Arctic Cat Acquires Widescape
Widescape, a stand-up snowmobile, is now in the Arctic Cat den. Cat purchased the company in early January, acquiring the Widescape names, intellectual property and existing product inventory from the previous Quebec-based company.
Widescape introduced the WS250 stand-up enduro snowmobiles in 2023. Reports say that the company, in December, filed a notice to restructure. According to its website, it had 27 dealers in the U.S. and 45 in Canada.
Comments on owner forums noted frustrations with recent customer service, optimism for the new ownership and fears about price increases. However, Arctic Cat has already reduced the unit price. Prior to the acquisition the retail price was $7,500; now they’re selling for $6,000.
The machine uses a proprietary 242cc EFI liquid-cooled 4-stroke engine sends power through a traditional CVT clutching system to a 12- by 105-inch track with 1.5-inch lugs. The track wraps around a single-shock rear suspension with 4 inches of travel. Up front, a 12-inch-wide single ski connects to a dual-strut suspension with 5.5 inches of travel.
Riders typically stand atop the tunnel on non-slip material, and control the vehicle using traditional throttle and brake controls mounted on a raised handlebar. With its aluminum frame, tunnel and handlebar plus composite bodywork, the WS250 has a dry weight of 200 pounds. Additional standard features include electric start, a tether cord and a multi-function digital display screen/gauge.
“The Widescape WS250 machine offers a very different winter recreational experience than traditional snowmobiles,” said Brad Darling, Arctic Cat President and CEO. “It provides riders with a playful experience and the ability to go places no other snowmobile can.”
Three Old Iron Dogs
You may not be able to teach an old dog a new trick, but you can get Three Old Guys to race the Iron Dog. Paul Dick, Rex Hibbert and Rob Hallstrom already mostly trans-navigated the continent in an adventure they billed as “Three Old Guys Ride Across North America.”
Now they’re heading back to Alaska — older and questionably wiser — to ride in the Ambassador Class of the Iron Dog, a cross-country event in Alaska.
As Ambassadors, the men will travel ahead of the racers, spending extra time in the villages and communities along the trail. Other Ambassadors will join them, including Minnesota Arctic Cat dealer Tom Rowland and two Alaskans: past Iron Dog racers Brad Helwig and Eric Quam, who have won the event twice.
The Iron Dog route covers 2,319 miles of incredibly remote, rugged and ungroomed terrain from Big Lake to Nome to Fairbanks. The Ambassadors will run half of the route, from Big Lake to Nome.
It will be a familiar experience for Hibbert and Dick, who both raced the full event in 1994 and finished in third place overall.
This also allows the men to complete their original mission to fully cross the continent. Their first leg, in 2023, took them from Grand Rapids, Minnesota, to Fairbanks, Alaska. Their second leg, in 2025, started in Grand Rapids and ended in Newfoundland. Each journey was approximately 4,000 miles. The Iron Dog event will link them to the continent’s western coast.
The men are sponsored, among others, by Arctic Cat, Klim and their wives.
The race begins on February 12.
New Leader at BRP
As of February 1, Denis Le Vot will head BRP as its new CEO. Le Vot is a former top executive at Renault Group. During his tenure at Renault, he turned the subsidiary Dacia into one of Renault’s top-selling brands. He will replace the retiring Jose Boisjoli, who led the company for 22 years and worked at BRP for 36 years.
“The automotive industry shares multiple similar market dynamics with the powersports industry, and we look forward to drawing on his wealth of experience in this sector,” said Barbara Samardzich, lead independent director for BRP.
The French Le Vot is an engineer by trade. He joined Renault Group in 1990, where he gained experience and expertise over the next 30 years by holding several leadership positions in marketing, sales, after-sale services, operations and supply chain management. He’s worked in multiple countries including the U.S. but not Canada.
Portage for Snowmobiles
Each winter, the double-deck Portage Lake Lift Bridge, connecting the Michigan mainland to the Keweenaw Peninsula, converts its lower level into a snowmobile trail. The lift bridge drops its bottom deck down to near-lake level, and the top deck serves motor vehicles. In early December, trucks brought in 32,400 cubic feet of snow for the 1,310-foot bridge span. In all, the job required 60 dump truck loads and about five hours to complete. The Keweenaw Snowmobile Club, the city of Houghton, the Michigan departments of Transportation and Natural Resources, and the U.S. Coast Guard worked together to make it happen.
A Deere Clone
Nearly 50 years after winning the 1976 Winnipeg I-500, Brian Nelson was back on his John Deere Liquidator taking a lap around a field. The machine, a duplicate of his original race sled, was painstakingly restored by vintage enthusiasts in North Dakota, led by Deere fanatics Roger and Wyatt Kram.
The restoration was inspired by the Snowmobile Hall of Fame’s planned 2026 tribute to Nelson and the “Year of the Deere” theme for its annual gathering, held this year on February 20-21 in St. Germain, Wis. The sled will be the grand prize in its fundraising raffle, drawn that weekend.
The Krams located a 1976 John Deere Liquifire 340 last March to use as the sled base. The Liquidator at its base is very similar to the Cyclone and the first generation Liquifire, Wyatt Kram said.
Then they started to collect parts — including a restored engine, delivered in person, from Saskatoon. “This build was made up of new and NOS parts that would fit many models, restored parts from other models, custom fabricated parts just for the Dator, and most importantly aside from the VIN number are the rare parts that we managed to find to complete the build,” Kram said. “We have said that this beat-up Dator tunnel on a shelf may have never been restored if it wasn’t for this undertaking due to the large number of rare parts needed to complete it.”
By December, everything was in place to piece the clone together on a designated build day. Among the crew who came to help was Nelson.
Raffle tickets cost $10 and can be purchased online at www.snowmobilehalloffame.com.
Skime Returns to Arctic Cat
Roger Skime — a legendary engineer, designer, test rider and racing aficionado — will start a new role at Arctic Cat, but also one he’s been doing for his entire career: brand ambassador.
The inventor of the first slide-rail rear suspension and many other innovations over his illustrious 57-year career at Arctic Cat was welcomed back by Brad Darling, president and CEO.
“With his passion for snowmobiling, racing and innovation, Roger embodies the Arctic Cat spirit perhaps better than anybody on earth,” Darling said. “There should never have been any gap between Roger Skime and the brand. Now that gap has officially been erased.”
Skime began his Arctic Cat career in 1962 when, at age 19, he stopped by the factory looking for a summer job and impressed founder Edgar Hetteen.
As employee No. 5, Skime started as a laborer but quickly moved up to an engineering position after showcasing growing technical knowledge and an unrivaled work ethic. He eventually became the VP of engineering and had his fingerprints on pretty much every Arctic Cat development for several decades. Skime was an engineering leader, huge racing proponent and constant presence at the company until his retirement at the end of 2018.
“I’m very excited,” Skime said about both his renewed role and the new ownership of Arctic Cat. “There was a lot of concern and stress about the brand, and I was communicating with Brad every so often saying, ‘Brad, go get ahold of this thing, get it back on track.’”
Skime’s role will take him places he never truly left, at racetracks, in dealerships and on the trails, continuing to advocate for the Arctic Cat brand.