and that the sled likes to leap forward. I brought my laptop computer and put it on the seat of the sled. It ran a slide show of two hundred and forty pictures showing every step in the making of the sled. There were no secrets to hide. I wanted everyone to see what happens when you gather very creative people together and then turn them loose on a project like this one. Talk about the lunatics running the asylum! Calm down, they know I'm kidding!

One man at the show asked me: Was I going to sell the sled to make money? What's the point of even building it? What's the payback? I simply told him, "The sled will never be for sale. The reason for building it was to show everyone that anything and everything is possible. And the "payback" is that three of my friends have proven it."

I think that is pretty darn cool, and congratulations to Paul, Al, Jim, Brad and everyone else who worked on the project.

So doesit run? Stay tuned! As soon as I get the video uploaded, you can hear this monster yourself!

5.23.2008
WARMING UP FOR ST. GERMAIN PART III
I have seen what is attached to this, and all I can tell you is wow. It's on it's way to St. Germain, and it will make your head explode,especially when you hear it run. Want a hint? Think Aircraft. And SnoPro. And the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse + 1.

And another thing about St. Germain.... I have a very strong rumor of a 1974 Yamaha SnoPro being there. Clone? Real? Don't know. So far, just rumors and a few photos that look pretty amazing. If it is there, there will be 5 1974 SnoPros from different manufacturers there! HOLY %$%$!!!!!!

And another thing... Don Omdahl just signed my 74 SnoPro pictured below. More on that later!

5.20.2008
WARMING UP FOR ST. GERMAIN PART II
If you haven't seen it, I've chronicled the restoration of Don Omdahl's 1974 440 Polaris SnoPro over the last many months.

Last Saturday, it was finished. Ready for gas and to be fired up. It's on its way to Roseau this weekend, hopefully for some photos, then on to St. Germain where it will be in the big show.

Rumor has it that as many as four original 1974 SnoPros (all from different brands) could be in St. Germain this weekend - all sleds that have not been out in public since they were raced in 1974!

The buzz for the show is very high around the swap meet - sounds like many, many people coming to sell some stuff off.

I can't thank all the people involved with helping me bring this sled back to life... It was a long and rather challenging restoration. But with the help of all these great people - every step of the way was a good time.

Bill at Intech Graphics, Bob Friesen, Paul Roers, Doc Jim, Crystal Welding, Rick Stockey, Dr. Mario, Roger Jordan, Doug Monson, Frank at egraphicsltd.com, Ed Schlosser, Greg Lahr (Sprocket!), Neil Pierce, Pierce Sales & Service, Aaron Johnson, Justin Bergstrom, Kenny Halverson, Paul James, Royal Streed, Brad Warning, Snowtech magazine - Bill Infanger and Kevin Beilke, Wahl Brothers, C.J. Ramstad (RIP), Hi-Permormance Engineering, Tommy Thompson, Dale Neduzak at TimeBenders, and...

CAPTAIN JIM HAUG who did ALL the heavy lifting on this project.. from sanding the magnesium, painting the chassis and parts, figuring out the handlebars, replacing EVERY rivet and stud in the track, rebuilding the suspension, straightening a really mangled ski, and much much more... and to Sammy and Monkey for letting dad disappear into the garage when he really would rather have been watching you grow up....

5.19.2008
WARMING UP FOR ST. GERMAIN
Looks like the weather is going to be perfect this weekend for the show in St. Germain... and there is quite the buzz out there about some very unique sleds coming... including this one from Leon Koch.

The sled is one of the Factory Sleds that was to be used during the 72 snow race season. The sled was never needed and remained in the crate in a basement in Oregon till about 10 years ago The sled never had the ski's bolted on till about a year ago. When I got the sled all the nuts and bolts that would be part of a normal set up were all just hand tight. The sled is New Never fired ! It has magnesium carbs, chaincase, and mag cover. I has special built pipes a low mass internal rotor CDI ignition and a hydraulic brake .

Leon and his crew are also bringing the 2007 Vintagesleds.com Bull Sessions "find of the year" sleds - Wayne Trapps 72 SR292 Grass dragger in original condition, Lynn Trapp's restored 72 SR 643 which has a ton of Unique features, A "new" 72 SR643, and a restored 71 SR433 which Carries Mike Trapp's 71 World Championship engine.

Click either photo to see a larger version... better yet, see it for yourself this Sunday in St. Germain Wisconsin!

