myracinghistory

Don Elias Vintage Sleds

This page created on May 15/2005 & updated August 10/2006

Winning my first big race at the 1970 Canadian Power Toboggan Championships in front of 10,000 people really changed my life. Granted, it was a media challenge race, but that didn't matter. It felt great !! I had been racing a stock 295 Panther in the local races all season with great success, so this was the frosting on the cake. Every small town in the Snow Belt was having races, so this became a way of life for my wife, Elfie, my best friend Harvey Friesen, and myself.

By - Line      By Andy Elias
     I spent last weekend at the Can-
adian Power Toboggan races held in
Beausejour. The boss and myself had
a great time. Only one trouble. Harvey
didn't regain his title as Canadian Press
Radio-TV champion! What he did do is gain a new nickname.. The racers at the
meet dubbed him "Flipper Friesen";
after he again rolled his machine in the big race. He was in the lead, but his machine
went out of control due to a series of bumps
on the second turn in the track. There went
"Flipper" rolling down the track with his
machine rolling behind him. And if that's
not bad enough, that young guy with the
sideburns representing the Altona paper,
that Sunflower publication, pulled by the
outstretched body of "Flipper", and won
the race.
     No hard feelings Don, but watch
out next year, Harvey and myself
are going out as a team to win that race, at
any cost!

    Elfie's first major victory was becoming the "Powder Puff Queen" at a cross-country race in Plum Coulee, MB. At a recent "major" birthday, I re-presented the trophy to her in front of her friends, which she greatly appreciated (not)!!
     Our good friend Don Braun (the local druggist) had a 634 Panther with Montana pipes at the same race, made memorable as he had sand bags fastened to the rear of the machine for traction. Can't remember if he won or not, but..........
     Although I was a traveling salesman at the time, I found out that if you went to the Cat distributor and bought three machines, you were automatically a dealer. Since our small town of Winkler had no Arctic dealer, I became one. George Schroeder of Robinson Alamo was the sales manager, and we became good friends. I sold 10 new machines that year and serviced them in my little one car garage heated with a wood stove. We lived at 414 West Street, which was the main entry into town with a railway crossing one house down from us. Since everyone had to stop there, my front yard full of machines was great advertising. I still have nightmares of riveting cleats late every Friday night, as we were racing the next morning somewhere.

With my numerous winnings in stock classes in 1970, and my dealer involvement, I somehow persuaded George to sell me one of the very few 1971 340 EXT Specials. With good friend Bill Roy of Walhalla, ND, doing the porting and polishing on the engine, we made it fly. My best result was a win at East St. Paul that season, including the factory-sponsored racers. It was a tragedy that day when the throttle stuck on a 800cc King Kat and the machine crippled a young boy in the crowd. The crowd barrier in those days was a row of hay bales! All results were cancelled, and I blew my engine the next weekend at Beausejour in a final.

For the next three years, racing every weekend became our life style. My friend Harvey Friesen took on the Cat dealership through one of his company's, Pembina Leisure Products. I was chief mechanic and driver, Elfie was our support team, and Harvey was the sponsor. We raced three El Tigres, a 250, a 340, and a 400 in stock classes. Shown here is a major win in Northern Ontario. Press coverage was good, as Harv also owned two local newspapers, and my brother Andy was the editor. I worked for a company in Altona that owned a rival newspaper, the Red River Valley Echo.

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This is a copy of a newspaper article that was written by my brother

Continued, see more on My Racing History 2