A local business man read an article about a vintage snowmobile race in Minnesota, USA.
He thought this was a great idea. He approached the fire chief of the local Saltcoats Volunteer Fire Department and
wondered if they would host a simular race.
This was the start of much hard work for 16 firefighters, their wives and children, and for the
many volunteers. The proceeds of the race would be used towards purchases needed by the Saltcoats Volunteer Fire Department.
The planning started the first part of November and the race was held on March 3,2001.
The original idea was to race on the lake but because of too many regulations and too high of a cost to hold an event on the
ice the race was held at the regional park site. There was a scoreboard, groomed track, racing bibs and pit crew
area that needed to be made. There were volunteers to find to help with flagging the corners on the race track,
operate the tow sleds, concession/beer garden help, and lap counters to count the 65 laps needed to complete the
race and sponsors to help with the prizes and money, needed to put on a race of this kind. The total amount of
volunteers were almost everyone in Saltcoats and the surrounding area. The first race took 3 hours and 15 minutes to
complete. There were 27 sleds that took plart in the race.
Most of the first year veterans returned for the second year. The track was made larger
and was groomed after each snowfall and very windy day. In a Saskatchewan winter that is many times. The extra
work made a large improvement on the track. There were 37 entries for the second year.
The third year saw an increase of sleds to 44. The weather did not cooperate and it was
extremely cold but the race went on.
For our third race on March 1, 2003 we tried to improve the track. A new location
for the pit entrance/exit, smoother track and bleachers for seating so people will be able to see their favourite team almost
anywhere on the 2 mile track.
We will be limiting the amount of entries to 50 with the best position at the start line according
to the order of the paid entries.
After the 100 mile race we will be hosting a drag race for the vintage sleds with 60% of
the entry fees as payout. This was a new event added to the agenda last year.
The 4th Annual Race, on March 6, 2004, saw a much warmer day then last year although the weather
did not completely cooperate. We had wind and snow flurries for some of the race. The entries were down from last
year but we still had 33 sleds registered to race. The race lasted approximately three hours from start to finish.
