Around Thanksgiving of 2023, I shared a link to the Carbide Podcast which is hosted by Spencer Delabruere. Spencer does a great job with his show, and is pulling some really great guests from the snowmobile industry. I truly enjoyed the Thanksgiving episode with Tucker Hibbert, but the one that tugged on my heart strings was his most recent interview with Aaron Scheele. YOU CAN LISTEN TO THE CARBIDE PODCAST INTERVIEW HERE
Aaron Scheele (L) with Spencer Delabruere (R) of the Carbide Podcast.
I honestly can’t express how highly I think of Aaron and his wonderful family. As I was listening to this interview, my mind started reeling with timeline memories which start as a young kid standing in the crowd cheering him on at a race, to the first time I met him, and then getting to the point where I could call him and his family my friends. All of them great memories, which Ill give you a glimpse at below. Thank you Aaron for being a wonderful ambassador and hero to the sport of snowmobiling! And Spencer, Im super happy you invited Aaron on the show! – Kale
Spencer did his homework on Aaron for the podcast, but he had a MAJOR miss with his questioning – I would have asked Ol 144 about his kickass choice of facial hair in the early 90s. For me personally as a kid standing on the sidelines cheering him on, Aaron’s winning results, combined with those hard-edged “porkchop” sideburns, turned me into a super fan!If you fast forward nearly 10 years from the time(s) I was standing on the sidelines cheering for Aaron, I continued to cheer for him from the sidelines, but in a different career capacity. In 2002, I was working for Supertrax snowmobile magazine and was taking photos at the Minneapolis indoor snocross as an editor. Aaron made a comment in the podcast that he was fortunate NOT to have gotten hurt racing. As soon as he said it, I laughed to myself and thought, “Thats not true, and I bet Ursula (Aaron’s wife) thinks differently. Two seconds later in the podcast, Aaron laughs and says, “My wife probably thinks differently.” From there, Aaron details his crash at the indoor snocross. During that race, the 144 was approaching me as I was standing atop Steve Scheuring’s race trailer, and I took a sequence of photos which showed him getting crossed-up which ultimately led to his crash. To this day, I cant find those photos, but I do have the one above of the aftermath when he and snowmobile came to rest below Scheuring’s trailer. At the time, I felt REALLY bad for taking it, as time seemed to literally stand still as a hush came over the crowd, and my hero lay there hurting. Fast forward a couple more years to 2004 – my career changed again, this time finding me at the start of my 20yr association with the Arctic Cat brand. I was a week into my new marketing position at the factory in Thief River Falls, when I heard a familiar voice outside my door talking to my boss, John Tranby. Star struck, I didn’t really know what to do, or say. I couldn’t believe my hero was standing outside my door! Other than a few times of muttering out a, “Hi Aaron” while working for the magazine, I had never officially met, or talked to the Ice Man. As luck would have it, John brought Aaron into my office and introduced me as his new addition to the marketing team. John wandered away shortly after and Aaron pulled up a chair and started talking to me. To this day, that was moment was one of my favorite memories at Arctic Cat. Before Aaron left, he looked at my wall of posters and saw the 98-99 Team Arctic autograph card hanging on the wall…he said, “You got a sharpie? We can’t have Blair being the only one to sign that poster.” As many times as Ive hung out with Brad Pake and Kirk Hibbert, you’d think I would have been able to get them to sign this poster, but it hasn’t happened yet. LOL. Spencer asks Aaron what his favorite sled is, and he mentions the T&S Mod. I wont divulge details, but Aaron talks about “wheelies” and how light it is. Here, I got a fun photo several years ago of Aaron performing a little ski lofting on it.Aaron gave me the opportunity to ride it, and to be honest, I was equal parts terrified and overjoyed while ripping around. It was so lightweight and powerful, I got off and asked him, “How the hell did you guys ride these things?” Aaron touches on that in his interview…
Spencer asks Aaron an entertaining question on who is a better racer – Aaron in his prime, or his snocross racing son, Anson. Before he gives an answer, Aaron discusses his other favorite snowmobile (ZR440) and then mentions Anson jumping one of Aaron’s restored ZRs on the Christian Bros snocross track. Above is the video…makes me laugh every time I watch it.You can read the story HERE about Aarons restored ZR440 and Anson launching it.
