2010 Ski Doo Sleds Offer Refinement
by Scott A. Sumner
www.slednews.com
The 2009 Hay Days event at Lino Lakes, MN had some of the snowmobile industry’s biggest players from all manufacturers in attendance. It was fun to hear all about the new line up of sleds for the upcoming 2010 season.
My first visit at hay Days was to the Ski Doo display where I talked to Steve Cowing, PR and Media Relations Manager for Ski Doo snowmobiles. “ This year for 2010 we have the Renegade which is now a new model line up by itself. There are the Renegade X, a completely new model, Renegade Backcountry X and regular models. These are sleds that
are designed for off the trail use as much as on trail. People today want to be able to do both. The Renegade Back Country is more able to do the off trail riding,” said Steve Cowing. “ The new ETEC engine produced very, very strong sales numbers for us without a doubt. The 600 ETEC is clean starting, runs with virtually no smell or smoke but the biggest advantage is the gas mileage. It gets upwards of 20 miles per gallon depending on how you ride it, so it has a big cruising range. By the time you are out riding that far most people are looking for a
place to rest.”
Steve Cowling with Dominique Godbout Directeur Marketing Ski Doo
Snowmobile sales were down last year according to Cowling with Canada up and the US down quite a bit. “ It is hard to predict this year. If the economy turns we feel the snowmobile market will be more stable than most recreational products. Snowmobiling is more of a
lifestyle and carry a strong following. The last two years we have had good snow and that is one of the magic ingredients for people to get out and ride their products,” noted Cowing. “ What really is good to note is registrations were up across the whole North American continent and use was up whether they were buying new sleds or not.”
In snocross this season Ski Doo are running mainly one team on the ISOC circuit, Warnert Racing with 7 strong very capable riders. Pro Steve Taylor, a very strong disciplined rider will anchor the team. Tim Trembley got pumped up by ISOC because he won the Semi Pro Open class in 2009. They also will have Christian Salemark on the team this year. “ If we are selling a lot of snowmobiles we can put a lot of people out on the race track . In tougher times we are have to look at where we spend your marketing dollars. Ski Doo has racing in our genes and ISOC is the premier snocross racing circuit so we will be there,” said Cowing. “ The 2010 race sled has been announced with refinements. Last year was a big jump in durability while this year is a big jump in refinement and tuning. Suspensions on both front and rear has changed drastically. The steering post has moved forward two inches. We have revalved shocks all around and have worked on our ACU calibration for holeshots with carburetion changes. It is a brand new track this year which is significantly lighter. If you look at the snowmobile you won’t see a lot different but the changes are significant under the
hood. The racers will get the sleds about November 1st. The cost of getting a prototype here to Haydays becomes prohibitively high so we had to back off on some of that this year.”
