This season might be winding down, but the crew at the Team Arctic Race Shop is gearing up for another season. I just received the new 2024-2025 Arctic Cat Snowmobile Race Application direct from Race Manager Mike Kloety. If you have aspirations of going fast and collecting checkered flags next winter, this is your chance. The application must be filled out completely and received by April 15, 2024.
NOW ACCEPTING TEAM ARCTIC RACE APPLICATIONS – APRIL 15 DEADLINE
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New Catalyst ZR-derived snocross sled or will the racers be forced to compete another year on a sled from several years back that’s increasingly irrelevant- and uncompetitive.
Did you miss this last winter? Next to ZERO testing. But I don’t get to worried about it. They will get there.
They test the SX sleds in Cooke City after SX last race. Plenty of snow there . But only if Texton will open there wallet on such a small build of sleds. They also will have to build the ISR required minimum build. And with so few A/C rides . They mite have sit on half the build for a second season.
For a snocross sled that is “increasingly irrelevant- and uncompetitive, its interesting that Yurk is in 4th and Benham 6th…both in the hunt for top three in National Points. I dont see AC building a new Catalyst snocross sled. Whats the point? Snocross is losing its luster across the board.
AC finished 3rd out of 3 manufactures, and haven’t had a truly competitive SX sled in years. They badly need a new machine. With so few riders I just don’t know who is going to develop it.
Standing wise? Very impressive. You complain of to cold ice cream and to hot coffee.
3rd out of 3 is impressive to you???
All but 2 riders abandoning them because the other sleds are better, is impressive to you??
Wow, 4th and 6th. Remember the quote from the original Top Gun movie?
“The plaque for 2nd place is hanging in the ladies room.”
Anything other than 1st place is mildly interesting.
If you aint first, yer last…I get it. My point though, AC is a definite underdog with lowest rider numbers, but they have two riders in pro class who are finishing in the top five and in the hunt for top three standings. Its hard to say the sled is irrelevant and uncompetitive.
In the case of Yurk & Benham, is it the sled or is it the rider? Remember Tucker Hibbert? They used to say that he could win a race riding a hay bale.
Ski Doo and Polaris have deeper race pockets than Cat (despite Textron being 1-1/2 times as big as BRP (Ski Doo) or Polaris ($12.4 billion vs $8 billion BRP and $8.9 billion Polaris), BRP & Polaris are in it for the long run and accept that in order to play you gotta pay, so they are obviously able to attract the better racers.
Cat’s SX sleds are way long in the tooth and should be sent to the glue factory. Textron needs to accept the fact that racing improves the breed and free up the required cash to support the both race program and new product development.
Observations…
[TBD] 2025 ZR 6000 136 R SX US GRN
SnoCross sled will obviously be the Procross (6000). Polaris riders will be on the IQR again as well. BRP is the only company spending big on their SX program and it’s been showing since 2019.
[104] 2025 ZR 600 137 RXC US GRN
One hundred four sleds for every XC, Oval, Enduro and the Iron Dog racers? No 128/129 even with COR stating there will be more lake races than terrain races next year? this allocation makes zero sense to me.
[172] 2025 ZR 858 129 SP ES US GRN 1.25
[171] 2025 ZR 858 137 RXC ES US GRN 1.35
[192] 2025 ZR 9000 137 TCAT ATC EPS US AGM
[199] 2025 ZR 9000 137 RR EPS US GRN
[198]2025 RIOT 9000 ATAC EPS US ORN 1.35
idk who t.f. is racing these [932] sleds… nor do I likely really care as they’re not running in SX/XC/Enduro/Oval
[123]25 MTN 600 146 SP ES US GRN 2.6
[124] 2025 MTN 600 154 IFP ES US BLK 2.6
[121]25 MTN 600 154 SP ES US GRN 2.6
[122]25 MTN 600 154 SP ES US GRN 3.0
[140]25 MTN 858 154 SP US GRN 3.0
[139] 2025 M 858 SP 154 2.6
[127] 2025 M 858 165 SP US GRN 3.0
this actually makes sense, as the sales-$ is in mountain sleds as most snowmobile buyers these days could seemingly care less (don’t give a shit) about racing and would rather watch GoPro videos of mountain dudes with 18″ bar risers and cooking lunch in their muff pots while braaping and slaying the *POW*
I could go on… 🙂
Losing its luster would sum it up, its run its course and a long one at that.
