First Snowmobile Show at KBMX track
by Scott A. Sumner
For many years I have had a great interest in the sport of snowmobiling. As a youth growing up in NW Ontario it was a good activity. In fact we did an exclusive snowmobile publication for many years as well as a web site with wide reaching coverage.
One of my favourite business activities undertaken over the years was creating and producing a snowmobile trade show for 5 consecutive years at the CLE grounds in Thunder Bay. The time period was in the local hay day for snowmobiling here in NW Ontario.Trail permit sales were in the 3000 plus mark and sled sales were high. You could buy snowmobiles at a more reasonable cost especially compared to today when it is not too hard to spend $25000 on a nice sled!
It was fun to attend a new snowmobile event held for the first time at the KBMX Motocross track just west of Kakabeka Falls.I think event organizers Dustin and Ryan wanted to create a mini version of the hugely popular Hay Days event held each year near Minneapolis which attracts thousands on acres of land.It really is the start of the snowmobile season in the industry each year and includes a huge swap meet, new sled displays and different types of racing including snowmobile drag races, atv’s etc
.The first time local event had excellent weather, three local dealers and swap meet participants. It was an excellent first effort and promises to be bigger and better next year!
