We lost another Starfire Kid on January 17th of 2021 – Greg Grahn. Racer, inventor, engineer, farmer, family man. 

Greg was best known in his racing days for having been slightly underage when he won the 800cc race at Kings Castle for huge money, beating up on all the big, high-powered factory racers. He also went on to race for Brut. 

Greg ran a large Flaxseed farm in Roseau, as well as working the Duraclutch, Duratracks and other projects. 

From the ages of 15-20, he raced snowmobiles for Polaris and was on the Polaris professional race team at the pinnacle of that sport.

At the age of just 19, he won the big 800cc class at Kings Castle in Reno Nevada, and was awarded a huge paycheck.

But a competitor from Ski-Doo found out about his age and protested so bitterly, that the race official rescinded the win and reclaimed the check just a week later.

The President of Polaris at the time, Allan Hetteen thought that was unfair. After all, a young Greg Grahn stepped up to the best of the best racers in the world and fairly came out on top of all of them. So Hetteen issued another check for the same amount to the young Polaris racing star. Greg used the money from all his various racing success as a down payment on his farm.

Having worked on some of those projects I got to know Greg pretty well. He was a patriot, a conservationist, a consumer advocate, and a lot more. The sort of well-rounded renaissance man you couldn’t help but like. 

RIP Greg. 

More on Greg’s life at Duraclutch.com

Obituary and Funeral Info.