Press Release –

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn., October 12, 2006 – Today, as temperatures dip and snow is in the forecast, Polaris is presenting $60,000 worth of coats and gloves to the The Salvation Army’s Coats for Kids program to keep kids warm this winter.

The donation will directly impact more than 600 children in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area.

The over 600 coats and 100 pairs of gloves Polaris is donating are all designed to provide protection against the elements for the winter enthusiasts who need it most – fun-loving youngsters.

The coats and gloves come in a variety of colors and styles, and are sized for both young children and teenagers.

“Polaris chose to make a donation to Coats for Kids because our company is made up of snowmobile and outdoor enthusiasts, so we know how important it is to stay safe and warm during the cold Minnesota winter,” said Bennett Morgan, president and chief operating officer, Polaris Industries. “We hope these coats will help Twin Cities kids stay warm as they’re going to and from school and when they’re outside enjoying the beautiful Minnesota snow that’s just around the corner.”

“Our office was abuzz with excitement when we heard about Polaris’ generous donation,” said Major Paul Fleeman, Twin Cities Salvation Army Commander. “Due to the tremendous need in the Twin Cities area, we set an ambitious giving goal this year. With Polaris’ donation we are definitely on our way to ensuring a safe and warm winter for children in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area.”

Press Release –

Four-stroke Yamaha snowmobiles wrapped up the US portion of the 2006 COSDRA grass drag racing season exactly as they began it – winning.

At the Hastings 500 meet in Hastings, Mich. on Oct. 14-15, Nytro and Vector sleds shut down the competition to win both Pro and Semi Pro Stock 500 classes, with the Apex also taking a podium position in Stock 600.

Making things even sweeter, at press time Lustilla Racing’s Rocky Miller appeared headed for the 2006 COSDRA Stock 500 championship on his Vector.

Grass drag racing is supposed to be a summer sport, and when six inches of snow fell in western Michigan before Saturday’s races, organizers faced some serious work getting the clay launch pad ready.

But the cold didn’t stop Ashley Agdorny from claiming the Semi Pro Stock 500 win on her Nytro over the Vector of Lustilla Racing’s Chris Weise, or Miller from taking his Lustilla Racing Vector to the Stock 500 win. Canadian Jordan Cole and Miller followed up with a close 2-3 finish in Stock 600 on their Apex sleds.

On Sunday Agdorny took advantage of sunny skies to repeat her victory over Weise in Semi Pro Stock 500, with Miller once again topping the Stock 500 pro ranks. “These Yamaha snowmobiles are just awesome,” said team owner Jeff Lustilla after the event. “They have great horsepower and they really go, plus the reliability is awesome. Yamaha definitely makes the best sleds now – the competitors are all chasing us.”

When Yamaha returns to snocross in the coming 2007 WPSA national snocross series, the new team will be competing in the Pro Open Class with Nytro-based 3-cylinder 4-strokes.

Yamaha signed Boss Racing of Winnipeg, Manitoba, and the 2006 Stock and Open Class champion, former Arctic Cat rider Robbie Malinoski, arguably the most accomplished young snocrosser in the sport today.

Yamaha’s new program will be directed by Greg Marier, adding another layer to his responsibilities for new products at the company’s snowmobile division.

Marier says Yamaha’s goals are to prove the 4-stroke sleds have the performance to be competitive and gather snocross competition experience to improve future Yamaha snowmobiles.

In a somewhat shocking move, given Polaris denied this could occur in the immediate future when the KTM merger was uncovered a year ago, Polaris ATV division announced production of the “hardest accelerating ATV in the industry” this past summer.

The new ATV is the revolutionary Polaris Outlaw powered by, you guessed it, the most revered 4-stroke dual-purpose engine in the biz. KTM’s explosive 525 twin cammer has been shoehorned into the Outlaw’s amazing independently suspended sport chassis.

Does this mean anything for Polaris snowmobiles? Maybe nothing; maybe everything. KTM builds enormously powerful, light 4-stroke mills.

The company’s technical prowess is legendary in the motorcycle industry. Oh, and yes, Polaris builds amazing CVTs. Would it make sense to email the Austrian dudes at KTM and ask them to glue a couple of those 525s side by side?

Shouldn’t be too difficult to ship a 1050cc hybrid mill to Roseau, hang a CVT on it, then slide it into an IQ chassis, should it?

We’ve been sensing Polaris is ready to go head-to-head in the Renegade/Crossfire crossover market with a re-invented Switchback.

In a break from traditional Polaris thinking, it may use an entirely new name (Outlaw sounds pretty good to us) for an entirely different crossover sled. For sure, you should look for a 136 IQ crossover in the next 12 months.

If Polaris comes with a limited-build in MY 07, our bets are on this sled being revealed in the new year.

The SAE Clean Snowmobile Challenge isn’t about racing, it’s about winning! We’ve covered this unique and important competition in Supertrax for all of the 7 years it has been running.

The SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) Clean Snowmobile Challenge was won this year by an engineering team of students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The team used a sled powered by the new Weber/Polaris FS 4-stroke, the identical 750cc engine used in the 2007 FS Touring. This is the same 750cc engine platform the IQ FST turbocharged and intercooled version uses.

