This past weekend saw some good, loud action from the East 40 Motorsports Park east of Kindersley. Vintage snowmobiles were everywhere, as the West Central Saskatchewan Snowmobile Drag Racing Association held the 1st Annual Larry Eby Memorial Vintage Snow Drags.

The sponsoring companies helped tremendously with Good to Go Trucking giving the good to go to use the racing facility near town, and all those who helped haul snow for the track and made sure race-day went well have to be appreciated as well.

Pictures are available through a link to the gallery below, as people came together to honour a snow-speed innovator in west central’s own Larry Eby. Organizing member of the event with the WCSSDRA Darrell Fitterer was a good friend of Eby’s, and put the event together in an attempt to honour the impressive and frankly unknown work that Eby completed in his own shop just outside of Kindersley.

“Well Larry was a good friend of mine,” started Fitterer, ‘He was an innovator for snowmobile racing in the area. He’s one of the guys that started it way back in the late 70’s and early 80’s.”

Fitterer knows that Eby can no doubt be recognized as an innovator for not only bringing racing to the region, but also for what he was capable of in his west central farm shop just between Coleville and Kindersley. According to his longtime friend, some of Eby’s builds were incredible, and according to others, frankly unmatched. His shop was adorned with the racing trophies to back it up.

Larry Eby trophies

“(Incredible) in the snowmobile world you know? He lived for racing.”

Not only did he want to recognize his friend with a race in memorial, but Fitterer has plans to make Kindersley a marker on the snow drag circuit around the province, along with many other ideas for the future. A large event up in Prince Albert was cancelled, setting up the Kindersley races to be the place to be, but unfortunately poor road conditions deterred more than a few people (including the Eby’s) from making the trip down to honour a local legend.

Still, more than enough vintage sleds were present on the day

Vintage Sleds

Back to Eby, Fitterer explained what he did with an engine, and why it was so special. Larry may have been a larger individual, that was more than eager to make up for it with power leading to speed.

“The amazing thing about him is that he was just a farmer from West Central Saskatchewan, and he was a big guy, so he had to come up with something to go faster than the other guys,” recalled Fitterer, “So what does he do? He takes two 440 motors, cuts one apart, and he made a triple 440 into a 660 with rotary valves. First guy ever to do it in the world. After that motor beat the world champion, they started building motors like his.”

Even the people who knew Eby’s passion with sleds may not have realized how innovative his work really was the sport. The part those people should relate to, is that he did it out of his own shop.

“Right on the family farm, that’s what he did, paved the way and built the motor himself.”

Fitterer credited Eby as a genius in his own way. He was someone that saw things a certain way, and was actually handy enough in his own world to get them done. Fitterer is determined to try and bring the sport of snowmobile drags back to the region, snow or grass, and his inspiration couldn’t be better.

“This is to get our feet wet, and then we are going to grow from this. We are going to do up to date snow drags next year, with the vintage and fast drags. We are going to promote this hard and make Kindersley that motor sports place again.”

The pit area definitely did not see the turnout they expected thanks to the mentioned road conditions, but still, everybody involved had a great time making passes on a beautiful winter day. With the WCSSDRA committed to their goals of making Kindersley a racing hub, one can only hope for the word to get out about the racing hotbed that was Kindersley back in the day, that could very well make a return thanks to the dedication of a few snow-heads in remembrance of their friend.