yamaha vmax4 bender F-III eagle river heat race

[@stovepipe9er]

The vmax4 really tore it up for a couple years.

[@billiebones62]

Tim makes it look easy!

[@ryanxcr800]

Wow hard to believe 20 years ago

[@DirtyBroke215]

Just stopping by your channel 👋🏽

[@tdavidg9176]

@Challenger, I was there too, it was not 1993 it was 1992 the first year of the VMax 4. The guy that started in the 2nd row was Guy Useldinger that won it on a Ski-Doo. As you can see in this video Tim Bender pretty much destroyed the field in the heat races. This sled was much faster than the Doo's of that time or anything else. What happened on the finals on Sunday was Tim's sled went down, started missing after about the 5th or 6th lap, his partner Mike Sackett was then in the lead. Shortly after that Sackett's sled went down just the same....miss firing. Useldinger then won by default basically. It turned out being they ran these 4 cylinders in mod form at a 180 degree firing order instead of the standard 90 degree order they had to have an aftermarket ignition made for them. Remember these are full mods. ESPN was telecasting the final and it turns out their broadcast equipment interfered with the ignitions. After the derby their engineers figured out what happened and they made shields for the ignitions. Two weeks later Tim Bender destroyed the field at the World Series of ovals in Antigo,Wisconsin. After the season was over Ski-Doo got their way and the Vmax 4 was no longer allowed for this race event. It was restructured to 600cc's only, hence that is why the FIII purple screamer 3 hole Ski-Doo was made. Sure they marketed it being there was a minimum of 500 units that needed to be built, but it was purposed for this race. Cat followed suit with the ZRT600 and Polaris had their XCR600 triple/triple. Yamaha chose not to race this event anymore and bowed out. Mike Houle won the next 4 years on the Ski-Doo FIII 600 until they finally stopped having the FIII race all together. My information is quite correct. No offense but your memory isn't too good on this one.

[@kevinmclaughlin1886]

it is correct ,i followed it closely (never saw the vmx 4 run live though)

[@jeffreyhagelin6047]

Your biases against Ski-Doo are quite apparent, however, some explanation is due. . The race rules are established as a benchmark for all the factories. It is each factory's responsibility to interpret those rules in designing the new race sleds, not the other way around . In other words, those rules didn't favor a Ski-Doo, which by all accounts, hadn't even been produced until the following year. Additionally, it should be further pointed out that that year of the Ski-Doo Formula lll, with a full mod 600 cc driven by Mike Houle would dominate this class with shear brilliance !

[@tdavidg9176]

Jeffrey Hagelin Ski Doo has pretty much been the muscle of the market since day one. Bias? I grew up riding Ski doo but there is no question especially in those days with Decker’s running/owning the track and the event Eagle River was a Ski Doo’s world. SD dictated getting this class reduced to 600cc. Yes Houle dominated it after that, Mike was great driver too. I can guarantee if Bender was competing after this he would have been in the thick of it, even if it was not a Yamaha. The guy could flat out drive! If you don’t think SD was heavily favored at Eagle River look at all the years of the F1 twin trackers with the 340 Rotax motors. That just didn’t get the fans interest. I am glad there is new blood there.

[@ramblnman24]

​@@jeffreyhagelin6047 lol, who is showing bias now jeffrey? shear brilliance was the development of the vmax4!! with the bugs worked out of the ignition system Tim was never challenged.that is why they limited cc limits, believe what you want, the word was out at the time about the cc limit sanction ,,it was never denied because it was fact

[@mikeskidmore6754]

@@tdavidg9176 I was reading that Moto Ski or Scorpion built the fist Twin Track then a Canadian French Auto racer developed it for skidoo raced it one year.. went off to race Formula 1 and got killed racing a car 1 year later. Then Skidoo bought Moto Ski.. Sorry I can't remember all the details .. The Twin Track is a great Idea just the same .. Not fair to race it against single tracks however,, Seems I read Scorpion invented and patented the rubber molded track .. I know a guy who works for the CO that owns Compolast .. he just happens to sell skid steer tires not tracks ..

[@joedaly2362]

I saw the same at Muskegon, Mi., 1993 or so.. Benders orange tiger striped quad leading strong in front of Polaris Todd Krikke. Yamaha "lost a cylinder" while Krikke pulled far away until the point when Krikke did not take it as easy as he should have and ended up unnecessarily "engine burned down". Krikke should have had better track side information while Bender ended being pleasantly surprised by his unanticipated win.

[@pulppeeler]

I may be wrong on this, but i believe Ted Otto retired during the 08 season. He was at ironwood when they had the vintage ice oval there, and i think he did eagle river after that then retired.

[@Gothatdawg]

Hi new subscriber!

[@pulppeeler]

there are some vids of sledfest 08 on youtube

[@fixedgearforlife]

Is Ted Otto still the flagman? He never wore a hat.

[@RyanBenbow]

No he passed away I don't know Who is now. I never have been to Eagle River Wisconsin for a snowmobile race. I always go to salt Saint Marie for that race in February

[@paperpeopleusa5870]

Keith Wojo