Ill wrap this up by urging you to listen to the Carbide Podcast and type “Scheele” into the ArcticInsider search function for more stories on the Ice Man.
Not sure if you’re being sarcastic or not, but if you and others aren’t aware, Aaron’s son, Anson, races for Scheuring Speedsports in National Pro Lite snocross class. Aaron helps as Anson’s crew chief/mechanic/support crew. Im proud of Anson…hes landed on a great team, and is doing well. He’s been fun to watch this season.
Textron has done a real number on the race department.
Lots of ex Cat racers wear doo and poo coats now. Christian bro’s went to doo, pretty sure Joey Hallstrom’s kids even ride doo (they don’t ride AC).
In SX AC has 2 out of 16 in pro, 6 out of 29 in pro lite, and 2 out of 20 in sport.
Last year Doo won almost every class championship including the 200 class, and every sled on the track was built by arctic cat.
Poor Herf has the entire brand on his shoulders, as he’s the only AC guy who wins regularly anymore. Hopefully he can find some magic soon, AC got embarrassed at pine lake, lacking 6 mph on the straights.
Of course you don’t know.. You should probably take a look and see.
BTW there is no engineering or R&D for for installing the new stickers (that yamaha designs), on a sled that hasn’t changed since ’17.
You are one bitter person. Lighten up! Move to a better State maybe. Do something. Every site you are on, you are this way. Maybe break away from the internet for a while.
Damn Krom. Back er down off the rev limiter. LOL. There’s no disputing AC has the numbers stacked against them in the upper echelons of snocross, but quite honestly, they kinda have for many years. As AC snocross fans, we were seriously spoiled having Tucker Hibbert. His weekly winning press releases made it feel like Cat cleaned house. Generally speaking, outside of Tucker, AC had 1-2 guys in the Top 10. Currently, both Yurk and Benham are in the Top 10 and you could basically put a blanket over positions 4-10 with the points being so close.
Can you place full blame on Textron? I don’t know. Its easy to do. If the snow industry were off the rails thriving, Id question why Textron wouldn’t add more engineering and money resources to building a specialized snocross snowmobile, but that isnt the reality right now. Both Polaris and SkiDoo are cutting race budgets and “big” changes are minimal to the race sleds.
Cross Country? Embarrassed? Cmon man. Im not sure Im ready to wrap my lips around that. If Catalyst platform had been out for 10yrs, then Id be embarrassed. Sweeping results would have been incredible, but given the fact these guys had roughly 2 weeks to figure out ice racing set-ups on a new platform…and ice racing set-ups are a fickle bitch to begin with?…Again, Im not embarrassed. Remember that time Zach went out ditch racing the Catalyst for the first time and won? I was embarrassed then…for the other OEMs. 🙂
I’m not sure how to blame anybody or anything besides textron…
You know that Textron killed the race department, Mike is the only one they didn’t fire or move to a different department.
Look at how few XC sleds the race dept got this year, and how many racers got told a sled wasn’t available for them, only to have plenty of RXC’s without electric start sitting in the show room at dealers (I’m sure you know what happened there).
Be honest, how many people worked in the race department in ’17, and how many today?
Even when Tucker was the only AC winning, AC still had far more than 1 other sled entering the class.
Poo and Doo may be “cutting budgets, and big changes” but they didn’t have to strike a deal with isr to run the same sled 2 years in a row because production numbers aren’t near enough the meet the minimum for stock class.
This is slightly off the racing topic, but does pertain IMHO.
How many folks worked in engineering in ’17, and how many today?
Speaking of the folks in engineering, did you hear about all the engineers who got fired this week?
This one is way off topic, but have you seen the “clutch guard update??
I don’t know. Just to set something straight. This race is a stand alone event. Not tied to Cor. No points, so a lot of RnD being performed. Going to be a tough race year.
