KEN aVaaN

By VIRgIl KNapp

Ken Avann started his racing career in 1975. He became an avid motorcycle, watercraft and ATV racer but most importantly he was a standout snowmobile racer. He started racing ice ovals as a Pro in 1976, campaigning a Yamaha SRX340. He would go on to race Ski-doo and Polaris and would find his share of success, winning the ISR Pro Stock World Championship three times as well as a Formula III Title in Valcourt in 1989. While racing ovals, Avann was also dabbling in snowcross and logged two ISR World Series snowcross championships aboard Ski-Doo in 1984 and ’85. He had the privilege of racing with Gerard Karpik and had a hand in testing and building the Ski-Doo prototype snowmobiles.

“I worked with Gerard Karpik as a test rider while he developed the limited build crosscountry/snowcross sled,” Avann said. “I won the first oval race for him on his new sled in Alexandria, Minnesota, beating the factory riders from Yamaha, Polaris and Arctic Cat. At the time we used the same sled for three different types of racing-oval, cross-country and snowcross. That was one of the best sleds I ever raced.”

It wasn’t until 1992 that Avann began to get his feet wet in the race circuit business when he created the Canadian Watercraft Racing Association. He was tired of the disorganization of the current watercraft racing circuit and felt he could promote a better racing series for his fellow watercraft racers. He was somewhat successful but ultimately his ties with one brand hampered his efforts.

“The personal watercraft race series worked well.” Avann said. “However, I was a factorysupported Polaris snowmobile racer and because of that only Polaris would support the watercraft series, the other manufacturers backed out.”

Though it didn’t go far, the CWRA was important because it marked Avann’s start as a powersports racing promoter and laid the groundwork for the CSRA.

sWITcHINg T o sNo Wc Ross

While Avann had raced his share of snowcross, most of his snowmobile racing experience rested in oval racing. In fact, he served on the board of the Ontario Snowmobile Racing Federation from 19831993 and was part of the decision-making progress for snowmobile racing events that took place in Canada. With a lengthy motocross and ATV racing background, Avann saw the potential of snowcross and wanted OSRF to sanction the blossoming form of snowmobile racing in conjunction with the ice oval races.

“I was out voted.” Avann said. “I was told snowcross wouldn’t grow in Canada.”

The very next year Ken founded CSRA and started promoting his own snowcross races. The results he witnessed promoting snowcross in the first season proved he was right. CSRA’s first race, held at Mount St. Louis Ski Resort in Ontario, had 200 racers, twice as many as the ice oval circuits were getting at the time. Those entries even included Toni Haikonen, a top European racer who brought instant credibility to the circuit.

“After that first event I knew we were on to something,” Avann Said. “ But I had no idea how big it would become.”

The fledgling snowcross series continued to grow until it reached a peak in 1997 when it boasted 1,000 racer entries for its opening event at Searchmont Ski Resort. It was an incredible number of racer entries even for the time, but, if anything it was indicative of CSRA’s prominence in the growing world of snowcross racing both in Canada and the rest of the snowmobile racing world.

csR a Expa NDs

The CSRA grew quickly, and in 1995 Avann noticed that 30-percent of the race entries he was receiving were coming from Michigan. There was no snowcross race circuit in Michigan in the mid-1990’s and racers were so eager to hit the snowcross tracks, they were driving to Ontario to compete at CSRA events. Seeing a need for Regional-type circuit to serve the Michigan Racers, Avann made the decision to start the ASRA American Snowcross Racing Association.

“We started the ASRA to provide the racers in Michigan with their own Regional snowcross racing series,” Avann said. “When I first started out my father would hop in the pickup truck and drive me 36 hours across the country on a moment notice to race any time I asked him, so I had an idea what these people where going through. The ASRA series took off, and within three years it grew as big as CSRA.”

By the end of the 1990s Avann was hungry for more. His ATV supercross racing background instilled visions of snowcross racing indoors, in arenas and stadiums. He wanted to break down barriers and take snowcross to the highest levels of motorsports entertainment. However, with big-time venues come big-time money and logistics.

“I was confident that snowcross could attract a crowd big enough to fill a stadium,” Avannn said. “But coming up with the $250,000 to create the race was a huge problem.”

Avann and partner Grant Reeves contacted the management at the new Air Canada Centre in Toronto and convinced them CSRA could convert the stadium into a snowcross venue, fill it with fans, stage the race, tear it back down and make it ready for a Raptors basketball game within 24-hours. The Air Canada Centre management gave them the go-ahead and it wasn’t long before the CSRA crew had the place filled with snow and Blair Morgan was winning the first indoor event in front of 16,000 fans. And they kept their wordthe arena was ready to go for the basketball game in plenty of time.

“The event went perfect,” Avann said. “Looking back it seems crazy, but it was something we believed in and I’m so proud that we were able to make it happen.”

Ta KINg sNo Wc Ross INDooRs

After the successful inaugural event, Avann expanded to two events the next year, again holding a snowcross race in the Air Canada Centre as well as the Molson Centre in Montreal. Fan attendance was strong and it was clear the CSRA was on to something. “We were taking snowcross so far beyond where we had started,” Avann said. “We were taking it right into the middle of some of the biggest cities in the United States and Canada. It was really incredible to be a part of it.”

In 2001 the stadium tour grew to four events, all of them in the United States Including the Palace in Auburn Hills, Mich., the Fargo Dome in Fargo, ND, the Alerus Center in Grand Forks, ND, and the Metrodome in Minneapolis. The event’s had a new name, the Indoor Super Snocross Tour. The next year the tour again featured four races but commanded some of the largest venues in sports – the Metrodome, the Pontiac Silverdome in Detroit, the SkyDome in Toronto and the Fargodome. In 2003 the series made history when 36,000 fans paid to see a single day snowcross race on the floor of the Pontiac Silverdome, setting the record for the largest crowd to ever see a snowmobile race.

Hol DINg FasT

Despite its fantastic success, the indoor series began to run out of steam and 2003 would mark its final year. In fact, 2003 was a pivotal year in many ways for CSRA. In addition to the final indoor events, Avann sold the ASRA series to the WSA World Snowmobile Association, who brought it into its growing fold of USA snowcross circuits and it became the WSA Michigan Regional Series.

After building on of the largest combined snowmobile racing operations in the history of snowmobiling, Avann has tapered his efforts back down to the CSRA as his sole racing venture.

“ I would never have dreamed the CSRA would last as long as it has,” Avann said. “We have created some unique events with the CSRA, the ASRA and the Indoor Super Snowcross Tour, but now I want to focus on CSRA and try to keep racing affordable so more youth can participate, I would also like to help develop Snow Bike Racing in Canada and try to receive more exposure for our sponsors and racers through enhanced Social Media efforts and National television programming.

Today, the CSRA is the oldest ISR- affiliated snowcross circuit and is still the most prominent snowmobile racing circuit in Canada. Avann remains a leader in the world of snowcross and his experience is something that has become sought after in the industry. He regularly consults with the manufacture’s race managers and other racing affiliates.

“We respect each other,” Avann said. “If one of us has a tough situation regarding racing we discuss and consider each others point of views. We make decisions through ISR to improve our sport, the efforts to improve never end”.

THE Fu T u RE

What lies ahead for the CSRA? For now, Avann is content with the circuit and the direction it is headed.

“My focus is on the kids classes, the 120s, 200s, Transition, Novice and Junior classes, the young kids,” Avann said. “That’s the future of the sport and we can’t lose sight of that.”