Race and Rally - Fall 1971

Polaris discovers Ski-doo secret

The Polaris team had discovered a Ski-Doo racing team's secret shortly before the Tahoe event. For some reason a carbide skag (runner) on the sled made it handle a lot easier. Each one of the Polaris team members had a pair of skis with these runners made up for them to try. They worked so well in controlling the sleds on the tight Tahoe track that they wished they had a pair for each one of their machines. To get around the shortage, they would remove the skis off any machine that had qualified (while it sat in the inspection area) and run back to the pits with them and try to get them on the next machine to run. WSA rules say that when your event is due on the starting line you have to be ready to go. So in a few cases there were Polaris machines running with only one carbide runner--- all they had time to change.