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HomeFeatures17 October in TRF: A Couple Days at Arctic Cat

17 October in TRF: A Couple Days at Arctic Cat

The air was brisk and the activity bristling at Arctic Cat last week.

The two days I spent there were a strong reminder that winter is coming, and that the energy here is infectious.

 

An October trip to Arctic Cat in Thief River Falls. Photo by ArcticInsider.com

When I say the air was brisk, I’m talking about a wonderful white-grey sheen of frost covering the grass as I drove towards Thief River Falls. In a couple months, this ditch will be white with snow.

 

An October trip to Arctic Cat in Thief River Falls. Photo by ArcticInsider.com

When I say brisk and you ask, “How Brisk?”, I respond with a screen capture from my phone. Yep, winter is coming.

 

An October trip to Arctic Cat in Thief River Falls. Photo by ArcticInsider.com

Fall harvest was in full swing everywhere in the region. Sugar beets were piling up, there were dust plumes scattering across the horizon, kicked-up from combines working the corn and soybeans. The elevators in Ulen, Minn., just south of TRF were a flurry of activity.

 

An October trip to Arctic Cat in Thief River Falls. Photo by ArcticInsider.com

Pulling into the already-packed Arctic Cat parking lot at 8am brings one of my favorite sights in the world: the sign, and what it represents inside.

 

Arctic Cat's new paint line. Photo by ArcticInsider.com

Arctic Cat's new paint line. Photo by ArcticInsider.com

One of the reasons I was in TRF was to do a story on the all-new paint line, which became full operational just over a year ago. I got a sweet tour of the $14 Million system from John Hassert (pictured), the Paint Manufacturing Manager, and I’ll have the story posted in the next couple weeks.

2018 Arctic Cat M8000 Sno Pro on the assembly line. Photo by ArcticInsider.com

Beautiful 2018 M8000 Sno Pro models were rolling down the snowmobile assembly line, looking almost ready to rip the mountain snow that is already being ridden in parts of the Rocky Mountains.

 

 

Craig Kennedy, Arctic Cat VP of Snowmobiles & International. Photo by ArcticInsider.com

Five months Craig Kennedy was named Vice President, Snow & International, and he’s been on a tear getting things done ever since, including a recent move back to Thief River Falls from the Twin Cities. Kennedy has always been sharp, focused and aiming forward, but he’s ratcheted that up 10x these days. Since I know he’s too busy to do an interview anytime soon, I’ll relay that the two primary topics we discussed were the company’s efforts to help dealers become as healthy as possible, and the company’s continued focus on new technology.

 

An October trip to Arctic Cat in Thief River Falls. Photo by ArcticInsider.com

Leaving Kennedy, I met with Kathy Johnson (left) and Marilyn Helgeland (right), two people who’ve quietly gone about doing TONS stuff behind the scene that brings all kinds of cool stuff to the forefront.

One of the many roles that Kathy has, is to manage the Cat’s Pride Club, as well as helping administer dealer show events.

Marilyn has been integral to Arcticwear Parts, Garments and Accessories for as long as I can remember, managing various aspects of the department and its related projects. Hard to believe, but on this day she was already knee-deep into working on the 2019 Arcticwear Catalog!

 

An October trip to Arctic Cat in Thief River Falls. Photo by ArcticInsider.com

Keith Johnson is another person who’s integral to Arcticwear, managing most of what occurs with snowmobile parts and accessories. A hardcore snowmobile and dirt biker (notice the sweet vintage Kent Howerton-on-a-Husky poster behind him!), Keith is an ace when it comes to identifying cool stuff that snowmobilers want for their sleds, then working to incorporate them into the Arctic Cat system.

He’s holding up the 2018 supplemental catalog, which is only days away from being finalized. Once it’s ready, I’ll post it here on ArcticInsider.

 

Lunch with Arctic Cat's Troy Halvorson, Wes Selby and Roger Skime.

Famished from bolting around the plant, I couldn’t wait for lunch at one of my favorite places in town: Biff’s (formerly known as Dee’s).

Joined by Troy Halvorson (left), Wes Selby (middle) and Roger Skime, I wolfed down the lunch special of potato dumpling and bacon in 37 seconds. Sooooo Good!

It’s fascinating talking with these guys, each of whom is an engineer, highly competitive AND a racer. Much of our conversation this day was about snow bikes, the new 2018 ZR 6000R SX race sled (a pre-production version of which Wes had ridden on the company test track earlier that day) and the increasing number of “flatland” riders who buy mountain sleds.

 

An October trip to Arctic Cat in Thief River Falls. Photo by ArcticInsider.com

Back at the plant, it was good to see some new 2018 sleds gracing the lobby. A fully decked-out Prowler was sitting just around the corner. Seeing machines like these on a daily basis is a clear reminder to everyone here that they produce some of the sweetest machines and products on earth! Tons of pride, inspiration and satisfaction reflected in that.

