Bill Rader, the long-time racing coordinator for the Polaris snowmobile race program passed away Monday, Feb. 20, 2012, after a courageous battle with cancer.

He was 54. Rader played a major role in the resurgence of the Polaris snowmobile racing program over the past dozen years. He worked closely with Racing Director Tom Rager, Sr., a close friend of Rader’s for more than 20 years.

“He was extremely well-liked and everyone in the industry knows how instrumental he was in rebuilding this Polaris program,” Rager said of Rader. “His specialty was working with young talent, the father-son race teams, nurturing them to get them to the next level. He worked with people like [Pro racers] TJ Gulla and D.J. Eckstrom and helped them as they rose through the program.”

In the early 1990s, Rager was managing the Ski-Doo racing program and he hired Rader as his race program coordinator. Rader and his family – his survivors include his wife Tammy and daughter Dana – moved from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to Wausau, Wisconsin, at that time for the job.

When Rager was hired as racing manager by Polaris in August 2000, he immediately hired Rader as racing coordinator. The two men led the rebuilding of the Polaris racing program back to the championship level program it is today. “Billy took care of the B Team programs, assisted me with outside sponsorships and he dealt heavily with the ISR,” the racing sanctioning body, Rager said.

The two men developed an incredible friendship over the years. “They always say you meet one person in life who is truly your best friend, and for me he was truly my best friend,” Rager said.

A Great Sportsman

Scott Judnick, co-owner of the Judnick Motorsports snocross racing team, said Rader was a great influence on racers of all brands. “I can remember when we were racing for Arctic Cat – this is our 10th year with Polaris – Bill would always come up and talk to you at the track, give you encouragement. He was a great sportsman. He worked with the Sport-class guys and he’d go trailer to trailer and make sure everybody had what they needed and give them input… Bill was a big part of our team and our success and the championships we’ve won over the years.”

Judnick said Rader contributed to the spirit and technology of racing. “He made it fun. He was always willing to help, whatever you needed, he was there for you,” Judnick said. “He came up with ideas, he would run for stuff – nothing was beneath him. He was a big part of the success of this program. On a lot of different test trips Bill would be there and his input was always fantastic. The guy would be talking to you and he was so smart, and you’d be like, ‘what did he say?’ He’s get into the chemistry end of things and he loved to study and read and figure things out.”

Rader was unable to attend races while battling cancer, and he was missed. “The snowmobile racing world was very concerned about Bill,” Judnick said. “Every single weekend people come up and ask, ‘how’s Bill doing?’ I can’t tell you how much we’ve missed not having him at the track, and now that he has passed, how much we will miss him going forward.”

Judnick said commemorative decals were being prepared for racers to put on their sleds in Rader’s honor.

A Vintage Mopar Enthusiast

William E. “Bill” Rader grew up in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where he loved racing snowmobiles and stock cars. He worked for a time in the mines and served as technical inspector for the USSA snowmobile racing circuit, where he was exemplary in his fairness and his concern for racer safety. He was operating an industrial supply company when Rager hired him to work with the Ski-Doo racing program.

Rader was focused on his family and his job, and he enjoyed restoring old vehicles. “He loved building old hot rods,” Rager said. “He rebuilt a ’70 Road Runner, and his latest project was a ’73 Dart. He loved the old Mopar stuff. He also did an incredible job refurbishing old Polaris snowmobiles, and his latest was an old StarFire sled.”

A memorial service is scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday, Feb. 24, 2012, at Saint Andrew Lutheran Church, 3200 N. Mountain Road, Wausau. Visitation will be from 5-8 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 23, at Brainard Funeral Home, 5712 Memorial Court, Weston, WI, and again from 9:30 a.m. until the time of services Friday at the church.

Dustin Wahl from Greenbush, Minnesota, won his third Grand Prix Ski-doo of Valcourt on Sunday when he crossed the finish line ahead of two-time Valcourt defending champion Nicholas Van Strydonk of Tomahawk, Wisconsin and Malcolm Chartier of Marine City, Michigan.

Wahl inherited first place on the restart, after race leader Joel Diamond went off-track on lap two. He never looked back. Dustin’s third Grand Prix victory on the ice oval feature race, also increases the number of wins by the Wahl family, to 13.

His father David won four times between 1988 and 1994, and his cousin Terry a record six times between 1995 and 2003. Local favourite Jacques Villeneuve retired with a mechanical problem from the race at the halfway point of the 15-lap affair. He was in fourth place.

In the other grand finale of the Grand Prix, Robbie Malinoski of Lino Lake, Minnesota, ran away from the rest of field to score his first ever snocross Pro Open class victory in Valcourt.

While there was a scramble for second place between Darrin Mees, Matt Morin and Tim Tremblay, the eventual winner was able to build a lead that enabled him to ease his way to the finish line.

Tim Tremblay of St-Jeanne d’Arc, Quebec, dropped to fourth place from his pole position at the start, but he battled his way back to a second-place finish after passing Matt Morin from Val-d’Or, Quebec, on lap seven and took second place away from Darrin Mees from Long Island, New York, on lap 10 of the 15-lap race.

Tremblay, the defending race champion, ran out of time. The top four finishers in the Pro Open are all regulars in the ISOC series.

Lucas Brunelle of Boucherville, Quebec, who is a regular in the East Coast Snocross series, earned his first win of the weekend ahead of Canadian Snocross Racing Association riders Jamie Byers from Orillia and Devin Wilson from Hillsburg, Ontario.

Next year’s Grand Prix Ski-doo of Valcourt will be February 15-17, 2013, the next Xtreme event race fans will not want to miss.

Tucker Hibbert has arrived in Russia and is prepared to compete for the FIM Snowcross World Championship title this weekend.

The reigning US National Champion is known as one of the world’s top snowmobile racers. Hibbert will put that theory to the test Saturday against 33 riders from six countries at The Technical Sports Centre Semigorje near Ivanovo.

This year marks the first time in the nine-year history of the FIM Snowcross World Championship that the event will be held in Russia. The 2010 World Championship in Sweden was Hibbert’s first event outside of North America.

He quickly adjusted to the longer, rougher European-style track winning two of the three main events to become the first American to be crowned champion. Last year in Finland, he was the heavy favorite to win but after suffering a mechanical issue in the second of three races, he finished third overall.

Unlike the sanctioning body in the US (ISOC), FIM has sound and fuel restrictions and does not allow the use of traction products in the rubber track of the snowmobile. Hibbert will spend the coming days adjusting to the unique race conditions while his crew executes fine-tuning on his Arctic Cat Sno Pro 600.

On Saturday, a round of qualifying will cut the field down to 22 riders. Those top riders will all compete in three separate 15-minute, plus two lap main events. The rider with best average finish after the three races will take home the 2012 title.

Fans can watch the event free and live online. Qualifying begins at 10 a.m. with the final races from 12:30 to 4 p.m. Be sure to adjust the times to your local time zone. (Example EST: Qualifying 1 a.m. / Final Races 3:30 – 8 a.m.)

For live updates from the event, follow Hibbert on Twitter and Facebook.