REFLECTING ON THE CARBIDE PODCAST AND AARON SCHEELE

arcticinsider

8 months ago

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.