Tom Ische is longtime Arctic Cat fan, rider and collector. His sled collection emphasizes rare late-1960s and 1970s racers. His sleds are immaculate.
His daughter Brianna is into vintage Cats nearly as much as he is. Like Stephen Knox commented on the memorabilia story, this is a family that plays together.
Here Nancy Ische and I are getting the sled situated on the white seamless background for the photo shoot.
I’d seen the famed 1974 Sno Pro sled in thousands of pictures, and they always appeared big for some reason. But when I saw (and sat on!) one, I realized how small they are. They’re practically tiny, and they almost feel delicate.
Here Tom does a few last-minute detail touches prior to taking pix. These guys opened their Glencoe, Minn., home to me for three days to capture hundreds of images, which made a huge impact on the quality of the book.
I’m at a loss for words at how beautiful this machine is. Prior to the photo shoot, my all-time favorite looking sled was the 1976 factory Sno Pro racer (another machine that the Ische’s own). During the shoot, I got a new girlfriend.
Can you see why?
Pure and gorgeous.
I found that if I got on my knees to bow to the ’74 Sno Pro’s beauty, that I felt worthy of being in its presence.
Thanks again to the Ische’s for making this happen, and to photographer Brian Balsatis for taking such stunning images.
I want your job !!!!!
Great job John !!! This was my all time favorite Cat growing up in the 60’s and following sno pro in the early 70’s was like a natural high back then and THIS was my lady too . again great job and keep em comming, I know there’s lots more people like Tom that have done a fantastic job keeping these sleds alive, again thank you much !
Very nice, both the stories and collections…priceless!
the 1974 Sno Pro is a masterpiece. I get goose bumps just looking at a picture of it!
John, you should have posted the famous picture Three Tough Cats.
Definitely a sharp looking machine! But, I still think the ’76 Pantera was the best all-time good looking Cat.
HI Jenn, Its interesting that we need to get our of foabeock, emailing, etc to get to be focus. My main problem is that I need concentration to actually read the emails and respond or follow through the important ones. At this moment I have three messages in FB which are really important and two emails that needs a task to get finished. I focus so much in completing my main goals and I use all the time. My main goals like the e-course, which I feel so committed to to it right takes a lot of time, Then I try to comply with the product orders, and when I am about to get that email, read it and follow through I’m exhausted and I postpone it for the next day. I am trying this week to focus on doing something to change that. Your class will help, for sure.