1977 Nov / Dec Snowmobiler’s Race & Rally Magazine
$25.00
With the Nov/Dec 1977 issue of Race & Rally Magazine, new race sleds were taking the stage front and center. We had wicked new iron for oval racing, as this issue showcases the factory race teams and their new hardware along with several of the latest consumer sleds – the Polaris Cobra, the 3rd generation John Deere Liquifire, Kawasaki Intruder and the smokin’ hot Yamaha SRX 440. You also get a glimpse of the Scorpion moped (yep, two-wheels of Scorpion fame) and the Arctic Cat “Wetbike” as an interesting side show.
Description
With the Nov/Dec 1977 issue of Race & Rally Magazine, new race sleds were taking the stage front and center. We had wicked new iron for oval racing, as this issue showcases the factory race teams and their new hardware along with several of the latest consumer sleds – the Polaris Cobra, the 3rd generation John Deere Liquifire, Kawasaki Intruder and the smokin’ hot Yamaha SRX 440. You also get a glimpse of the Scorpion moped (yep, two-wheels of Scorpion fame) and the Arctic Cat “Wetbike” as an interesting side show.
One of the iconic features of the Race & Rally years was the up-close articles written by Jim Beilke on the racers themselves, the characters that made this time period so colorful. In this issue we get behind-the-scenes looks at up and coming Jim Dimmerman, a successful racer for Team Frustration that was the chosen one to replace Davey Thompson on the Arctic Cat factory team, along with the Mercury and Ski-Doo giant Doug Hayes and the Japanese force of Morio Ito.
But the main attraction in the fall of 1977 was the new oval race sleds – the now iconic Polaris RXL, the new Yamaha SSR, the “mailbox” Sno Pro sleds from Arctic Cat and the Ski-Doo response to the Polaris RXL, their new IFS racer that would soon turn the oval scene upside down once again. This is also the year 20-year old Bobby Donahue joins the Ski-Doo race team, under the guidance of team manager Dick Bahr. See it all in the 1977 Nov/Dec issue of Race & Rally Magazine.
Price includes shipping to US. For shipping to Canada and Europe call 320-763-5411 M-F 9am-4pm CST to order.
The new-for-1978 Yamaha Enticer 250. Only $2,190 a pair, because two sleds are better than one. For 2021 Yamaha attempts to recapture this same glory with their new 400cc single-cylinder SX Venom, albeit with a higher price tag, but the concept remains valid even today.
The 1978 Kawasaki Intruder, powered by a 440cc fan-cooled engine. This, along with the liquid-cooled Invader, were the first “true” Kawasaki sleds as Kawasaki was still two years away from marketing their own sled when they bought out Sno-Jet. The Sno-Jet versions were built by Arctic Cat at TRF where the new Intruder and Invader were built by Kawasaki at their own plant in Lincoln, Nebraska.
In 1977 Doug Hayes was still a 25-year old bachelor that enjoyed racing motor bikes and water skiing in the summer and racing snowmobiles in the winter. His dad George Hayes took on one of the very first Ski-Doo dealerships in Crandon, Wisconsin. He started racing sleds in 1966 at the age of 15.
Yamaha racer Morio Ito. When Morio came to the states for the 76-77 race season, he first stopped in Alaska for some testing and took time to enter the Brant’s Lodge event, winning the 440X class beating all of the factory teams there. He went on to win the 440 Sno Pro event at Alexandria to attract even more attention. He was instrumental in the development of IFS that was fitted to SRX sleds along with Tom Marks of Kalamazoo Engineering. This experience led to the creation of the Yamaha SSR for 1978.
Additional information
Weight | 1 lbs |
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