5.15.2008
THE ORIGINAL CAT SNOPRO MACHINES (PART V)
So where are they now? Well let's start with one of the big guns: Charlie Lofton's original 1974 650 SnoPro. Polaris' Larry Rugland narrowly beat Polaris' Stan Hayes as top dog in the 650 class that year. But the one guy who kept spoiling the Polaris perfect record in the 650 class by breaking through for a win now and then was Arctic's Charlie Lofton.

Thirty-four years later, I can report that Charlie's sled is alive and well. Ed Chestney was kind enough to send me a photo of the sled as she is today, but has requested that I not publish the photo. "I have sent numerous photos to other collectors and I now have a lot of regrets about that. We’ll leave that at that."

Enough said Ed, I completely understand.

So how do we know it's Charlie's 650?

Well, when I first started digging into this, everyone I'd heard who had a real 74 Cat SnoPro said "Call Ed Chestney. He's got Lofton's 650". They'd all seen it, and they all agreed on it. It's clearly got Charlie's handlebars on it. It also had Charlie's number 11 on the tunnel. Can't argue with that! Ed says she also has the number on the engine crankcase. The cylinders also have factory engravings, but they don’t seem to indicate anything other than a number for reference.

His serial number on this sled is also consecutive to the sled we featured in Part IV, owned by Todd Deloria. Again, these are not normal Cat serial numbers, which indicates special race machines. We know it's a 650 because of the cutout in the bulkhead to allow the room for the 650 triple engine. It also has the extra holes for the triple pipes.

Ed's done a lot of research on these machines, and here's one interesting thing he came up with: "I don’t have information saying how many were built, but there definitely extra bulkheads built. The bulkhead on this machine has been replaced. Clearly early in the year the sleds originally were all painted black, bulkhead and all. At some point, some of them had the bulkhead changed, I know mine did. The bulkhead is unpainted, but it appears the original pan and tunnel was reused. But at some point Charlie’s 650 got a new paint job, the bumper removed, tunnel shortened 2” and the number moved clear to the back of the tunnel instead of just in front of where the bumper was bolted. This is also when the seat was stopped short of the gas tank."

I can shed some light on this. The first couple of races, Team Arctic got spanked by the much lighter all magnesium Polaris sleds and those tiny little Yamaha's. After the first couple of races, the sleds went on a diet, and reportedly, up to 50 pounds was removed by removing any part not structurally required, drilling holes and shortening items. I would guess that Charlie's bulkhead may have been replaces as part of the "lightening" process, or to replace it from damage done in a race - and that it was never painted because paint = extra weight.

Andy Avelis showed me years ago how most of the unique original suspensions were chopped several inches shorter to lighten them up. Later I will be able to show you pictures of one bulkhead so drilled full of holes you could have used it for a lawn sprinkler!

Ed went on to explain the present condition of the sled: "...at the end of the season these were used for test sleds for next year’s equipment. The 75 Z looking suspension isn’t a finished Z suspension at all, it’s a prototype tested in this sled…probably could be more accurately called the 75 PDC test suspension. The extra holes for the pipes were drilled to accept pipes similar to pipes used on the 75 650s… The 74 had a “running board” stinger the 75s all dumped by the chain case."

Ed also added in this bit that calls into question some other sleds that might be floating around as 74 SnoPros: "I believe there are more now than originally because these extra bulkheads got out and were built to race by independents in the mid 70s. I know of four of these 74 SnoPros that don’t have 74 SnoPro tunnels. They are extremely hard to verify. But I (much like you as I can tell by your restoration thread of your 74 Polaris) have hundreds of pictures and have found ways to verify an original tunnel."

Ed has a long way to go to restore this amazing piece of history, but he plans on getting it done as soon as a few other projects get out of the way.

"I feel fortunate to have one with so much history still there. Most times these sleds have been raced and improved out by several individuals over the years. This sled sat for nearly 30 years in a shop and was never touched."

Amen Ed, Amen.

Up next: Davie Thompson's 340!

5.13.2008
WARMING UP FOR ST. GERMAIN
May 25this the big date fore the Classic Sled Roundup in St. Germain Wisconsin - presented by by Arctic Cat. I've heard of some amazing, rare, and never before seen sleds coming to this show. A couple that I heard about this week still have my head spinning. I can't say just yet.. but think red, think rare, and think "I thought all those got destroyed!" and you will have a pretty strong clue.

Charles Plueddeman sent this shot of Connie Meuler of Oshkosh Trophy in Oshkosh, Wis., holding the Best in Show award that will be presented at the show Sunday May 25, in St. Germain, Wis. The Snowmobile Hall of Fame has added some classes to the judging for this year's show, including a cutter class and expanded classes to include 1973-Earlier Race and 1974-Later Race with First and Runner Up in each category. For info on the show, go to www.snowmobilehalloffame.com or email Plueddeman at pluedy@execpc.com.

