New Sno Pro CatsFor Vintage Races?
Could it be that Roger Skime and his after hours "skime-works" team at Arctic Cat pieced together a few 1978-ish Sno Pro replicas that could appear by Eagle River to compete head-to-head against some strong running Polaris RX-L replicas?
Strong rumors --consider it unconfirmed truth-- suggest that Cat's senior vice president of engineering spearheaded the effort. Our question is this? If many of the the same engineering crew, many of the same racing team members and the same factory created these sleds, are they replicas or modern day born-again Cats?
A much younger Jerry Bassett, seen above with Hall of Fame racer Bob Elsner, tried out Bob's Eagle River World Championship winner at the end of the season. This was in the "old days" when Bassett was editor of Snow Week and SnowGoer and Elsner was one of Cat's factory-supported Team Arctic race drivers.
"The Sno Pro Cats were very interesting," recalls Bassett."I remember how the the race sled handlebar was cocked to the right a bit in order to get the best leverage in the turns. It was really strange to fly down the straights with bars that were twisted to the right. But when you set up for the left turns and went to full lock it all made perfect sense and felt very precise."
You wanted lots of steering leverage. Remember these were the early days of independent trailing arm suspensions. The long runners and aggressive carbides carved deep grooves in the ice and if you think your trail sled can "dart" on you, try an early Sno Pro racer! Guys like Bob Elsner who made those sleds win were a special breed of cat.Because the Sno Pro machines were so light, acceleration from the 440 Sno Pro machine was intense.
"Since this was Bob's World Championship winning sled he seemed a bit on edge while I test drove it on Team Arctic's replica Eagle River track," said Bassett. "It may have been nerve wracking for him, but it was a highlight for me. In addition to being a terrific racer, he was a true gentleman."
If the rumors are true and this vintage era Team Arctic Sno Pro machine reappears, make a point of watching them run. In the Elsner years, these Cats gave Polaris' RX-Ls (at left) all they could handle.
© 2006 snowmobilia/Jerry Bassett
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