The entry took top overall honors and placed first in the all-important emissions category and the team received the coveted Lotus Engineering and Horiba Instruments Award.

Interestingly, the second and third place teams used sleds powered by Polaris FS 4-strokes, too.

An interesting shuffle of top OEM executives occurred this summer. Arctic Cat’s enigmatic Marketing VP Robert Bonev departed the company. There’s lots of talent currently in the AC Marketing Department and that’s likely why we have no word on a replacement at this writing.

The paint had barely dried on the office door of newly appointed Polaris Snowmobile Division Manager Eric Lindquist when the announcement of his replacement came across our desks. New snowmobile division boss Scott Swenson was formerly in charge of Pure Polaris (Polaris’ PGA Division). While we know very little about Scott, a genealogy search indicates he is not closely related to the Arctic Cat Swensons. We hope to have more on Scott in the next issue.

Over at BRP, Ski-Doo’s likeable VP Pierre Arsenault left the company in the early summer. Arsenault was around when the original REV hit the ground in 2002. He has been replaced by BRP veteran Yves Leduc.

A mid-summer press release from Polaris covered the appointment of Cassie Murphy from Pure Polaris (PGA Division) to manage Marketing in the snowmobile division. Murphy replaces David Johnston, no longer at Polaris. Murphy has been with Pure Polaris since its inception and has been integral to the success the brand has enjoyed.

Matt Lube, the feisty Polaris snowmobile Product Manager responsible for RMKs and father of the Switchback has returned to his native Idaho. Lube will continue to work for Polaris in a sales capacity. Current Product Manager for everything but mountain and touring sleds, Michael Erickson, will now assume command of all Polaris snowmobile product. Erickson is a personable guy who listens carefully to the market.

Finally, Polaris Snowmobile Engineering Manager John Howard has moved to Polaris’ ATV Division. His job has been assumed by John Callahan, formerly Chief Technical Officer for Polaris. We haven’t met Callahan yet but we hope to have more info on him by next issue. We’ve heard he’s a great guy and by the magnitude of his former title, we’re assuming he’s a big gun as well.

Arctic Cat has finally replaced former Race Manager Brian Sturgeon who vacated his TRF office some time ago.

Long time AC racing wrench Russ Ebert has assumed control of Cat’s racing program and race shop. This is great news for Arctic Cat loyalists and, more importantly, Arctic Cat racers.

Russ is one of the most experienced and well liked members of the snowmobile racing community. His accomplishments are many, not the least of which was his close bond with a young man named Tucker Hibbert and his careful grooming of Hibbert throughout his short and highly successful snocross career.

Ebert will bring stability and insight to both the race program and to future race sled development. He’s a totally involved and talented development oriented leader.

We look for good things from Russ (maybe even the return of TH?) over the next couple seasons as he cements control and brings stability to the legendary Arctic Cat Race Department.

If we were gambling folks (and we aren’t) we’d say the much talked about, rarely seen, widely expected and greatly feared Gen II REV will debut sometime this coming winter.

Look for a limited-build intro on a scale similar to the 2002 launch of the original REV. Remember the excitement the beaver-tail 2003 REV generated when it was thrown into the market during the 02 sales season?

What engine would Ski-Doo use in a limited-build, reloaded-REV? It’s pretty clear the new Summit-only small block 800R with liquid cooled cases will replace the current Power-Tek 800 in the near future.

We think liquid cooled cases on the “little” 800 points to the use of a full-on SDI system for flatland 121 inch trail sleds.

Click here for info on Ski-Doo’s Rotax 2-stroke engine.
Click here for info on Ski-Doo’s new Exo Series helmet.

Press Release –

Yamaha four-stroke snowmobiles powered to eight spectacular wins over the Sept. 30-Oct. 1 weekend in the final round of the Woody’s Triple Crown, a highly anticipated summer snowmobile grass drag-racing series.

Saturday’s races in rural Wausau, Wis. were challenging due to rain-soaked terrain, but Jerry Fix started things off by winning Stock 500 on a Nytro and Stock 600 aboard an Apex, with Pat Hauck second on another Apex.

In Semi Pro action, Rocky Miller won Stock 600 on an Apex over teammate Chris Weise on a Vector. Miller and Weise then repeated the performance in Stock 500, this time both on Vectors.

Sunday weather proved glorious and the Yamaha wins continued. Fittingly, perennial grass-drag champion Hauck closed his long career by leading a 1-2-3 Yamaha Apex sweep in Stock 600 over Fix and Miller.

Fix then added to his own tally by winning Improved Stock 600 on an RX-1 Warrior, with Hauck third on an RX-1. Finally in Semi Pro, Weise claimed Stock 600 on an Apex and Stock 500 on a Vector over Miller on another Vector.

“I have been racing Yamahas for 30 years straight,” Hauck reflected after his final race. “I started out racing the 1976 440 SRX and finished today with the Apex four stroke, and I can tell you the Apex’s throttle response and power are the best that Yamaha has ever built.”