almost 3000 attended waconia vintage snowmobile events

Waconia, Minnesota was host to the 11th Annual Midwest Ride-in held February 3 & 4, 2001 founded by the Vintage Snowmobile Club of America. It was created as a place for vintage and antique snowmobile enthusiasts to gather and show off their collections of snowmobiles from the 1950s to the 1970s. Waconia has been the home of the event for the last seven years and this year's event was the biggest yet. Great temperatures and snow conditions led to record turnouts in the show, swap meet and trail ride.
 
Saturday's big program started with the swap meet opening at 9am, and nearly 100 swappers filled the swap area. Vintage snowmobile racing was a new part of the Saturday program and the "SLEDS Vintage Race Circuit" put on a great program with over 200 entries racing around the 3/8-mile ice oval track and the 3/4-mile lemans track. Turnout of drivers was the growing-circuit's best yet.

Great vintage factory race sleds like the Starfires, Blizzards, EXTs, Magnums, Supers, Thunderjets, SRs and even Boa-Ski factory racers dominated the many mod classes. Many more common sleds were in the stock classes. Arctic Cat proved a popular choice for many facers and many of the old Pumas and Lynx's were common in the smaller classes. T'nTs, GPXs, Nitros, Panthers, TXs, RVs and Twisters were also seen in quantity in the stock classes. Waconia was a "points" race for the circuit's drivers and nearly all were there. A number of new drivers tried the circuit for the first time including a number of racers from the "Pro-Vintage" racing organization. Anyone needing information on the "SLEDS Circuit" can call race director Armand Westlund at 218/686-9898.
 
Saturday was also the day of the big trail ride. The 11-mile ride left at 1:30pm with a swarm of around 300 vintage and antique machines heading around the lake. Record numbers on the ride also meant a few casualties, as a handful of sleds had to be towed back to the parking lot on Lake Waconia.

Sunday was the day for the biggest vintage snowmobile show in the world. A record 458 machines were registered for the weekeend's events and most of the sleds were all polished up for the show. Almost 100 awards were handed out in 28 classes. Larry nelson of Argyle, MN was a multiple-class winner with his fabulous collection of Johnson snowmobiles and cutters. Paul LaPointe of Inver Grove Heights, MN also took two classes with perfectly restored Raiders and Mantas. The new custom class was a big hit with a large number of great looking and creative entries. Jerry Eve from Forsyth, Montana was awarded the long distance award competing and winning with his beautiful '72 Mercury Hurricane.

Every year the event selects a "feature snowmobile" and this year it was Mercury. Dozens of great Mercs were in the feature row and 18 awards were given out in six classes. Larry Spindler of Ellsworth, WI won two classes with restored Twisters and Dan Alvord of Pepin, WI took two classes with Sno-Pro Twisters. Everyone was in awe of the special 1975 Factory Mercury Sno-Pro Twister courtesy of Mercury Marine. The Vintage Snowmobile Club of America pulled some strings to get the very special sled out of Mercury. The sled was raced by Doug Hayes and has been tucked away in storage for 25 years. Doug Hayes was a special guest at the event; he brought a lot of racing memorabilia to display with his #5 Sno-Pro Twister. We don't think even Doug knew this sled was still in existence. A brand new in-the-crate '76 Sno-Twister L/Q was brought for display from Lee Frederickson's fabulous collection.

Midwest Vintage Snowmobile Shows and the Carver County Snowrunners were hosts for this year's event and would like to thank all those who participated.
If you would like more information about the Vintage Snowmobile Club of America, write V.S.C.A., PO Box 393, Fultonville, NY 12072 or log on to www.vsca.com.

Next year's event will be February 2-3, 2002 at Waconia and will include a Saturday evening banquet. Contact Midwest Vintage Snowmobile Shows: 651/649-4688 or 763/479-2907.

For 2002, Sno-Jet will be the Feature Snowmobile.