Ray Tuggle, the 1977 Kawasaki SnoPro motor man.

The Search For the 1977 Kawasaki "Shark" SnoPro Sleds.
Part 5: Shark Details with Ray Tuggle

By Larry Preston

At this point in my treasure hunt, I had given up on trying to be sneaky and get the story from some back alley source. I decided to just be bold and go directly to those that were involved. I tried Mr. Villanueve first. Not having a clue where to find him, I emailed the only email address on his personal vanity site, villanueve.com. It turned out to be his web designer, a snotty little punk with an attitude who informed me that Mr. Villanueve doesn't allow for direct contact, but that he, as a charitable act, would see to it that an email was forwarded on to the him.

Geez thanks. Next time I'm in the presenece of The Almighty, I'll kneel, bow my head and kiss my own rear. That should demonstrate my lowly place in the Villinueve Universe and allow me to talk to the great and powerful Jacque, right?

Instead, I composed a nice, short email and asked him if he knew where the sleds might be, would he mind being interviewed about them for the web site, and what could he tell me about the sleds themselves?

I've sent that email to his web guy twice since December, and I've recieved no reply. Jacque, if you read this, please fire your web guy and hire someone more interesting. I bet someone else reading this will know Jacque and check to see what he can tell us. In the meantime, I called the next guy on my list of people in the know about the Sharks: Kawasaki's racing engine builder and mechanic, Ray Tuggle. I caught up with Ray at his current job in Missourri.

Q: How many of the 1977 SnoPro sleds were built?

A: Each driver had 3 sleds, a 250cc, a 340cc and a 440. The 250cc and 340cc classes had to be factory stock but modifiable, according to the rules. The 440X machines allowed for anything. You know, if you would have asked me these questions ten years ago, I would have probably had to keep my mouth shut, but it's been so long ago now, I guess it's okay to talk about it. The 250 and 340 engines were'nt exactly, uh, stock, if you know what I mean! (laughter) I think there was a total of 11 or 12 of them, several as backups or spares.

Q: Were some leaf springs and some equipped with independant front suspension?

A: Greg (channell) wanted a solid front end. Jacque wanted the IFS. But after Polaris started to clean our clocks, it was appearent to Greg that the IFS was the way to go. By the end of the season, all the sleds had IFS.

Q: None of the leaf-spring models survived?

A: (Pause) I don't think so. Maybe some of the back-up sleds remained leaf-spring, but it's been twenty some years, I guess I don't remember. Some may have never been converted, but no one was driving anything but IFS by the end of the year. We did work on three sleds having prototype fiberglass springs, but we abandon that as they didn't really work all that well.

Q: What cn you tell me about the engine and the clutching in the sleds?

A: Mr. Fujikawa of Kawasaki Japan specifically required us to run the twin-plug Kawasaki engines in eveything except the 440X, where we had the room to experiment more. These were extremely ported engines, with Kawasaki clutches. The 340 and 440's were mostly production cylinders, but the 440X cylinders were all prototypes.

Q: What else was unique about the machines?

A: We tried a plastic cover for the chaincase, but when we ran the first endurance race, the chaincase got hot, the cover melted and eventually the chain froze up. It was a good idea, it cut the wieght down and allowed us to see at a glance how the oil was in the chaincase. It just couldn't take the heat! Other then that, I didn't work much on the rest of the sleds.

Q: I have an old Sno-Week article that says the chassis were actual production chassis - maybe even from a Thunderjet? Is this true?

A: No. They were custom built by a guy in McGregor, Minnesota. We gave him the specs and he machined them into place.

Q: Did they have serial numbers on them? Would anyone know what they are?

A: I don't recall, but in order to get through the inspection process, you would have had to match the engine parts to a chassis, and the only way to do that was with a serial number. They must have had them.

Q: What was most memorable part of the year (1977) for you?

A: Earlier in the year, Jacque came really close to winning the 440X championship in Alexandria. He was so close, just a few laps, and it would have made such a difference in the program. But he just coasted to a stop on the back stretch. Dead. We thought he blew the motor, but it turned out to be a small piece of rubber that had clogged the fuel line and stopped the motor. We almost shed tears over that loss, it was so close.

Q: Do you know what happened to the sleds after the year was up?

A: I helped get them on the truck, and they went back to the facility in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I would assume they were destroyed there. But I don't know for sure. That was the last I'd seen of them. It would be sure neat to see them again.

Yes, it sure would. I thanked Ray and hung up the phone. Maybe the original story of the sleds being buried was true. I was just digging in the wrong state.

Part 6: So where the hell are the Sharks?