bender formula one tsst

The only time we saw the Bender/ Yamaha Formula I racer in action was at Eagle River for last year's World Championship Snowmobile Derby. Now it's a curiosity that sits in the Bender Racing display, attracting inquiring peeks at events like the Sno-Baron's Hay Day grass drags. It wasn't intended to be a curiosity. It was intended to be a test bed for innovative ideas and a platform from which Yamaha would propel itself to the front row of Formula I snowmobile racing.

It didn't happen that way. It was a test bed for ideas and innovations. Tim Bender saw to that. But a lack of time and finances to underwrite the project left the sled and its pilot out of contention on race day.

We'd heard about the new Formula I project in the fall of 1994. We figured things were moving along pretty well, but we hadn't kept tabs on the project all that much. And, it was a secretive affair. In fact, it was about mid-October of that year when Yamaha announced that it would supply engines and financial support to selected F-1 racers. Yamaha Vice President Jim Gentz had flown from Los Angeles to Milwaukee to make the announcement at the annual International Snowmobile Racing press conference. Yamaha would field a F-1 effort that would include drivers using specially modified, trail-stock-based Yamaha 500cc twin cylinder engines. It would also include a special effort from Bender Racing.

Just before the American Snowmobiler Shoot-Out in early December 1994, we bumped into Tim Bender in Old Forge, New York. We joked with him about how he must have the F-1 project well underway and what could he tell us about it. Not much, but a lot. Seems that Yamaha support was much less on the F-1 project than it had been with the previous Bender/Yamaha cooperative venture, the Formula III 750cc Vmax-4 racer. In 1992, that sled won every race but the one Yamaha wanted most - Eagle River. In the qualifying rounds, Bender's two sleds dominated. They were leading the event when they failed and Yamaha lost. It was the Vmax-4's first race and it was the only race it would lose the rest of the season. But it was the wrong race to lose. Yamaha pulled out of full-blown racing until 1994 when they again turned to Bender.

For his part, Bender used the much-reduced budget to design and build a unique machine. But that's the Bender way. When he raced with Olav Aaen under the Aaen Performance banner in the 1980s, Bender would try things like rear-mounted airfoils to give his sleds better traction in the high speed turns. He was an innovator and his experience as a stock car competitor on the Grand National tracks have shown him even more possibilities.

The design that Bender and his brother, Bob, built became known as the Bender Racing TSST (three ski, single track). Outwardly, the Bender F-1 looked like most of the other F-1 sleds. It was wide like the twin-tracked competition. But underneath it was unique.

Bender had offset the single track to the right rear. Parallel to the track on the inside was a single ski. "We wanted to retain the advantage of a single track's straightaway speed without having to turn two tracks," said Bender. "The track is offset to the right rear to give it the cornering of a twin track with four points of ground contact."

Up front, the TSST features an A-arm front suspension with an inboard external gas pressure shock to control ski damping. The setup looked like fairly standard sports car technology, but not something you would normally see on a snowmobile. Bender used a similar A-arm suspension setup for the rear-mounted ski.

The sled was designed to have smooth airflow circulating over and under it. The aerodynamic fiberglass body was similar to the Ski-Doo F-1 hoods. The underside was smoothly contoured aluminum with airflow only broken by the track and third ski.

While Bender's TSST relied on the same Vmax 500 twin as other Yamaha-supported drivers, it was positioned differently in the chassis. The twin 36mm carbs faced forward where they could take in colder air, and the two straight exhaust tuners fit under the driver's seat exiting just to the back of the third ski.

Although pleased with the power derived from the stock 500 twin, Bender Racing couldn't manage to get the setup right for the high-banked Eagle River track. When he took the TSST out on a nearby lake, he could get the carburetors adjusted and the engine running fine. But that didn't translate to cool running on the race track. And it showed. Bender missed the big show, being relegated to the last chance qualifier. Then he was unable to finish.

Bender Racing had tried to do in about 10 days at Eagle River what Ski-Doo had accomplished in 10 years of racing and developing its twin-tracker.

While the race was a disappointment, the sled is an exciting curiosity. Someday it may sit in a racing museum, a tribute to the Bender brothers. Right alongside the TSST you might see the original Bender Racing F-3 Vmax-4. It didn't win Eagle River either, but it, too, writes another innovative chapter in snowmobile racing history.