Throwback To 1984: Haydays Wasn't Always The King

For the past 25 years, the Haydays Grass Drags and Swap Meet has been the biggest, baddest event and gathering in the snowmobile world. Held annually on the weekend after Labor Day in Minnesota, it has boasted crowds approaching 60,000 people in some years, and it continues to be the one off-season can’t miss event for its virtually unending swap meet, grass drag racing, who’s who vendor displays, racer autographs, freestyle show, carnival-like atmosphere, new sled unveils and much more.

This year’s event starts Saturday just east of North Branch, Minnesota.

Haydays wasn’t always the big daddy event it is today, however. For today’s Throwback Thursday, we go back 30 years to the 1984 Haydays event. It attracted about 3,000 people, a fraction of the current crowds, but it was still where off-season speed was on display. What follows is the writeup from the October 8, 1984 issue of the gone-but-not-forgotten Snow Week magazine.  Longtime race fans may recognize some key names.

If you come to Haydays this weekend, make sure to stop by the Snow Goer booth for subscription specials, to harass the staff or to enter a drawing for a great piece of snowmobile art.

 

Ball Rolls At Haydays Drags

FOREST LAKE, MN — Some 3,000 spectators gathered here Sept. 9, for the 18th Annual Sno-Baron’s Hayday Grass Drag Race. The event was sanctioned by the Southern Wisconsin Drag Racing Association (SWDRA).

A total of 124 entries competed for the Minnesota Governors’ Cup Traveling Trophy. Norman Ball III from Menomonee Falls, Wis., was the big winner of the day andreceived the Sno-Baron Minnesota Cup and thePepsi Fast Time Trophy.

Ball, on his homemade version of a Mercury Dragster, clipped through the radar trap at the end of the quarter-mile sprint at · a whopping 94 mph for the honor of the Pepsi Fast Run.

Other winners included Junior Stock high point driver Kerry Schlueter from Dakota, Ill., andSenior Stock high point driver Gregg Spaunbauer of St. Cloud, Wis. The high point winner in the super-mod class was Perry Schlueter of Dakota, Ill., who won the Old Style Trophy.

There was a swap meet on the side for spectators to shop for some good used or new snowmobile parts and accessories.

Old Style Beer, Pepsi, Yamaha Motor Corporation and Waldoch’s Cycle & Sports, the local Yamaha dealer, Metro North Sport and Bergstrom Skegs co-sponsored the race.

A new Bravo was donated by Yamaha for the big raffle of the day and was won by Todd Mutter of Stacy, Minn.

haydays old

 

 

haydays results

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