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Shifting Terrain By the early 1990s, Ski-Doo's market share had slipped.
The Formula series, its high-performance trail line since 1985, lacked the ride control and comfort of the market-leading Polaris Indy. With a race program primarily focused on terrain racing, Polaris won four I-500s in the 1980s. A large share of the snowmobile buying public embraced terrain racing because they identified with production-based race sleds.
Ski-Doo hadn't been a force in terrain racing since the late 1980s when cross-country legend Gerard Karpik and his team fielded a hand-built Ski-Doo prototype called the Karpik Special. Ski-Doo's racing efforts were focused on drag racing, speed runs, enduro and particularly oval racing.
In oval racing, Ski-Doo had been successful in stock class racing, Formula III and Formula I. Ski-Doo's twin track Formula I racer had become the only chassis used in Formula I, winning every Eagle River World Championship since 1985.
Former Ski-Doo Race Manager Tom Rager says, "Bombardier was a great race company, but they were so focused on Formula I oval racing. And in the early 1990s many conversations were going on [in Valcourt]... 'Do we need to look at something else.' In Formula I it was a great show, but it was only Ski-Doo against Ski-Doo. That's when I got involved and the company made a decision to get into terrain racing and be more active in hillclimb racing."
Ski-Doo's top brass recognized they had to make dramatic changes to the product. According to former Ski-Doo Race Department Director, Marcel Perrault, top management told them to look at entering the production side of racing, terrain racing.
Steve Brand, an analytical outside contractor for Ski-Doo, had his hand on the pulse of the sport. FAST's Gerard Karpik describes Brand as "a super sleuth" who watched what the Polaris and Arctic Cat guys were doing and then channeled it back to Ski-Doo.
In 1991, Brand presented research findings to Ski-Doo management. He said, "I presented a paper to Bombardier management to diversify its racing efforts and get into terrain racing. At that time, our [Ski-Doo] warranty rates were huge. The sleds couldn't hold up to any Midwest running - they would break. They were designed for the immaculate Quebec trails, and that's not the real world."
The conclusion was simple. Ski-Doo needed to raise its products' profile via terrain racing. To do so, it needed a chassis that provided competitive ride quality on snocross and cross-country tracks.
According to Rager, "The focus of the company was always to develop better product, a more consumer friendly sled that they can see on the racetrack and go buy that sled. The end game was to develop sleds to get us more market share."
At the 1993 ISR press conference, Perreault said the company would soon be a major force in cross-country racing. The blueprint had been made for future success.
Rager says, "When I put that plan together, it was a five-year plan. They were patient with me. I told them it was going to take five years to get the program turned around."