Colfax Sno-Drifters 3rd Annual Vintage Snowmobile Show March 3 at Kyle’s Market
PROTECTED CONTENT
If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.
Username and Password Help
Please enter your email and we will send you a password reset link.
By LeAnn R. Ralph
COLFAX — If you are interested in seeing how far people will go to restore a snowmobile, or if you’ve ever wondered how snowmobiles have changed over the years, here’s your chance to find out.
The Colfax Sno-Drifters 3rd Annual Vintage Snowmobile Show will be held Saturday, March 3, at Kyle’s Market in Colfax.
The Sno-Drifters’ second annual vintage snowmobile show also was at Kyle’s Market. The first show was at the White Birch Inn.
[emember_protecetd] Last year, the show attracted more than 100 sleds and ended up with somewhere around 130 entries, said Dave Buchner, a member of the Colfax Sno-Drifters.
“We didn’t expect that. It was great to see them,” he said.
The classes start at 1967 and older and go up through 1986-1995.
The last class is called the “survivor” class.
The survivors “are sleds that might have been fixed up but they’re not restored,” Buchner said, noting that he owns a “survivor” and still rides the sled from time to time.
The Colfax Sno-Drifters’ show has 20 classes all together, and each class has “restored” and “original.”
“Some of those that are restored from the 1970s look better than when they were new … It’s amazing the pains people go through to fix up their sleds,” Buchner said.
“I have a few that are cleaned up, but nothing like what some people have got,” he said.
Many snowmobile clubs hold vintage snowmobile shows. People who love snowmobiles and work hard to restore their sleds appreciate having an opportunity to bring them to shows, Buchner said.
“I can’t say every club has a show, but a lot of them do,” he said.
In this area, vintage snowmobile shows have been held in Bloomer, Ridgeland and Menomonie. Menomonie’s show is early, in September or October, and Colfax is one of the later shows, Buchner said.
People who own vintage snowmobiles do not seem to mind traveling to get to shows, he noted.
“That’s why the clubs try to coordinate the dates, so we don’t have two shows on one weekend,” Buchner said.
The Colfax Sno-Drifters got the idea to have a vintage snowmobile show when someone came to one of their meetings and broached the idea.
The Sno-Drifters is “a small club in numbers,” and the vintage shows do not charge admission for spectators, although there is an entry fee for the sleds, Buchner said.
“It’s not a big money-maker, but we decided we should try it … and I’m glad we did!” he said.
Holding the show at Kyle’s Market allows people in Colfax and the surrounding area to come and see the vintage snowmobiles without having to drive a long distance, he said.
The farthest someone traveled last year to be in the Sno-Drifters show was from the Madison area.
“We gave out a gas card to the person who came the farthest, and she was really appreciative of that,” Buchner said.
In addition to the Madison area, snowmobiles last year came from as far away as Wisconsin Rapids, Tomah and Cumberland. The show “takes in quite an area,” he said.
The Colfax Sno-Drifters 3rd Annual Vintage Snowmobile Show at Kyle’s Market starts at 9 a.m. Saturday, March 3. Judging is at 12:30 p.m., and awards will be presented at 2 p.m.
The event also will include raffles and concessions. [/emember_protecetd]