5.05.2008
HOTTEST PROM DATE EVER
Scott Carmen sent in this photo and video of his daughter going to prom. His daugher and her date had two chauffeurs on their stretch "catty".

Boyz, I think we have a new potential "Patron Saint of Vintage Snomwobiling!"

VINTAGE SHOTS FROM AROUND THE WEB:
D.R. Crews put up some cool shots form back in the day - getting some big air on his vintage bubble-top Ski-Doo! There's a good story and more photos on his blog, "Magic City Morning Star".

5.02.2008
THE SKI-WHIZ ARRIVES!
You might remember that last winter at Live On Skis, Forrest Hess used his Make-a-Wish wish to come and ride with all of us on Rainey lake in Northern Minnesota. We were stunned and honored that he picked the event, and after we all got to know this young man and his family, we even more thrilled with his choice.

Forrest Hess (left) and Joe Rainville with the customized and signed Live on Skis Liquidator hood.

We asked Forrest for a list of sleds he would like to ride; at the top of the list was a Massey-Fergeson Ski-Whiz and a John Deere Liquidator. Vintagesleds.com readers read the request, and people from all over volunteered machines for the ride.

One man (who wishes to remain anonymous) restored the Liquidator to absolute perfection. Pictured below is the hood from the machine complete with signatures from all the people on the ride.

It's been an amazing story to follow the Ski-Whiz from it's origins to Forrest's garage. Steve Thompson (kohler4403rs) donated the very first sled that he ever bought new, a 1974 Massey 304 twin. Swede donated another chassis for parts. JLOPower donated a correct set of skis, and Roger Jordon (Jekyll) donated straight up hard cold cash for the needed extra parts.

It was cleaned up and put together at Paul Shearer's shop on December 1st, 2007. Volunteers on hand to help out included Steve Mclean (oldsled), Eric (purple raider), Brian( aka Rampage), Dan (Pooch) Mike Knutson( Physcho mikeo), Steve Thompson (Kohler4403rs).

You can see the process of the sled on this Bull Sessions thread.

The sled was then hauled to DDub's place, where he re-did the hood and touched up the paint and applied the graphics. Frank from egraphicsltd.com donated the graphics (as well as the special "Live on Skis" decals).

Forrest and his Ski-Whiz at home in New York. The sled will join Forrest's growing collection of sleds.

DDub was going to bring the competed sled to Live on Skis when his transmission quit 90 miles from International Falls Minnesota. Not to worry. Trucker and Kohler_K4403rs made a mad, early morning dash to rescue the Massey and get it to Live on Skis.

At the event, we auctioned off the Ski-Whiz with 100% of the proceeds going to the Make-a-Wish foundation - over $1,300. The winner (Doc Jim) turned around and gave gave the Ski-Whiz to Forrest.

After the event, the sled went through a second day of improvements at Swede's shop. Rampage, Pooch, Doc Jim, Spike, Swede, Vahalla and Paul Shearer got together and converted it to a Mikuni carb, replaced the exhaust with a better one, and the seat got recovered. Pooch the hauled the machine to the Twin Cities to await transport to Forrest's house.

The only problem was how do we get the Ski-Whiz from Northern Minnesota to New York state where Forrest lives? Enter Joe ("John Deere Joe") Rainville. On a mission to pick up and deliver some items from the Midwest to the East, John brought the sled, and the John Deere hood to Forrest's house.

From all of us who attended Live On Skis last year, I'd like to say thanks to Joe Rainville for the gracious and generous offer to deliver the machine to Forrest - and to all the guys who worked on the Ski-Whiz. Note: If I forgot anyone in this, it was not intentional and I really do thank everyone involved!

5.01.2008
THE RETURN OF SNOWPOD.COM (SNOWmobile Picture Of the Day)
Hard to believe that it has been a year since C.J. Ramstad and his son were killed in a head-on car crash. Since that time, CJ's website, SnowPod.com, had displayed a message about the passing of the journalist and photographer.

Now comes news on from the Snowpod.com website that sometime after May 6th, they will resume posting photos from CJ's photo archive. I have seen CJ's archive myself and it is massive. I spent an entire day in there, just looking through race photos from the first 1/2 of the 1977 race season. It was overwhelming.

Glad to see it's going back up - and when they start putting new photos up, I'll let everyone know here first.

