Ski-Doo race sleds getting drive updates.....

If you drive by your local Ski-Doo race team's shop this week, you may see the lights are on late at night. They will be inside doing a preventative update on the drive shaft. It is a simple update, the race teams were advised to spot weld the sheave to prevent it from spinning on the inner shaft.

Are you busy? Let's see, Monday you find out you have to repair/replace the driveshafts in over ten race sleds.......by Thursday.....yep, you're busy!

OK! Who parked a Mercury Sno-Twister in a Ski-Doo only race shop!?!?!?

Hal Armstrong's Lake Belwood Vintage Ride-In

Saturday January 26 was one of those perfect snowmobile days, and it was a perfect setting for the 9th Annual Lake Belwood Vintage Ride-In. Here's some of the amazing sleds:

That 40th anniversary jacket looks good on Ron Dyke. Ron's a great guy who collects Yamahas with hydraulic clutches. He has an amazing collection.A tale of two Merc's, a 1968 (250?) family sled and a 1975 340 Twister.

CTV News (Kitchener) did a feature story on the event and this 1962 Ski-Doo and owner from Keswick.

My son Eric turned heads when he took our Twister for a ride........it has stinger pipes!

There was quite a collection of John Deere sleds (15+) and John Deere suits this day. JDX's, Spitfires, Cyclones, Liquifires, and even a Liquidator showed up!

It's repair time at the race shop......

Over the years, I've been to different types of races and seen the repairs that are done to keep sleds on the track for the next heat or final. Mechanics do whatever they can in the trailer or staging area to keep a sled race-ready. In between race weekends, well that's when they have time to really go over the sleds and do maintenance along with the repairs.
The crew from London Recreational Racing working on one of Ric Wilson's sleds. The shop had about 15 sleds in various stages fo repair. It's like a grown-ups toy store, with Team Kodiak yellow and Team Wilson Blue sleds parked everywhere.
Some of the carnage: snowflaps, bumpers, panels, wires, track, etc......Not seen are the handlebars I bent when I flipped the 440 sled. ..(Sorry about that!)
More carnage piled up.....

Track damage and stud damage. Time for a replacement!
Chaincase and gears all come out, and get a complete inspection. Gears are changed depending on the track size and course design.

Gears, chains, clutches, etc, all come out. Geez, these guys do more maintenance in one hour then I've done in the past 30+ years of sledding!
This was a clutch that got got rammed by a Polaris ski in Rouyn-Noranda. That happened on day 2 of this race season. Doesn't that look expensive?

Hey, it's Rob Witzel also known as "The Shoc Doc". Rob tore down a shock for me and gave me a thorough lesson on how shocks work and why they eventually stop working. Old oil gets contaminated, ruins your seals, your shocks fade, small internal plates crack, and your sled starts to lose it's crisp handling. There are a LOT of parts to a shock, a lot more then I realized! Got Shoc questions? http://www.shocdoc.ca/

Owen Sound...Snow ...Racing...Fun...pain...

What a great weekend! The snow only stopped falling for a few hours all weekend. While the sleds did mix up the hauled in snow, giving a brownish hue, the area was coverd in white. Looking over the grandstand, it looked like a Green Bay Packers crowd. You gotta love those race and sledding fans who show up in nasty driving conditons, to take part in an event!

On the grid, #84 Murphy from Sakatchewan begins to assess the line-up, with Lee Butler, Joey Sagan, Johnathon Sloot in front row, and next to #84 is the iron man of snowcross, 4c Ric Wilson.

There was lots of great racing this weekend. Everyone from the kids to the pro's gave it their best for the fans! Off the start, over a small bump, then off to the big ones.......

It was a great weekend of racing, great jumps, passing, racing issues, good then bad visibilty, but it was an all around good time.

Me?.......oh.........My personal highlights were:

1- Not letting Solecki Racing pass me in Sport Masters like he seems to do on the last lap.

2- I had a great battle with my team mate Josh Sloot in TrailSport 500. I am more then twice Josh's age, so there was a lot of trash talking in the trailer before the race.

3- I also had my teenage son Eric with me, and we had a lot of time together at the track where he became a pit crew member. We took in an OHL game Saturday night, something we have not done in a while. (Rangers beat the Attack, what a game!)

Now, the conclusion...the painful conclusion.....Saturday I had a sled make landing contact with me, but by Sunday, the swelling and pain was under control. Pic's of that will show up tomorrow.

Sunday afternoon in TrailSport final I was front row but I jumped the flag and got the big red banner pointed at me. I was sent to the back row! Well, I was feeling pretty good and wanted make up some ground.......bad idea......feeling comfortable with staying on the throttle and doubling some jumps was working.........until........my REV and I got sideways and cartwheeled into the far corner. (The TekVest, GMAX helmet, Scott goggles, and shin pads all did their job!) My race was over for me and I was in pain. The EMS crew and my team mates were all great! I got lifted into the Kodiak trailer, handed heat wraps and painkillers, well taken care of.

It was a somewhat painful end to the race weekend, but what a weekend it was!

Stay tuned and happy trails!

Phil

It's snowing in Owen Sound.

Sorry, there is no access port here for pic's, but I can tell you it's cold and it's snowing here in Owen Sound. Everything is covered with fresh snow, not a pile, but everything is white!

The racing has been good, no serious accidents, a lot of excitment, and a lot of fun.