Ice ovals on the other hand, particularly the F500, champ and f3 classes are seeing record numbers of entries lately.
Sadly cats involvement is pretty much zero.
Optics is everything. If you’re a non-player or non-competitive it sends a message at least to those fans that follow any of the various types of racing.
Racing is a platform for developing and wringing the bugs out of new technology/ the next big thing.
Gotta pay if you want to play regardless of industry.
between the Wausau 525 track and Eagle River this winter… there were 126 spectators watching oval racing in person.
the Catalyst didn’t work in F3 or Enduro because the ‘EPA trail sled’ RXC doesn’t make enough HP to compete with the actual Polaris or Doo race sleds so they ran the SX based ZR 6000 with more power on track.
ask ten random snowmobilers in a bar next winter who won the Eagle River W/C in 2024 and I’ll bet none of them would know. that sucks, but that’s reality.
I see they shouldn’t put this out to the NON-Racers ‼️ [ Number ] is the model number. Not the number of sleds allocated to the racers. The race dept is lucky they get a 100 sleds total. And Mountain Riders are running short risers. Watch the YouTube videos 😉‼️
ahhhhhhhh… I stand corrected.
When Textron purchased Cat, the race teams were dominant. With the lack of funding, I am surprised we have any riders or teams left. Textron has depleted almost everything Arctic Cat had worked so hard to build with the race team. Now, it’s a skeleton crew. Completely different business plan, and I hope they have sucked everything they wanted out, and sell it to someone who actually cares about the brand. These folks are nothing but takers living off the sweat and hard work of prior Arctic Cat loyalists.
Not surprised. They sucked Polaris dry in the late 70s. Only Polaris to their credit bought themselves out and really pushed the Indy platform. The rest is history. However today the market isn’t there for Arctic to pull a Polaris move. Kids in the East don’t care about sleds anymore. It’s all dirt bikes and side by sides. Guys like me are looked at like dinosaurs with the new generation. When the snow doesn’t come and the new sleds cost as much as a used truck? It’s not a sustainable market. Looks to me like the only niche that’s going is mountain, high end high tech machines. I’m saddened. Also all the brand loyalty and the planned obsolescence today doesn’t help sustain. If you constantly preach what is last year is junk you put customers on an expensive treadmill that eventually they will leave. A lot of machines made today have all the soul of a ladies handbag. “Oh! That’s last years model. How quaint? You need the new one.” I never bought into that. Where’s the classic lines? Where’s the timeless racing heart? Where’s the lineage and history that makes you want a piece to keep? What’s up with the cookie cutter engineering and styling of all brands today? How many motorcycle companies would be in business today if they ran their business like the sled companies do today? I’d wager not nearly as much. We need to change what the biz is doing. Insanity is doing the same thing over again and expecting a different outcome. I really hope they can right this ship.
1st this sled is nothing like the consumer sled. Understand with supply chain issues it was wise to stay with what they have and works but does look bad not racing new chassie for next year. We will find out at Haydays what they have planned.
2nd I know in Michigan there is virtually zero support from AC anymore and have pushed away most of there racers. Nothing to do with not being competitive it was lack of support vs other brands.
AC didn’t have a choice, textron has gutted race dept, and racer support to the point that they don’t build the minimum required number of sleds. They had to make a deal with ISR to run the same sled with limited minor changes for this year
Cat sold its soul to the devil in order to survive.
We are constantly being reminded of the unintended consequences of doing so.
Wow! Just WOW!
They dont have a greasy triple – I can’t apply
Triples can’t compete with a lightweight twin anymore. My M8000 ISR filed weight is 466lbs. My old ZRT 800, 574lbs that’s a 3 tenth of second lost .