When the Starfire Kids arrived in Ironwood, Michigan in December of 1973 to begin the 1974 Sno-Pro season, they, like everyone else, were seeing the other guys machines for the first time.
The team had a little time to walk around the pits and assess the other teams. The Arctic Cat stuff looked as mean as they always do. The little Yamaha’s were actually 3/4 scale and made of more exotic materials than Polaris was using.
Then there was the twin-tracker from Gilles Villeneuve. That think look positively scary.
For the first time since the team began designing, building and testing their small fleet of 1974 Starfires, they wondered if they had made some wrong choices. They second guessed everything from the motors to the skis. The anticipation of race day has a way of making a driver question their choices with a clarity one rarely enjoys.
They kept second guessing themselves, all the way up until the flag was dropped. That’s when all the thinking stopped, the adrenaline took over, the truth was revealed and Sno-Pro was born.