 

Arctic Cat's Troy Halvorson, Snowmobile Engineering. Photo by ArcticInsider.com

I spent some time with Troy Halvorson, Director of Snowmobile Engineering, learning about some future product that I’ll soon write some stories about. In his role, Troy oversees all of snowmobile engineering at Arctic Cat, which is pretty awesome. One thing that’s really cool about Troy, is that in addition to all the high-level stuff he has to know for his job, he’s also acutely knowledgable about ground-level details about Arctic Cat sleds, and even competitive brand machines.

Another cool thing: his office is decked out with some really sweet posters.

 

An October trip to Arctic Cat in Thief River Falls. Photo by ArcticInsider.com

Two of the posters were VERY limited versions created by designer Nathan Blomker for the retirement of former President/CEO Chris Twomey (left) and VP of Manufacturing, Ron Ray (right).

 

Arctic Cat's Joey Hallstrom. Photo by ArcticInsider.com

No trip to Cat would be complete without spending some time with Joey Hallstrom, who spends much of his time as a company liason with Yamaha in addition to several other special projects.

On this day, Joey was fired up to talk about the new Junior Ride-Along option for parents whose kids are going to race the USXC I-500 cross-country. That’s another topic I’ll soon write about.

 

Team Arctic Cat race shop, getting ready for 2018. Photo by ArcticInsider.com

No trip to Arctic Cat is complete for me unless I take a peek inside the Team Arctic Race Shop. On this day, the crew of Mike Kloety, Jeff Wittwer and Kelland Bjerke had been working on the 50-percent throttle block stuff for the new ZR race sleds, that many circuits will require this season in most of their youth classes.

 

Team Arctic's Tucker Hibbert, working on race sled stuff for 2018. Photo: ArcticInsider.com

Team Arctic's Tucker Hibbert, working on race sled stuff for 2018. Photo: ArcticInsider.com

Before leaving town I spent some time at the Hibbert race shop, where both Kirk and Tucker were busy working on sled stuff for the coming season. With the season-opener at Duluth a little more than one month away, they were both sporting that aura of intensity that defines a dedicated racing effort on the eve of a new season.

There are parts to build, trailers to organize, test trips to plan and a thousand other details to iron out. I’ve watched these two attack this process for as long as I can remember. I’m always impressed by their ingenuity and dedication. They’ve been two of the sport’s most successful racers in part because they were blessed with talent, but I believe that their relentless hard work played an even bigger role.

Winter’s coming. For some, it’s going to be another exciting season of racing. For others, it’s going to be 3-plus months of riding and exploring.

I can’t hardly wait.

Thanks for reading.

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14 COMMENTS

  1. Another great “Arctic-le” John. I have a few observations from these great images you’ve captured: 1.My heart rate quickened a bit when I see the Arctic Green parts hanging on the paint line that look like they might be for the all-new Havoc. 2. People. We are lucky that the Arctic Cat brand has the people you mention carrying us forward into the future, and about a thousand others too. 3. Posters. Those Twomey/Ron Ray posters speak volumes and are cool to stare at, had never seen those before. 4. Arts/crafts. I can imagine Mandi is delighted when Tucker gets to join her for a weekend of scrapbooking, it looks like that is yet another thing he has mastered. 5. Race shop. It’s cool that the 1996 Bearcat Widetrack has earned a place among the latest, greatest and fastest race sleds on the planet. 6. Lunch. It looks to me like you never finished your vegetables John, not cool.

  2. As I make my final monthly payments on my spring checked 2012 F1100 turbo and 7000 miles and 6 years later I’m so excited to see what this incredible team of professionals comes out with next

  3. Hey John that picture in the race shop shows one heck of a big gas tank! Sure would love to see that on a production sled instead of some silly rear gas tank hanging off a skid way too long! I’ll take one of those all seat gas tanks that looks like at least 16 gallons sign me up

  4. Ewww those aged almond outlet and Ethernet wall plates in the cat offices scream update me lol. Cool article. Really excited to read about the new paint line. Hoping it’s super detailed with lots of pics.

  5. All Selby needs is a pair of sandals and he will be all dialed in for the Easter Program at the local Lutheran church…#getahaircutwes

  6. Looks like the green parts unfortunately are not for the Havok but just a piece that comes with the angle bars for a wildcat sport or trail

  7. You forgot your usual picture of a John Deere combine. After all, they are green too!

    I heard Biff’s was going to start serving lutefisk. Uffda!

    Joey, you should take lessons from your mother and join our local Sons of Norway group in Thief River Falls.

  8. John,we must of just missed you . We picked race Sleds Monday & did the tour . Sounds like SX6000 to be built this week . Oldcrow , sorry to say . But it sounds like no Snowbikes will be made .

  9. The SVX will be released when it is ready and when it can be trail legal. They have lots of things to get cleared up. Pretty good article on it in one of the sled mags. Cant remember if it was Snow Goer or Amsnow, but it is coming.

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