The Badgers accept the first place trophy. From left: Kevin King, Andy, Nick Rakovec, Adam Schumacher, Andreas Huber, Gary Diehl, Ethan Brodsky, Chris Holzbauer, and Sandy Bemis. Not pictured: Stephen Lukas, Eric Schroeder, Joe Azukas, Brian Schwebach, Josh Gable, Derek Stroup, Seth Wallander, and advisor Glenn Bower.

Snowmobiling is one of the most popular family oriented winter sports available in the United States. Even with the declining length of the snowmobiling season, there is still over one and three quarter million snowmobiles registered in the U.S. creating a $27 billion economy. Most of these people enjoy spending time in the wilderness and viewing the beautiful winter scenes. It’s no wonder that half of the 140,000 annual winter visitors of Yellowstone National Park are snowmobilers. However, in 1997 a group called The Fund for Animals started a war against snowmobiles in America’s National Parks.

Nick Rakovec drives the successfully drives the Bucky Classic 100 miles in the endurance ride.

The cause for this sudden dismay for snowmobiles was the noisy, polluting two stroke engines found in snowmobiles at the time. The Fund for Animals claimed that these engines were destroying the environment and endangering the wildlife in Yellowstone. Their studies showed that two stroke engines were just too risky to keep in these delicate environments and as a result, policies were created to completely phase out snowmobiles from Yellowstone by 2004. The snowmobile industry was furious and fought back with studies of their own using their new four-stroke technology. The National Park Service studied both sides of the case and decided to establish a new Temporary Winter Use Plan. The plan, which is currently in effect today, allows 720 Best Available Technology (BAT) snowmobiles into the park with a professional guide. Snowmobiles become BAT by meeting industry standards that have been decided safe enough for National Parks.

Adam Schumacher (left) and Gary Diehl run the sled for emissions testing.

In 1998 Wyoming’s Teton County Commissioner Bill Paddleford and Environmental Engineer Dr. Lori Fussell realized a need to for drastic changes in the snowmobile industry. With the help of the snowmobile industry, university interest, and the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), Paddleford and Fussell started the Clean Snowmobile Challenge (CSC), with its first competition in 2000. The mission of the event was to save the sport of snowmobiling in Yellowstone by making snowmobiles cleaner and quieter while preserving their sporty appeal. The competition has helped introduce new exciting technology to the industry and 2006 proved to be no exception.

Sandy Bemis (left) explains the modifications at the static display.

This years competition was held at the Michigan Tech Keweenaw Research Center from March 13-18th. Fifteen universities were registered including two electric snowmobiles which competed in a separate class. The teams started with a stock snowmobile and modified them to become cleaner, quieter, and more efficient, while maintaining performance. The goal of this year’s competition was to meet or exceed emissions and other industry standards set to take effect in 2012. The fuel powered snowmobiles compete in events ranging from a design paper, static display, and technical presentations to acceleration runs, emissions tests, and a one hundred mile endurance ride. The top three spots this year were won using Polaris’s four stroke technology as the base with the University of Wisconsin-Madison taking first place.

Gary Diehl launches off the start line during an acceleration run.

The Badger team started this year with the same chassis they had for the last three years, a 2003 Polaris Frontier. However, they tore it down to a naked chassis before adding their twist on the snowmobile. They opted for the brand new 750 cc Polaris FS four-stroke engine as their sole power plant over the gas-electric hybrid system used in previous years. This new engine provided more power packed into an efficient BAT certified package. However, this system wasn’t just plug and play, the Badgers had to create custom mounts and intake while rerouting many of the fuel, coolant, and oil lines.

All of the teams at CSC 2006 after the endurance ride.

Once the engine was in, the team concentrated on reducing sound and emissions on their sled, the Bucky Classic. This took careful design and a lot of fabricating by several of the team’s members. First they created a brand new exhaust system that utilized two 3-stage catalyst and a three chamber tuned muffler. This system nearly eliminated most emissions and drastically reduced sound. To make room for the new engine, Madison had to fabricate a new intake system. They also took advantage of the extra room in the front of the snowmobile to run a quieter and colder intake system. The last major enhancement the team made to the sled was with the track and tunnel. First they stiffened the tunnel to move the resonant track noise to occur out of normal riding speeds. Second they incorporated the new Camoplast Silent track which virtually eliminated all track noise. The Badgers made many other smaller improvements to the sled such as a Global Positioning System (GPS) and a custom painted lightweight hood.

The CSC 2006 winner, the Bucky Classic.

The team started working on their first place snowmobile in September 2005. They worked as hard as they could, but were limited in what they could do because the FS engine was just released that year and many parts were not yet available. Finally, about three weeks before competition, major parts including the throttle bodies and exhaust header arrived. The team spent many “late” nights in the shop and any snow covered plots of land during those last three weeks. They were able to make the snowmobile run flawlessly and collect countless hours of sound and emissions data through everyone’s hard work. Everyone on the team agreed that the first place trophy was well worth all of the hard work and sleepless nights. Congratulations 2006 UW-Madison Clean Snowmobile Team.