The Rum River Outlaw Grass Drags is an event in Princeton, MN I look forward to every year. For nearly 10yrs, a few of my friends and I have purchased a swap spot as a reason to simply hang out, talk smart and maybe even sell a few things clogging our garages.
We had quite a few laughs this past weekend, quite a few visitors/fans of ArcticInsider stop by, and I even managed to grab a few photos of the event before the Tornado sirens went off on Saturday and cleared the place…there’s nothing worse than premature evacuation! [BOO!!]
Pictured above is old friend, Randy Adamson, who up until a year ago-ish owned RV Sports in Thief River Falls, MN. Randy and I swapped a few stories and he let me know he is enjoying retirement.
Thursday evening during set-up, I got a chance to walk around quick to take a few photos. If you were looking for vintage cats, Princeton has them in every form. This is COMPLETELY my opinion, and anyone can weigh-in with theirs, but I feel the “vintage craze” with this era of 60s/70s sleds has peaked and is on the decline. The days of pulling these types of common model Cats out of the barn and expecting a relatively high return are over.
Again, this is my opinion, but I do see the current desirables are 90s ZRs. These models resignate with a younger generation, not only for their cool looks and performance, but they also take you back to a time when we had impressive snow conditions across the country.
Another 94 example, this one was clean, and for $1750, damn near went home with me. Just. So. Sexy.
The iconic triple-triples like this squeeky clean ZRT are gaining major traction as “collectors”. On a sidenote, Id sure love to see Arctic Cat come back with a “lightweight” CTEC2 Triple specifically for trail riders. [fingers crossed]
Progress a few years further yet, and these Sno Pro 500s will be collectors. This one was ridiculously clean, and by the looks was, “Always Stored Inside”.
Our friends at Thomas Sno Sports (TSS) had a nice display that was hopping on Friday and Saturday. If you are attending Hay Days, come visit both Thomas Sno Sports and ArcticInsider. We will be guests of the TSS display located next door to the Factory Arctic Cat display.
Within the Thomas Sno Sports display, was an assuming Thundercat upon first glance, but it drew people to the booth like bees to honey once they realized this was Willie Ewings sled. If you haven’t heard, Willie’s goal is to ride over 1908 miles, on a single snowmobile, with a single rider, in a 24 hour time period. This would be a new WORLD RECORD! The attempt is a fundraiser with 100% of all proceeds going towards providing the opportunity for kids to attend a life-changing bible camp no matter their financial ability. Ill continue to bring coverage of this effort. Until then, you can CLICK HERE to follow his website and Facebook page.
Above, my old pal, Pat Bourgeois, defied what we’ve all been taught, “Don’t be lured into creepy vehicles with offers of Free Candy, Hugs or Snowmobile Parts” He don’t listen so good. Inside, this bus was filled with engines and tons of assorted “what-not”. Enjoy a few more swap photos below…
Loved the vintage stickers and patina on this old cooler.
You know we’re nearing winter…I look on other snowmobile-related sites and people are starting to ask the age-old question, “What snowmobile oil should I run?” [Sigh] Everyone knows it should be American Snowmobile Oil! (Again, I love the vintage sticker.)
Clean Cat Cutters are kinda hard to find, but one with an original cover has to be about as rare as Hens teeth.
I was drawn to the Hooker Headers sticker, as well as the vintage Arctic Cat helmet. Both Sexy.
Speaking of sexy, but not a Hooker, was this beauty. How you doin?
I told you Princeton had Cats for everyone…including this pretty clean 454 Bearcat.
This Arctic Cat snowblower reminded me of the one I rehabbed this past winter and featured HERE on the site. This one was a little rougher cosmetically than mine, but appeared to be all original.
I wish I could have captured more of the event, but due to weather, my time spent outside our tent got cut short. Thank you to all the volunteers at Princeton who put this event on, I enjoy my time spent here and look forward to attending next year!
Here are a couple cool photos taken by AC142…thank you for sending!
This first one was taken Friday morning in the race pits…AC142 said, “The sunrise that wasn’t supposed to be”
This second one was on Saturday as the team waited out the afternoon storm in their trailer.
Kale, just seen that you posted my pics ! The Friday pic , was the sunset ! No biggy ! They were calling for rain that evening . But we got to race Friday night instead . Bummer on Saturdays storm . Starting line wasn’t the best , with all the previous rain. Saturday’s track looked awesome. Kudos to the crew . But unfortunately the storm hit before I could make pass !