Doug

Right. They probably read about people getting their hands dirty and rebuilding a small engine. Current classes teach them how to plug in the charger for the electric lawnmower that some guy comes over to cut the grass with. As far as the old Briggs and Stratton a couple washer under the valve springs gave them a little higher RPM range.

Arctic Lifes Matter. ALM

Polish descent?

Well he wouldn't have had to remove the track I took care of that

Scariest ride I had was blowing a track at over 90 mph and going past the gun at 102 mph. Luckily it was early in the season and glare ice. Almost became a hood ornament on a ford truck and looked like Fred Frinstone trying to stop and keep it straight and not get sideways to start rolling. Took for ever to stop. They all laugh once they seen me stop cause I gained MPH after the track blow.

Then you haven't ridden hard enough 🤣

I blow the same sled up twice in one day. Bought a 91 RXL to flip and took it out on the lake just to run it. We had a track plowed so made a good run and took a piston out. Jug wasn't hurt and clean up easy case looked clean inside so put a piston in drained the gas put new in and 2nd pass took another piston out. Different one this time. Got it back and smelt of gas so checked a little further found the elbow by the fuel pump had a crack in and would only leak when the sled was running. There's been others over the years also.

Mine was a 74 Ski-Doo 440 FA. Sucked the head of an aluminum rivet from the air box and took a piston out.

Yes in 2013. Had some undiagnosed health issues and some other personal issues. Helped many Nascar driver with their careers before they were nascar stars. Rusty Wallace, Mark Martin to name a few.

Back in the early to mid 70"s Dick Trickle raced sleds out of the Bob Donahue dealership in Wisconsin Rapids. Here's Dick lined up on sled # 199

Here's some sleds that could have been bought from a March 1993 Snow week. Seeing a 1977 RXL which would have been the leaf spring chassis with extra 340 and 250 motors for $2900.00. Wish that was a current ad

Couple that come to mind: 1991 Indy 500 EFI 1991 Indy XC 400 GEO (was actually a 440) 1992 XLT 1973 Sno-Jet 292 Thunder Jet 1976 SRX 340 1977 Ski-Doo 440 Blizzard

Yes 97/98 was considered the "Red Rockets" being 97 the rare sled even more so if it still had the original top end vs the 98 update kit. Even so the earlier red 440 XCR's hold a sweet spot. The prior desirable sled to them would be the 1991 GEO XC 400 which was a very limited build 440.

I would know when and where if my wife had a flat tire in a VERY short period of time after it happened. She would not be changing the tire and I'm sure what I was doing at the time would change.

Freind had one of them and even put 600 mailbox stick on numbers to cover the 800 on the heads. You also had to cover up the 800 on the seat

In 1990's we did a lot of testing by a local area that always froze earlier and normally had enough snow for lube and cooling Guy got a 1995 ZRT 600 on loan from our local dealer that was an absolute stone. Good running 440's were beating it Polaris and Ski-Doo 600's were killing it. They working on it but were never in the game with the other 600's. The 1996 production ZRT 600's ran good.

George I have a Ultimax belt as my spare. Bought it in 2019 put it on my sled at the time for about 50 miles to break it in and haven't had it on a sled since. I normally change my belt after about 3000 miles and being I've done all the clutching and testing with the stock belt I put a new stock belt back on. Some guys are using Gboost belts with good results also.

Just an observation and not brand specific. A lot of the guys that brought sleds to the level that we're at were hands on. They raced, they built chassis, they built motors, they tuned the motors and clutched the sleds. They rode the sleds. Today you don't have the hands on that you use to have. There's a lot done with simulation but that still doesn't compare to a real live test or experience. I see that at work. I'm a Mechanical Engineer by trade but I still weld, run a press brake, help dial in laser cutting parameters and work with our tool makes as they build tools I designed and made the print package for. Most of the Engineers today don't get their hand dirty more less even go into the shop. Notice I said most there's still some young good Engineers that are gear heads and dive right in but that percentage is shinking.

That's to bad. I know the new owners of the track want to build up on the track and ground activities which is a nice change from the previous owners. We deal with similar situations at Nascar events and its normally the local staff. We have an all access Nascar license and still get stopped at gates and denied access. We also find people in our fenced in area and have no idea how they got there.

That's interesting. I can see that if the Decker's still owned the track.

I know Eagle River would like to have it again.

Through personal experience if a company wants to keep you they will counter offer to get you to stay. I hope Arctic Cat has some good talent still there and new products come out. It does no good for the sport only having 2 manufacturers.

Doug Hayes had one son working at Polaris and one son working at Arctic Cat. Now both are working at Polaris by choice. The one that worked at Arctic Cat didn't know how long he would have a job seeing the direction Arctic Cat was going. Wise choice I would say.

Or they went looking for a job at a financially stable company.

Wow. Interesting in a strange way. 😖