Origin of the Vintage Challenge!

[JoeRainville]

Hi Guys,

With all this excellent chatter about this years Vintage Challenge at thee HOF, I thought I would share the story about how it came to be. There are some guilty parties in this, and to protect them, I won't tell you it was Greg Shabalock, Tim Kudla, Nick Freatman, Brian Linder, Jon Carlson and of course our main enabler, Loren Anderson...uhh...opps.

The story opens in mid 2006 with Joe Wanie letting know he thinks that Robert Carslon, former VP of Deere, was getting inducted into thee Hall of Fame for his work to get Deere into the snowmobile market. Robert also founded Enduro Team Deere, and made Deere a fierce competitor in Cross Country Racing and help to found the ICCSF Circuit.

To celebrate the induction, many of us Deere guys decided to bring our vintage Deere's to the HOF to show our support for our founding father. Jon Carlson, Roberts son and ETD racer arranges a Deere meet and greet at the HOF to give the collectors a chance to meet the guys that made it all happen. The jdsleds and Horicon JD Sled Riders got to meet Robert, Jon and Mrs. Carlson, Lee Hardesty, Dick Teal and Ed Kruel, and factory racers and ETD members like Brian Nelson, Doug Oster, the infamous Steve Tabor, Tom Otte, Joel Holquest (sp), Terry Norgard, Bob Enns, Roger Jansen, John Orvis, Jeff Larkin, and many other awsome guys I am forgetting the names of. The below pic was typical of the day, Ramon Kuntz hanging out with Bob Enns and John Orvis:



Needless to say, the meet and greet is an awsome experiance with lots of stories and picture being shared. We got to see the pic's of the IFS Liquifire and a copy of the memo that recommends the name of the 80 Liquifire be called "Wildfire".

Here is Loren Anderson explaining to me that if I didn't have a Hotel Room, he would kind enough to put Cari up, LOL!

[JoeRainville]

The 2007 Ride with the Champs was supposed to take place the next day, on Thursday. The NY Posse was honored to have Jon, Robert and Mrs. Carlson sit at our table for breakfast.



Unfortunately at breakfast Loren announced the local trails were not rideable due to a recient warm spell. We made the best of it and spent the morning talking with our Deere hero's at the HOF. Most of the modern sleds trailered up to the UP of MI, but the Deere crew decided to stay put, but we had an idea brewing.

Several of us trailered down to Lake Minocquia where Bosacki's Boat House was serving a fish fry for lunch. A handful of us drove our Deere's from a near by boat launch over to the restaurant to meet up with the crew and make afternoon plans. I asked Lindner if he was going to ride with us, and he replied "That's why we're here!" After we ate, about 13 Deere sleds met out on the lake and proceeded to have an all Deere "Ride without the Champs" to make the best of the closed trails. Turned out to be a very memborable and fun experiance for all of us. This wasn't the first time vintage sleds rode the RWC, but it was the first dedicated vintage group to do so.



At the end of the day, we got to watch Robert accept his induction and tell some great stories from the podium. One of the best quotes was Robert discussing naming of the then new race sled "Liquidator". Apparently someone from the board thought that didn't sound very nice, to which Robert replied "If I wanted to give it a nice name, I would have called it Bambi!"

[JoeRainville]

For 2008, Jon let us know he was going to do the 'fast ride' up to Fishtails with the Ride with the Champs to help make up for the cancelled ride in 2007. So Tim Kudla, Nick Featman, Greg Shuby and I made the 1,000 mile ride to the HOF once again. We arrived at the Rustic Manor Friday evening and did a late night ride to Eagle River and back, finally getting to bed about 1:00 AM.

It was on this ride that I noticed that Greg (Toy Mech) could pretty much keep up with our modern Cats on his Trailfire, even with us riding at a moderately brisk pace. That thought stuck with me as we rode the groomed trails back to St. Germain.

Saturday AM after breakfast the riders gathered at thee HOF to line up with the various rides. I was pretty stoked to be signed up with JRC, Roger Skime, Joey Halstrom, Larry Preston, Doug Lamb, Stan and Doug Hayes and our guide Bob Anderson.



One thing bothered me though. As we pulled out for our 75 mile ride up north to Fishtails, we left the vintage guys like Don Amber, Greg and Brian Linder behind. That didn't seem right to "leave the guys" as I left with the fast modern group, and I decided then and there that if I come out again I am riding with the vintage crew...



The ride was great, and sitting at a lunch table with Skime, Halstrom, Hayes, JRC and Larry was pretty darn cool. Trying to hange a ski on JRC's F-7 resulted in a diet of snowdust, but what what fun it was to try on my little 66 hp Fan Cooled 440 Sno Pro Cat. Tim and Nick had a good time too, with Doug Hayes pulling Nick out of woods on a missed corner.