4.30.2008
THE ORIGINAL CAT SNOPRO MACHINES (PART IV)
Bet you thought I forgot all about this story huh? I blame winter. There was so much going on with the great winter we had, it was tough to keep up with any of it. But this story has been one I've been itching to get back to. So here goes...

When we last left off, I wrote about the "Odd Man Out" - that is the most unique of the 74 Cat SnoPro machines, the one and only twin tracker. I left off wondering where are the rest of these slick machines?

Before we get started on where they are, let's recap shall we?

I have pretty valid reports that as many as 20 of these chassis were built. But the four factory drivers each drove in just two classes - so only 8 of the 20 machines was actually raced by Larry Coltom, Charlie Lofton, Dave Thompson and Tom Marks. So what happened to the other 12? Well, the best reports I currently have is that all 12 were systematically crushed with a back-hoe and destroyed.

I also have reports that some, maybe all of them, were then dug up and, well, borrowed. That's a good thing - it means that they may have survived! Even if the the "dirty dozen" didn't get raced, they are still very, very unique machines and worthy of a spot in any collection.

Todd Deloria sent in these photos of what has to be a 1974 Cat SnoPro, no question. But was it raced? There's no real way of telling. Was it crushed at one time? Absolutely. But even so, Todd is going to take on the challenge of bringing this baby back to life. It looks like a real challenge, but I bet he can pull it off.

No question this is a 74 Cat SnoPro, note the round-tube front axle and driven clutch socket.

The Tunnel that was on it - sure looks like she was crushed. There was also a tag on it, and that serial number indicated it was something special.

The pan from the machine.

There was many more pictures that Todd was nice enough to share, but I just wanted to get enough up to give you an idea on what he's got. He also sent along a photo of the tag, and asked that I not publish that - which I understand completely. The number clearly indicates this is a 74 SnoPro. I think it's also pretty good evidence that some of them were crushed...

But what about the ones that were not!

That's next, I promise.

4.27.2008
BIG-MOUTH DEGENERATE HATE AND LIES
Here's a link to the original post I wrote called "Sunday in St. Germain" that caused Mike Decker to twist his panties in such bunch that he had to write the article below about me and the readers of this website.

4.25.2008
MY VACUOUS BRAIN
This is verbatim from the Winning Edge Magazine. It started out as good article about the Eagle River vintage weekend, written by none other than Mike Decker. It starts out nice, then turns very strange for the last 5 paragraphs.

Gee, I wonder if he's talking about little old me? The famous Mike Decker writing about a little 'ol nobody racing fan like me? Wow. I'm honored. Here's Mike's comments, exactly as published.

And I quote:

"There exists a pathetic segment in the snowmobile world, bent on doing harm and causing havoc to the sport they claim to espouse so dearly. This degenerate group has earned a new title and are now officially labeled "Blog Trolls" (see Urban Dictionary), spewing their hate and lies in blog form on the internet. These big-mouths, once essentially relegated to blabbing away in taverns, now find they can operate from the luxury of a pulpit via the computer.

Probably the most infamous snowmobile blog troll of all, (name withheld-just call him "#1 Troll"), actually admitted to disguising himself to attend Eagle River vintage races this year. The only reason someone would go through the bother to hide their identity, regardless of the lame reasons he would have you believe, is that he is simply a coward and ashamed of himself. After the races, he couldn't wait to run home and get on the computer and spew a litany of idiotic lies designed to inflame, all in the effort to discredit the Eagle River race and certain individuals he doesn't like.

The more notable, imbecile statements made by the #1 Troll, first had him accusing the new Vintage World Champion Fred Smith of deliberately crashing into another sled with the intent of taking him out while on his way to winning the title, then implied that Chuck Decker must have cheated in order to win his IFS class by the wide margin of half a lap that he did. It's quite obvious this person knows virtually nothing about racing or the long distinguished racing careers of these two individuals, giving insight into his hopeless, vacuous brain.

And who is this guy anyway? Is he a famous racer? Is he an industry bigshot? Is he anything? Why is it that the biggest loud-mouths are really nobodies, other than what exists in their own mind. Running a website and blog forum doesn't qualify one as anything-anyone can shoot their mouths with no regard for the truth and concoct propaganda while hiding out from the real world.

The "#1 Troll" conducts his website in classic dictator-like fashion, blocking and erasing any input that challenges or disputes what the little troll is trying oh-so hard to make you to believe. Snowmobiling doesn't need to be infringed upon by these bad-news people, our sport has enough problems. Enough is enough of this group damaging our sport. Rejecting and confronting this form of poison should be the duty of all responsible snowmobile people."