Only three of the 1975 650’s were made. Jim Bernat’s is in a museum, but Rugland and Omdahl’s? They’ve never been found.
Donny didn’t always get to run the big motor sleds. He was the smallest (and most fearless) of the Starfirekids, and it was 1975 before they let him have at it on a big 650.
He did not disappoint: He was very closing to winning the 75 World Championship, only losing to his team mate when serving to avoid Gordon Rudolph’s crashed sled. He won his fair share of other 650 races, but Rugland beat him out on points to win the overall driver of the year in 1975.
After the season, Bernat’s WC winning machine was put up on a shelf – and at some point they needed the space and sold it to the World Champion for a whopping $1. To this day, it remains in his garage.
But the other two? Not a hint of them as ever been found, with the exception of a few parts that may have come off them, leading me to believe that mostly likely, they were used as test mules to develop the 1976 Starfire, or they were sold to someone who has since trashed them.
Is it possible they are still out there? I don’t know – but I remain hopeful that someday, someone will find one or both in back of a shed somewhere!