For the first time today, I had another sled land on me. That was fun! He landed on my knee/leg, but I thought the pain was from a messed up landing. It wasn't until someone showed me pic's that I realized my knee had a REV landing on it!

Oh well, back to the track tomorrow, I'll post pic's on Sunday night.

Until then, enjoy the fresh snow!

Phil.

SnowCross story on SnowmobilerTelevision website

If you are itching to see race footage from this season, head over to www.snowmobilertv.on.ca and you can view the full story from Sault Ste Marie. I was racing and shooting video there in Decmeber.


Right now, I am getting my camera and race gear ready for tomorrow morning, when I and Team Kodiak/Sloot Racing hit the track in Owen Sound.


See you there! Say "hi" if I'm nearby!


Phil

Getting ready for the Owen Sound Races!

I dropped by Mike Schmidt's London Recreational Racing Shop, to see how the sled preparations were going. You would be surprised how much work goes on between race weekends. The sleds come in Monday morning, and get various tear downs and inspections before they are loaded up Thursday morning for another weekend of action.

Mike and his guys work on the Team Kodiak/Sloot Racing sleds (above) and also work on Ric Wilson's team sleds (below).

The very long studs used in snow-x get damaged at the races and during practice. Tracks also get damaged, often by other racers putting their skis where they don't belong.

New studs are going into Ric's sled (above). You can see one bent stud and one open plate hole where a new one is about to go in. (I don't think those studs would work on my Sno-Twister, there would not be a tunnel left after the first bump.)

Me and Mike Schmidt with "my" Team Kodiak sled. Dan Sloot also rides this sled in sport, and when he rides it, he finishes in the top 3! (When I ride it....well.....I...uh.....I look good...)

I'll see you at the race track this weekend!

More snow-filled 80's pic's.........

Well, as promised, here are a few more snow-filled pic's from the 80's.

WOW, a group of Indys and my lone Ski-Doo at The Spot Restaurant in the Mount Forest area.

My riding buddy Kevin Maggs and his brother Rob taking a break 1/2 way between Gravenhurst and Minden.

My first winter of riding with Hal Armstrong back in the 80's, and yes , he really knew how to make that 400 Indy fly!

In the early 90's I met Mike Schmidt, a great grass/ice speed guy! He let me take his Team Vincent Mach for a run down Puslinch Lake. It is a great little lake near Cambridge where a lot of guys hang out when the trails are 50/50 for riding. The guys do runs all afternoon and compare radar numbers. Yes, this MACH was VERY fast! Mike is currently the mechanic for Sloot/Kodiak racing and Ric Wilson, but he still gets out on the lake to show he is #1 on the straight line runs! (That's me on the sled, Mike took the pic.)

Snowless winters of yesterday?

I hear some people say that we always had great winters up until a few years ago. Well, I may be getting slightly old, as I remember a few winters where snow was limited, but the season still rebounded. Only in the winter of 1983 was there "no snow". I was taking photography at Sheridan College and one assignment was based upon snow as the subject. We saw only one snowfall that winter so the assignment had to be dropped.

Below are some pic's taken at oval races in Owen Sound and Valcourt in the 80's and early 90's. If you look to the infield area, there is no snow and these pic's were taken in three different winters. I also have B+W pic's of the Kawartha Cup being run with no snow in the infield. The other pic's are taken those same years, as you can see that the snow did come and the sledding seasons ended on high notes!

Lots of fans and great racing action, but no snow in Owen Sound in January!
Owen Sound races on ice, but no snow anywhere. Straw was used to keep mud off the mechanics while they worked. Is that Dwight Bauman's sled?

Another year at Owen Sound and another snowless infield after a heavy rain.

The twin-tracker above is Bruce Vessair's from Honey Harbour. His brother Gary still runs the marina there.

Below is a pic from Valcourt, the home of Ski-Doo, where winters made it tough to get around and the snowmobile was designed out of necessity. The year I took this pic, there was no snow on the infield but trails were open and were wet but decent.

Wow, Valcourt and no snow! They hauled in snow for the fun events, and the track was ready long in advance of the warm race weekend.

Even after that incredibly mild weather above........look below...... and you will see.............. THE SNOW CAME!! Yes, that's me on my 1986 Ski-Doo MX.

My first IFS sled, an INDY 340 Cross-Country Special. Snow-Cross sleds were limited to 56hp in those days! Anyone who rode SnowCrest trails (Gravenhurst) had to stop here at Summerland Store for Chili! Yes, it was good and so were the fresh cookies!

Ah, the good old Jolley Roger, when it was right on the highway. The trail crossed hwy 69 in those days, and the Jolley Roger was THE place to stay in Parry Sound in the 80's. We stayed there last year, still a great spot!

As you can see from above, we had several winters back then that started week, ended strong, and lead into a stretch of fantastic winters that gave this sport a huge boost.

Yes, I will post more pic's from my old photo albums to keep the adrenaline pumping!

Phil.

Happy New Year...with fresh snow!

Happy New year everyone!


The new year started with some much needed new snow in Ontario.



Here is my street and home with a few new inches of snow. (The fresh snow helps to cover up the stud damage in the driveway.)


This is my 1964 (9hp) Ski-Doo, covered in snow and ready for a vintage event. I will be riding it in a few weeks at the Lake Belwood vintage ride. I guess I should put those bikes away until next summer eh? (Oops!) They will go into the new "Sled Shed" which is almost complete. The piped Sno-Twister will be home next week, that "sound" should have the neighbours guessing!