WRITTEN BY: Jim Dimmerman
The crate is sitting in Mpls. For pick-up. I clear customs, and they forklift the blue plastic-wrapped crate onto my trailer. The drive back to White Bear Lake gives me some time to think.. I call John Sandberg. Bouncing in my seat with pent-up energy, he lays this scathingly brilliant idea on me! You only get to unwrap this box once; it needs to be filmed, maybe documented? You need to do this with Bob Elsner!
“Jimmy, you can’t touch this box until it’s sitting in Bobby’s driveway; you need to do it together.”
My excitement slowly settles, and the reality sets in. You’re right, John, that would be the most awesome way of unveiling possible. And for sure, it has to be a surprise visit. I said to John that Al Stern is a good buddy of Bobby and lives close to him. I’ll call him and pitch the idea, and get a plan together.
So now, a short time later, I’m driving and it hits me that I’m not going to be able to see this machine for a while now. My heart sinks, but then the idea of a surprise visit with Bobby brings a bigger smile. I call Al Stern and put the wheels in motion. I call John back and my good friend Tom Rowland. He would die to make the road trip with us! It’s set, it will take a few more weeks, but the trip to New London, Wisconsin is set. We’ll meet at Al’s driveway and he’ll call Bobby over to help him with something.. The road trip over is filled with anticipation. How is Bobby going to take this? Then it happens. We’re sitting in the driveway when he pulls up. He opens his door, ponders me standing there and says, “what the hell are you doing here, Bucky”.
And so it began, two old teammates reminiscing about racing, and both of us just dying to see what’s under the plastic wrapping. This crate had traveled over 4000 miles back to Minnesota, then it sat in my garage waiting for several months to get the absolute perfect setting for the reunion!
Bobbys asking me a gazillion questions while we tear into the wrapping, Sweden he says,
Bucky, are you crazy? It must have cost a few grand to get this back! Oh, ya Bobby.. As we remove the metal framing, we find the skis off and stored for transportation. We slip those on and run the bolt through. It’s sitting on the trailer minus all the crating now, Bobby climbs on and we dissect all of the very special one-off parts that are still on this machine!
Chrome-moly tubular jackshaft, Magnesium chain case, Nippondenso diode adjustable ignition, Comet driven clutch, Magnesium water pump housing, magnesium thermostat and water manifold housings, original cleated track and of course the infamous Elf Ski.. This machine is like a time capsule. Because snopro racing had such a short life in Sweden, this machine more or less sat in a corner of a barn for over 30 years.
Some of you may have heard about Derby Archives. It is a digital archive service in Eagle River Wisconsin. Nearly every race sled ever entered to compete at the derby has had their race day registrations scanned in on this database. The actual serial numbers of both the chassis and motor are on these original reg’s. For a fee you receive a copy of this document. You guessed it of course I have that document and Bobby and I verified both the engine and the chassis serial numbers are correct! It is extremely rare to have a “factory” race sled still with the original engine! Personally I know of none others..
So Bobby, sitting on the seat looks at me and asks the million-dollar question, Does it run? I laugh and said I have no Idea, I never asked Erik if he ever had it running..I looked over at Al Stern standing there taking this event all in, do you have any chainsaw or weed whip gas?
Ya, bring a plug wrench too. Hey Bobby, pull those spark plugs out and dump a little gas down the holes! Check the tether and give her a pull! First piston up, and it roars to life for two seconds of glory. Bobby turns to me with a big smile. I breathe a huge sigh of relief and satisfaction. This whole process of getting it home and now sharing the reunion with its driver and my former teammate, Ya, Priceless..
Be sure to read Part 1 of this story here! https://www.arcticinsider.com/the-sweden-snopro-caper-elsners-4-comes-back-home/
Those were the days and you folks surely didn’t disappoint. That’s a great story, reminds me of Bill Decker.
Snowmobiles are a life long passion that gets your heart pumping with excitement.
this is going to be a fun project!
So do you do a full restore to retell the story of this super rare race sled that took part in sno pro Sweden or leave it mostly as is to present the full journey of this historical race sled?
Great story should be a documentary.