Next up: With the groundwork laid, the Vintage Challenge comes to life!

[plugged jet]

Joe:
Any idea who the "C7" is on the Cat?

[JoeRainville]

P-J,
Not sure who was on the C7 Cat.
-Joe

[JoeRainville]

After the very fun 2008 RWC and sucessful Vintage Ride, there was lots of discussion about what we would do for 2009. Linder got us started with asking "how many Deere CC racer sleds could we get on next years vintage ride at the HOF?" The 'race' was then on to see how many 295/s, 340/s, Liquidators and 78 Cross Country Liquifire's we could get ready before the next years ride.

We ended up having a "340/s group" e-mail to help each other out with tips and problems found with restoring a 340/s. I even started restoring one that summer, but with getting the house and yard ready for Cari Deerest's and my summer wedding, progress was slow. But I did have my nice 78 CC LF as back up.

When the discussion of what route to take came up on the JD board, JRC spoke up. All he posted was "any one up for a ride to the UP?" That one short sentance set off a flurry of phone calls to between us Deere collectors that day. After getting a group concensus, I called Loren Anderson at thee HOF to ask him what he thought. He was willing to be one of the key enablers of this now called "Vintage Challenge to Lake Gogebic". Loren wasn't sure if we would have enough sign ups to have the shorter vintage ride around St. Germain and the VC, but he was willing to entertain two vintage groups.

Once the basic framework was set up, we then shared the idea with our friends at vintagesleds.com to get more brands on board. We had JRC to lead the ride, the HOF to support it, and many Deere guys to fill it. Now all we needed were trustworthy sleds and snow...and some luck!

[JoeRainville]

The big day arrived on Feb 20th, 2009. We had 26 riders sign up with JRC as our guide, and a few surpises too. Turns out Brian Nelson and his wife Karen were going to run tailgunner for the VC on a new Cat Turbo Z.



The group left the HOF that morning with the hope that we and/or our sleds would all make it back in one piece. We soon found out several of the sleds were jetting "pig rich" for St. Germain, so we had several stops to change plugs, drop needles and change a belt or two. Here is a pic of my buddie Tom Rowland about to get help from the Watersboy with dropping his needles a click:



One bummer was that we lost our main guide, JRC, just after the first gas stop. The Comet clutch on his Dator cracked and lost a large chunk of the movable face, taking Jon's Dator out. This left us with the back up guide, Mike, to lead the way. Here is the crew waiting for the rest to catch up on one of many lakes we stopped at:



Luckily for the Watersboy, Todd Myers and I, the only trouble we had was loose ski pin on my 78 CC. Tom Rowland offered up some "Arctic Cat wire" to solve the problem.

[JoeRainville]

Dispite several sleds having major and minor issues, most of us finally made it to Fishtails for lunch. We generally ordered off the specials menue to speed things along, as we were running late...



The way home was filled with some unexpected fun, like getting lost a few times. Luckily Dan Larson had a GPS on this 79 CC El Tigre to keep us heading south to St. Germain. We had a few sleds drop out and end up getting towed by Brians Turbo Z, and the groups started to get separated around dark. This was when the group I was in missed another turn (and one of the main reasons we all get maps for this year).

However, we all made it back to the Whitetail, but most of us were late for dinner, minus Linder who did not stop at the hotel before pulling into the Whitetail Inn. The last group to walk in together got a standing ovation from the crowd for having the grit to make a 150 to 180 mile ride on 30 year old sleds. We all were sharing stories of brakedowns, missing turns, and making plans for what sleds we wanted to ride next year. Even with some of the hardships, we rose to meet the first Vintage Challenge, and couldn't wait to do it again.

It was almost a sure thing that when two VC particiapants meet up, the VC is about the first topic of conversation. Like JRC said, "if it was easy, anyone could do it!" So we took the lessons learned from the first VC in 2009, and came better prepared for 2010. Yes, we had breakdowns, our main guide, JRC, killed another sled, but we were more familiar with the trails, had support trucks on route, brought pre-mixed fuel in the support trailers and had several back up sleds ready. And we all got back to the Whitetail an hour before the autograph session started at the Inn.

I hope you enjoyed this recap...now what sled am I going to ride next year...?
-Rainville

[Sprailfire340]

...now what sled am I going to ride next year...?
-Rainville

Don't you mean "sleds"?
Thanks for the recap Joe. Unfortunately I was unable to attend as this certainly sounds like a special event. Attending shows are a good time to check out collections and see friends, but the experience of the ride is a big part of why I enjoy this hobby. I can't think of a better way to do that. Hopefully this event continues as it has significantly moved up on my bucket list.

Three cheers to the founding fathers of the Vintage Challenge!