Being Yamaha is done, my guess is many who were let go, were on the Yamaha side. Dont need much Engineering on sleds that will not be back next year. Just an opinion.
Can anyone confirm how many were cut in the engineering dept. Can’t believe there are many left.
MRP RACING on MSC MONDAY NIGHTS AT 10 DAD AND I WATCHED HIM DOMINATE THE RACES UNLESS KIRK SHOWED UP FOR ONE
B&E Outdoors – That’s right!!! Totally forgot about that. Was a kid and that was the only night of the week I could stay up late to watch with my Dad too. Man the next morning was rough! Was so fun rooting for “The Iceman” back then. The podcast did a great job showing what a true ambassador Aaron is for the sport of snowmobiling. We need more guys with his intelligence and humility. He makes this world a better place for sure.
Another great story. Thanks. I just have a hard time seeing all these great Cat racers having to go to the other guys. They then later retire with their jackets. Morgan, Christian and others. I’m glad Tucker didn’t. I hate seeing Morgan in those Doo clothes. Now I have to see the Scheele’s in Doo clothes. I know they all had to do what they needed to do but I don’t have to like it. It’s just wrong and I blame Cat/Textron.
Ken, I get your point. However, like any competitor, in any sport, you want to be in the best possible position to succeed. If Arctic could only continue to produce the same snocross race sled, year after year, while the competition was improving, and adding speed and handling to their new model, each season, then why would anyone want to start each race in the hole, competitively? I think you’d laugh if you saw Aaron’s shop, or his personal collection of snowmobiles from all eras. It’s 100% Arctic Cat… but for Anson’s business decision as a professional racer? I think it’s pretty plain to see why it makes a whole lot of sense to run the best equipment, out of a fantastic trailer, and see where it takes you. Particularly when the gap had become so wide. Just my two cents (as a lifelong Arctic Cat guy).
Ughhh, why is he wearing a ski doo jacket????
Not sure if you’re being sarcastic or not, but if you and others aren’t aware, Aaron’s son, Anson, races for Scheuring Speedsports in National Pro Lite snocross class. Aaron helps as Anson’s crew chief/mechanic/support crew. Im proud of Anson…hes landed on a great team, and is doing well. He’s been fun to watch this season.
Textron has done a real number on the race department.
Lots of ex Cat racers wear doo and poo coats now. Christian bro’s went to doo, pretty sure Joey Hallstrom’s kids even ride doo (they don’t ride AC).
In SX AC has 2 out of 16 in pro, 6 out of 29 in pro lite, and 2 out of 20 in sport.
Last year Doo won almost every class championship including the 200 class, and every sled on the track was built by arctic cat.
Poor Herf has the entire brand on his shoulders, as he’s the only AC guy who wins regularly anymore. Hopefully he can find some magic soon, AC got embarrassed at pine lake, lacking 6 mph on the straights.
Cat took second. That is hardly embarrassing. Was neck and neck.
Of course you don’t know.. You should probably take a look and see.
BTW there is no engineering or R&D for for installing the new stickers (that yamaha designs), on a sled that hasn’t changed since ’17.
You are one bitter person. Lighten up! Move to a better State maybe. Do something. Every site you are on, you are this way. Maybe break away from the internet for a while.
Damn Krom. Back er down off the rev limiter. LOL. There’s no disputing AC has the numbers stacked against them in the upper echelons of snocross, but quite honestly, they kinda have for many years. As AC snocross fans, we were seriously spoiled having Tucker Hibbert. His weekly winning press releases made it feel like Cat cleaned house. Generally speaking, outside of Tucker, AC had 1-2 guys in the Top 10. Currently, both Yurk and Benham are in the Top 10 and you could basically put a blanket over positions 4-10 with the points being so close.
Can you place full blame on Textron? I don’t know. Its easy to do. If the snow industry were off the rails thriving, Id question why Textron wouldn’t add more engineering and money resources to building a specialized snocross snowmobile, but that isnt the reality right now. Both Polaris and SkiDoo are cutting race budgets and “big” changes are minimal to the race sleds.
