St. Paul Finish.....

Post by **JRC ETD** » Sun Oct 29, 2006 4:38 pm

!978 coming into St. Paul, Nelson, Carlson, Reimer, Sperry, Hayes were side by side for the win, Cat, 2 Deeres, Kawasaki, Ski-Doo. The times were all close coming out of Alex. Reimer and Nelson changed the lead repeatdly, Hayes and I went back and forth, Stan finally lost a CD box, at that moment I scored the PTO piston, it stuck, I nailed the throttle to shoot gas in and it let go, but I lost 10 MPH on speed. Reimer was really pushing Nelson, remember the 3 of us were all ETD drivers a year before, Ron crashed hard, but kept going, pushing Brian. We make it to Lake Phalen, a flagmen directs me off the flaged course, around a island at about 75MPH, leaning hard to get around the island..... all of a sudden 70 yards of open water.....no chance to brake or turn.....skipped it and the cold lake water hits the extracter and cold seizes the number 1 piston...30 yards to get off the water, less than a mile to the finsh. Make it to the ice, the engine is junk, limping at 30 MPH...hoping to get it to the line....make it and the engine gives up. Was ready to punch Herb Howe the race director....No Polaris sleds in the top 4... but they protest my track, ignition, pipe,. Nelson wins, Reimer and I are 3rd and fourth, Total elasped time 12 hours, 9 Minutes from Winnepeg, The engine never gave up after taking severe trauma in the last 40 miles....imagine 2 seizes and it finished, it did not have the Liquidator piston gene pool. Found the race director....no action, flag guy disappeared...probably a Cat of Polaris volunteer. Best JRC ETD

I500 · Post by **I500** » Sun Oct 29, 2006 6:20 pm

1 Brian Nelson Arctic $7200 12;07;05

2 Jay Sperry Kawasaki $3600 12;09;07

3 Ron Reimer Deere $2400 12;10;59

4 Jon Carlson Deere $1800 12;19;15

5 Stan Hayes Ski-Doo $1200 12;20;11

6 Loren Matejka Polaris $1050 12;24;19

7 Russ Pauley Polaris $900 12;26;56

8 Leland VanEmmerick Polaris $750 12;28;58

9 Jerry Seidel Polaris $660 12;30;57

10 Dick Sanfranski Polaris $600 12;34;18

400brian · Post by **400brian** » Sun Oct 29, 2006 8:19 pm

Jon, we've heard stories like this before on this site.

Tell me, if this happens , how can they get any of the racers to pay any attention to the flagmen?

I suppose if you blow off a legit direction, they penalize you.

We've also heard of route markers being messed with. That would tend to make a guy want to clean somebody's clock.

Makes for good stories though!

JoeRainville · Post by **JoeRainville** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 2:18 pm

John,

Keep this info coming, it's excellent! Gee, and I got bent from just blowing a chain and case, etc, in the first lap of a 10 lap Pro-Vet final in SnoCross. Heck, I still got 12 place points for it.

Racing that long, and having motor problems and having to water skipp to the finish line must have been a wild ride...but the flag man should have been made to swim accross the open water...

Thanks for sharing your racing experiances with us!

Later Liquidator,
-Joe Rainville

I500 · Post by **I500** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 6:32 pm

What a lot of people tend to forget is that this race was run thru the home turf of Arctic Cat and Polaris. The towns and surrounding areas depend on these 2 factories to provide jobs for the people of these areas and for the people in Minnesota in general . What wins races today will sell sleds tomorrow and provide more jobs. People will always try to protect there jobs, thats just a fact of life.

Imagine walking thru Hershey Pennsylvania munching on a Nestle,s candy bar or walking down the streets of NY city wearing a shirt that says "we,re better than NY". I think you would probably get beat up.

Now you have a company from Horicon or Moline coming to steal the show. I dont think so. A few times i have ridden my Ski-Doo in the Roseau or Thief River areas and received a few threats. Its good that i go with a good group of people but just wouldnt do this as a lone rider.

I,m not a fan of Cat or Polaris but you also need to see there point of view. Was it fare... I dont think so but the world is not fare.

Chuck

Post by **JRC ETD** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 6:47 pm

Chuck....very wise reality.....and the truth. Someday the stories about RJC trying to buy Cat (twice) maybe at ER from his perspective. You have my vote for Govenor of Mn.....heck, a snowmobile racer would be a better bet than a wrestler! Best JRC ETD