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The awesome riders of the Extreme Team are back, plus a few more in Danger Zone 3. The Extreme Team riders continue to push the envelope with incredible climbs and gnarly wrecks. The turboed sleds ridden by the Extreme Team are as impressive as the riders themselves, which leads you to believe that there is a capable pit crew associated with these guys. So, given all the work and money that has gone into these sleds, I’m sure that the video script never includes a wreck just for the viewer’s amusement. However, when you ride as hard as a guy like Jared Sessions, eventually the mountain is going to win, and the sled will loose. Jared is not the type of person that wrecks much, but when he does, he is so high up on the mountain, generally above the cliffs, that all he can do is watch his sled go crashing down. Of course, somebody always finds a rock or tree, even if it is the only one on the mountain. For this year, the rock finder award goes to a DZ3 rider named Mike. Mike went flying up a chute on his Polaris Dragon just off the track of previous riders, and hit a decent sized rock hidden under the snow. The impact was so violent that Mike was ejected off his sled and into the air just like a pilot would eject out of an airplane. In an attempt to keep sled sales high, I think the sled manufactures have got some deal going with the military, and they are buying up excess heat seeking missile, reprogramming them to seek trees and rocks, and then install them on new sleds. I’m just sure of it, and the Extreme Team riders got the video to prove it. These seekers must stop working after a few years, because it is always your newest sled that finds the rock or tree.
Feature | December 03, 2008 | Views 252
Team Thunderstruck combines high horsepower sleds, majestic mountain chutes, fearless riders and the remarkable cinematography of Jim Phelan to once again raise the bar for the snowmobile movie-making industry. Thunderstruck 7 features Brad Story on his amazing 2007 Arctic Cat 1200 turbo, which he built. Brad flies—not rides—that turboed Cat up the most insane chutes ever caught on camera. Slow is definitely not in this man’s vocabulary. Then there is Randy Swenson. Wow, what a skilled rider. In the words of Cam Hicks’ on-film interview, “ I’m telling you, Randy Swenson this year, if he keeps going on like this, eventually he’ll just start climbing straight up the rock. It’s absolutely ridiculous.” Randy is definitely one of the most skilled riders to be caught on film, and he has very good chance of being crowned Sledder of the Year for 08-09. He climbs, carves, and isn’t afraid of getting a little air. One of Randy’s best was watching him throttle up a chute that the Thunderstruck riders call, “The Super Chute.” To give you a little taste of what this chute is like, it is 3220 feet to the top with a 2468 vertical rise, and it is only 7 feet wide near the top. The climb took 1 minute and 14 seconds on Randy’s Apex Turbo, and the cameras let you see the ascent from every angle. Using a GPS attached to the rider, Phelan added the stats on each of the big climbs in Thunderstruck 7, which was a really nice feature and irrefutably confirms that the Thunderstruck riders are the chute-climbing kings. There is not trick photography here.
Feature | November 04, 2008 | Views 269
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