Cross Country? Embarrassed? Cmon man. Im not sure Im ready to wrap my lips around that. If Catalyst platform had been out for 10yrs, then Id be embarrassed. Sweeping results would have been incredible, but given the fact these guys had roughly 2 weeks to figure out ice racing set-ups on a new platform…and ice racing set-ups are a fickle bitch to begin with?…Again, Im not embarrassed. Remember that time Zach went out ditch racing the Catalyst for the first time and won? I was embarrassed then…for the other OEMs. 🙂
I’m not sure how to blame anybody or anything besides textron…
You know that Textron killed the race department, Mike is the only one they didn’t fire or move to a different department.
Look at how few XC sleds the race dept got this year, and how many racers got told a sled wasn’t available for them, only to have plenty of RXC’s without electric start sitting in the show room at dealers (I’m sure you know what happened there).
Be honest, how many people worked in the race department in ’17, and how many today?
Even when Tucker was the only AC winning, AC still had far more than 1 other sled entering the class.
Poo and Doo may be “cutting budgets, and big changes” but they didn’t have to strike a deal with isr to run the same sled 2 years in a row because production numbers aren’t near enough the meet the minimum for stock class.
This is slightly off the racing topic, but does pertain IMHO.
How many folks worked in engineering in ’17, and how many today?
Speaking of the folks in engineering, did you hear about all the engineers who got fired this week?
This one is way off topic, but have you seen the “clutch guard update??
Jim, what was the best finishing catalyst?
I don’t know. Just to set something straight. This race is a stand alone event. Not tied to Cor. No points, so a lot of RnD being performed. Going to be a tough race year.
Being Yamaha is done, my guess is many who were let go, were on the Yamaha side. Dont need much Engineering on sleds that will not be back next year. Just an opinion.
Can anyone confirm how many were cut in the engineering dept. Can’t believe there are many left.
MRP RACING on MSC MONDAY NIGHTS AT 10 DAD AND I WATCHED HIM DOMINATE THE RACES UNLESS KIRK SHOWED UP FOR ONE
B&E Outdoors – That’s right!!! Totally forgot about that. Was a kid and that was the only night of the week I could stay up late to watch with my Dad too. Man the next morning was rough! Was so fun rooting for “The Iceman” back then. The podcast did a great job showing what a true ambassador Aaron is for the sport of snowmobiling. We need more guys with his intelligence and humility. He makes this world a better place for sure.
I guess I’m out of the loop. Last I heard his son was with the All Finish team.
Yeah. All Finish is no longer a team.
Around the middle of last season All Finish was begging ski doo for sleds.
They got rejected, finished the season, and disbanded the team
Another great story. Thanks. I just have a hard time seeing all these great Cat racers having to go to the other guys. They then later retire with their jackets. Morgan, Christian and others. I’m glad Tucker didn’t. I hate seeing Morgan in those Doo clothes. Now I have to see the Scheele’s in Doo clothes. I know they all had to do what they needed to do but I don’t have to like it. It’s just wrong and I blame Cat/Textron.
Is captain Kirk wrenching for anyone? Thought I heard he was.
Ken, I get your point. However, like any competitor, in any sport, you want to be in the best possible position to succeed. If Arctic could only continue to produce the same snocross race sled, year after year, while the competition was improving, and adding speed and handling to their new model, each season, then why would anyone want to start each race in the hole, competitively? I think you’d laugh if you saw Aaron’s shop, or his personal collection of snowmobiles from all eras. It’s 100% Arctic Cat… but for Anson’s business decision as a professional racer? I think it’s pretty plain to see why it makes a whole lot of sense to run the best equipment, out of a fantastic trailer, and see where it takes you. Particularly when the gap had become so wide. Just my two cents (as a lifelong Arctic Cat guy).
Last I knew, Kirk was helping wrench for some Cat guys at the Jackson hole hill climb.
Cat let some of the dirt people go. Krom
I think AI should go on the podcast! I am sure you have some great stories!!!!!