11-28-10

The Pacific Northwest Vintage Snowmobile Club is a group of antique and vintage snowmobile enthusiasts from around the northwest. We sponsor shows, vintage rides, and have a website to promote antique and vintage snowmobile collecting http://www.thepnwvsc.com/.

One of our recent shows was at the Washington State Snowmobile Association's Expo and Swap Meet. Our group had a good representation of the many snowmobile manufactures that were common in the day. We had sleds from the still in production Ski-doo, Arctic Cat, and Yamaha, to odd ones Alouette, Evinrude, Skiroule, Harley Davidson, and Sno Jet, to "I did not know they sold snowmobiles" Montgomery Ward, Ski-Lark, Yukon King, Bolens, and Suzuki.

We asked the folks that were looking at our display to submit votes for their top three favorites for a People's Choice Award. We received over 800 votes from over 270. From their efforts two People's Choice show winners were selected. First Place was Troy Bergstresser of Spokane for his really popular and very blue 1970 Sno-Jet, and 2nd Place was Ed Buckner of Camas, Washington's dependable and really clean 1976 Arctic Cat Cheetah.

We also had a best of show award. The voting was performed by the participants from the club. The winners were 1st Place Ray Bergstresser for his original 1974 Skiroule RTW which has a rare Wankle Rotary motor. This sled had only 55 original miles on it! And, 2nd Place went to Stephen Burdick for his nicely restored 1976 Yamaha SRX 340.

But for us the most fun contest was for the free 1982 Yamaha ET340 that the club gave away to a kid between 12-15 years old. The lucky winner was Tye Kangas from Brush Prairie Washington. We understand that he was a very happy young man, he said in a thank you letter that he plans to share his prize with his five younger siblings, and three nieces. Now, if he is like me when I was a kid, sharing one snowmobile with siblings can be challenging!

We are gearing up for winter rides, and races. All of our events will be on our website The Pacific Northwest Vintage Snowmobile Club http://www.thepnwvsc.com/ along with pictures of our the vintage shows we had over the year, planned rides, upcoming events, links to other vintage snowmobile clubs, resources, and classified ads.

Ray Bergstresser

President Pacific Northwest Vintage Snowmobile Club