By Steph Anderson, Photos: Lynette Ross
The first day of the Naytahwaush Snodeo was a big day for Arctic Cat.
In the Pro Open final had 13 racers entered. Five of them finished the race. Two of those five were riding the new Arctic Cat Catalyst, including Pro Open winner Zach Herfindahl. The second-place finisher was Ross Erdman and third place was Aaron Christensen.
Saturday also saw the Semi Pro Improved Stock Final. The top three in this class are consistently in the top three. The top finisher was Evan Pepple, followed by Jesse Hallstrom in second, and third place went to Boe Bunke.
After the race I talked to Ben Langaas, who is the High Performance Engineer Manager for Arctic Cat. Ben oversees the development of all trail, race and crossover product lines for Arctic Cat. I asked him how long the Catalyst has been in development, and he said “We have been developing this chassis for decades. It’s a combination of numerous concepts developed by Arctic Cat over the years. The first proof of concept we had on the snow with it all put together was in 2020.”
When I asked what Ben was most proud of with this new sled he said “I am most proud of how this sled is such an innovative design from various engineers to make it perform the best, assemble with ease and improve serviceability while maintaining the durability that Arctic Cat is known for!”
And I asked Ben how being a racer also applies to his engineering job “We pull so much information from the race field to develop our sleds. A lot of the technology in the Catalyst stemmed from the racetrack. Our new progressive steering was developed for racing Snocross by greats like Kirk Hibbert and Russ Ebert, just one small example of how we have used legacy Arctic winning technology to make this snowmobile the best in every aspect.”
