formula iii
Amsnow
Trail Advantages
As we said at the beginning, these sleds are not your daddy's snowmobile. But, you can get many of the parts developed for Formula III to fit your trail sled. Racing does improve the breed.
Says Black Magic's Tim Berg, "Our Hot Shot rear scissors suspension set-up was taken from the F-III Wildcat to fit the outboard shock Cat suspensions. The Hot Shot unit is made of mild steel and production parts and designed to give Cat trail riders a better holeshot.
"We also offer a wide front end kit and have been getting a lot of calls for F-III type-engine mods on the Wildcat motor."
Tim Bender, as already mentioned, looks at Formula III as a way to develop and test pieces for performance kits, too.
Darcy Ewing works with Aaen Performance to develop horsepower tricks. PSI's Bruce Kahlhamer develops pipes and builds race engines. Decker Racing, of course, has been developing dyno-tested pieces for various levels of pro racing, including F-III. Hayes-Bahr in Crandon, Wisconsin, has built F-III engines for Ski-Doo Plus motors and will make the transition to the Mach I. In other words, you don't have to go to the factory for go-fast parts for your muscle sled. In fact, it's unlikely that most factories will have any official go-fast stuff anyway. Yamaha won't. Polaris doesn't. Arctco is relying on Black Magic Motorsports and Ski-Doo has handled its official USA racing parts supply to F.A.S.T.
Formula III is the new breed of old time racing. Just like the old days when stock-based sleds battled each other, Formula III promises to return brand identification to the tracks in some serious head-to-head battles that racing fans haven't seen in years.
We can only hope that from this level of competition will come new knowledge that will improve the breed of sleds we ride in the future. Let's hope for quicker acceleration. Lighter weight. Better handling. Lower centers of gravity. Increased on trail stability. And even better clutching.
Formula III, like stock car racing, is for the masses who want to see a Wildcat trash a Mach I or an Exciter squeeze a victory from an Indy or any combination of the above. F-III racing is just starting to emerge as a popular class of racing.
As Tim Berg told us, "Formula III seems to be coming into its own."