By Michael Dapper
VRA Page Webmaster In honor of a tough guy, the late and great Evel Knievel, this Victory Blog will use notes about a super-tough guy, Chuck Norris, instead of sub-heads.
There is no chin under Chuck Norris' Beard. There is only another fist. Today we raise a glass to the memory of the late, great Evel Knievel. If the guy ever filed tax returns, think of how cool it was that in the “Occupation” space, he could write “Daredevil.”
Many of us grew up following his exploits, watching his jumps on “Wide World of Sports,” or waiting eagerly in the pre-cable, pre-web days to hear radio reports about his latest jump over a fountain or a long line of buses or a river canyon.
In these days after Evel’s too-soon passing, you’ll likely hear a lot of great tales about him from a variety of entertainment and sports world sources. One source you might want to check out is the web page of
T.D. Mischke .
Mischke is a radio personality with a weekday show on KSTP-AM 1500 in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Mischke is a writer, a story teller – a working man’s Garrison Keillor with whom you’d like to have a drink and a chat. In the 1980s, Mischke was living in Butte, Montana, and he passed many, many days in bars with Evel Knievel. Daredevils have a lot of free time between jumps, and Evel spent a lot of his free time drinking with Mischke in Butte bars.
The hope here is that Mischke will post many of his Evel stories on his web page.
Evel has a faint connection to Victory. When Derek Scott was Victory’s Marketing Manager, Derek answered his phone one day and the guy on the other end said, “Hi, Derek, this is Evel Knievel.”
Derek thought he was being punk’d by an old college friend, but the daredevil convinced him it was really him, and he had a proposal. Evel said he felt Victory would benefit from contracting with Evel to produce a signature line of bikes – like the Ness Signature Series models, but Evel models.
The project never took flight, but it was classic Evel. He was a hustler, a persuader, a salesman whose greatest product for sale was himself. On the radio Friday night, Mischke said many years ago Evel was selling motorcycles at a dealership, and whenever he sold a bike, he offered the customer $100 off if the buyer could beat Evel in arm wrestling. He was a fighter, a brawler and a tough guy who would gladly endure a trip to the emergency room in exchange for a big crowd and a good pay day.
Now he’s gone, too young and too soon. We’re left with our metal Evel lunch boxes and great memories of his outrageous jumps using a way-too-heavy Harley. Sure, his son Robbie is still jumping and hustling his custom bikes, but he’s no Evel. Nobody will be.
Godspeed, Evel.
Wilt Chamberlain claims to have slept with more than 20,000 women in his lifetime. Chuck Norris calls this “a slow Tuesday.” It was a good week for Polaris and the birthplace of the company, Roseau, Minnesota.
Start with Polaris. The snowmobile division flexed its high-performance muscle last weekend when Polaris racers dominated the snocross racing season opener. As you can read in the
Polaris ESCAPE news section, Polaris racers totally dominated the Pro and Semi-Pro classes, earning 66% of the podium spots in these premier classes.
The Polaris racers are competing (dominating) on Polaris 600 IQ Race Sleds on the WPSA race circuit. If there’s a WPSA event near you (sorry, Sun Belt riders), check it out. It’s like supercross on snow, and the Polaris racers are looking forward to another great season.
It takes Chuck Norris 20 minutes to watch 60 Minutes. Polaris fans are also celebrating an outstanding racing season for Polaris ATV and RANGER off-road racers.
• Pro ATV racer Doug Eichner had a great season on the Polaris Outlaw. He capped off his season by winning two classes at the final WORCS (World Off-Road Championship Series) event, and just for fun, he won the side-by-side class in a RANGER RZR.
• Polaris RANGER racers won the first GNCC (Grand National Cross Country Racing Series) Ironman side-by-side races. Then, to show off the capabilities of the RANGER CREW, a six-man team rode in a CREW during a GNCC race.
• Polaris RANGER RZRs took first and third places in the Best in the Desert Racing Assn.’s Vegas 300.
So whether it’s off-road, on-snow or on the open road, Polaris and Victory vehicles are the ones to ride.
When an episode of Walker Texas Ranger was aired in France, the French surrendered to Chuck Norris just to be on the safe side. The high school hockey team in Roseau, Minnesota – the birthplace of Polaris – notched a significant victory last week by beating Thief River Falls, 4-2. Why is this win special? Because Thief is home to Arctic Cat, a long-time rival of Polaris in the snowmobile biz. So it’s always good for Roseau to earn bragging rights by beating the Panthers.
The other major dates on the
Roseau Rams’ schedule are January 9 and January 29. These are dates when Roseau faces Warroad, the uber-rival just 20 miles down the road. Warroad likes to call itself “Hockeytown USA,” but look at these highlights of Roseau’s high school hockey history:
• Seven state championships, more than any other school in Minnesota
• 31 state tourney appearances – also a state record
• 51 wins in tournament appearances – the most of any school
And get this: When the state high school league split high school hockey into two classes – big-school Class AA and smaller-enrollment Class A – Roseau opted to compete against the big schools to face the best competition. There are Class AA high schools with enrollments greater than the entire population of Roseau. But the Rams want to face the best.
So when Roseau won the state high school championship last season, it was the Class AA title.
Warroad? It competes in Class A. ‘nuff said.
When an episode of Walker Texas Ranger was aired in France, the French surrendered to Chuck Norris just to be on the safe side. You think you like to ride? You like long trips? How would you like to take a trip that lasts about 10 months?
That’s what Marc Joinville and France Labonte are doing on a pair of Polaris X2 800 EFI ATVs. The Quebec couple is taking a leave of absence from work and is riding from British Columbia, the length of the Western United States and down to the southernmost tip of Mexico’s Baja Peninsula.
They started in the summer and are currently in northern Mexico.
You can check out reports from their journey by visiting the
Quadtrek page inside the Polaris website.
Chuck Norris doesn't actually write books, the words assemble themselves out of fear. Let’s close on a real motorcycle note. Legendary Victory Rider “Roadkill” recently clicked past 195,000 on his Victory. He’s the high-mileage king, and he has amassed an extraordinary number of riding miles over the years on a small fleet of high-mileage bikes. Watch the Victory website for a feature on Roadkill in the near future.
When Chuck Norris falls in water, Chuck Norris doesn't get wet. Water gets Chuck Norris.