26. 3/15 5 miles. Got my ass handed to me at the hillclimb at Ski Sawmill. I didn't win a race all day, I couldn't find a slow sled to race me. A aincent but truly pisses off Polaris ?? beat me soundly, a lowrider Doo with a Crankshop 900 triple showed me the true meaning of horsepower, a Cat Crossfire 1000 with nitrous almost went down to my apex until I almost looped out at 80 mph. where he then drove around me for the win. There was another loss but my mind has blocked out the entire race. After entering, I learned that I could have run in the 600?? class since I was on a 4-stroke... my loss.
Luke and his XP800R finished the best out of our group, 4th place out of about 25 sleds. He got his second loss and was knocked out by another XP800R that he smoked in an earlier round. Luke is determined to do better next year and is sure to give local PA fast guy Billy Howard from Howard's Ski Doo, Arctic Cat a call. Clutch kit, pipe, porting, who knows? You 800 guys better have your shit together next year cuz Luke will be loaded for bear.
Dee, Mark and Coulton were all running strong but didn't have enough juice to make it to the late rounds. Coulton, 19y.o., riding his F7 got knocked out by a 18 year old girl on an F6 Ha ha ha ha ha. I think he was passing this speeding cutie notes on the way up. Someone has to tell Coulton that mid race is not the time to be pooning around. Did I mention he got beat by a girl on an F6. Hahahaha. I'm just relishing his loss because his loss made a bit of my sorrow from the day go away.
I got my camera out late so I didn't get too many good pics, you can see the pics I took here.
25. 3/10 86 miles. Rode and raced with a hopped up ZRT900, he smoked me out of the hole and I didn't have enough room to catch up. Saw lots of new trails and roads today. Killer conditions when there was snow. Rode on the worst "trail" I've ever seen, 1/8 mile of snowless muddy boulders. Sled is totally covered with mud, it'll take a few hours of cleaning to get the old girl looking good for the Ski Sawmill hillclimb next weekend.
24. 3/09 85 miles. Rode side by side with Luke for the entire night and never saw a sled and only saw 2 cars. Lots of blowing snow made the previously unrideable conditions excellent. 5.8 gal to fill after ride = 14.6mpg.
23. 2/29 115 miles. Lots of snow, 10" plus. Lots of unplowed road miles with tons of powder. Raced Corey on his 600RS Mod. and could walk him at any speed above 12mph. The RS would get out of the hole like a bullet but ran out of gear in short time. With headlights, a properly sized gas tank and some taller gears, the RS would be a great sled for my neck of the woods. (If I could afford the enormous amount of race-gas it needs to quench its thirst)
22. 2/28 75 miles. 0*f very cold and fast.
21. 2/23 25 miles on groomer sled, 104 miles on Apex. I switched sleds for a while with Ronnie, his 800 Rev was excellent and very easy to ride fast. He was really liking the Yamaha motor in my Apex. Sled ran great all weekend
20. 2/22 204 miles. 10" of fresh snow, excellent riding. I rode with RTX Gary and we were able to split miles of powder covered roads right down the middle. Killer riding, sled ran great in the fresh pow, though a 136" paddle track would have been nice.
19. 2/16 47 miles. Trails were smooth but every corner was blown out dut to a ton of riders and a lack of snow. Dan, the groomer operator, said his wife counted 64 sleds in 4 miles while she was riding shotgun.
The local drag spot was in excellent condition and my Ape was running great. A piped Rev 800R an '06 Apex and an XP800R all fell to the black bullet on this night. All sleds were studded and all drivers had some skills. The Apex had a funky idle that seemed to clear up after a few runs. The Rev rider took my sled for a rip and was blown away at the power and hookup. I rode the rev and immediately noticed an almost total lack of transfer. I saw 130 on the DM and then went home early due to the beat trails.
18. 2/15 52 miles on big groomer sled, 87 miles on Apex GT. 931 miles for the week. The Hilltop Howlers Snowmobile Club needed someone to run the Ski Doo Skandic 550F groomer so I lent a hand and did a three hour session on the machine. With its foot wide skis and its 2 foot wide track, the Skandic would be the perfect sled to haul a ton of scientific gear to the north pole. The 4X8 drag was was easy work for the big yellow bus. Studs for more traction and some weight in the front for better turning will make this a top notch grooming machine.
After the groomer, I hit the silky smooth roads and ended up getting into more than a few races. I witnessed an RX1 pull a couple of squeakers past Coultons F7. Coulton can really ride and his Cat is always strong so I wondered what was up with the RX1. The RX1 didn't have a chance against me, I would beat it by 6 lengths twice. A heavily studded (205) XP800R was next, I won a few and he won a few. Each win was within 1 sled length. Whoever got the holeshot would be the victor. I was really sleeping off of the line and if I could have got the drop, I'd have won every race. BTW, my PowerProgrammer and IgnitionModule are back inline and working well. (I needed to "reboot" the units to get them working again). Other than a few lost races, the sled ran great.
