In 1968-69
Everet Regal had the
opportunity to race for the
Polaris Factory, with
Herm Mattison.
Herm was conservation officer in
Redfield, New York at the time. Herm
happened to be a personal friend of
Allan Hateen, the president of
the Polaris Factory. He headed up the deals with the factory and provided
the equipment and the financial support.
As recalled by Everet, "Herm asked me to work with him and his boys on
the engines and have
Dick Jerrett and the late
Dave Kilian drive
for me. He provided some start up money, a bunch of parts and a
368 single
C4L Polaris, cleated track sled with a
Fugi Star engine in it.
We had a lot of problems with the rings at that time."
"We never won a lot of big races, but I remember one race, when
Dick passed
Jim Warden on the back stretch, winning first place
against
Bombardier Blizzards hot 440 twin that year."
"I also remember going up to
Sandy Pond with that old 1969
Polaris single cylinder and running it on the ice in the
Flying Mile.
A radar event. At that time they clocked me at 72 mph," Everet
recalled.
"
Don Cornell was there, who at that time was a
Yamaha dealer.
Don turned 69 mph with his 440 twin. He was so mad he wouldn't talk to me.
Dick Jerrett was also pissed, because I didn't let him run the sled.
It was the
only time I ever got to squeeze the throttle. Herm's boy,
Brian, was there with his 368 single and he made several attempts,
with his best at 68 mph."
Herm, Everet and their wives were flown out to the Polaris Factory to visit
with Allan in
Roseau, Minnesota during the winter of 69. They enjoyed
his hospitality and sledding along the river behind his home. Offers were
made to have Everet move to Minnesota and work for the factory, but no deals
were struck.
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Laconia:
by Everet B. Regal
Early winter, before the racing season began, Dick
and I went up to Herm's house, to pick up the new sled. Dick was out
back of Herm's trying it out. He came across a ditch, dove the ski's
in and ran the handle bars into his knee cap.
As I remember it didn't do any damage to the sled, but Dick had to
be taped up and in a small cast. The doctor told him to stay off it
and not race until it healed. Well, knowing Dick, that wasn't going
to slow him down. We had a race in
Laconia, New Hampshire the
next week. He said, "Lets go!"
That was on a Friday night. The boys went out partying and got back
to the motel late. We all had one large room with several beds in
it. I remember Dave was a crazy character. He came in later after
some of us guys had gone to bed. He grabbed the end of Herm's bed
and lifted it up breaking the headboard and crashed it down with Herm
and his boy in it.
I don't know who ever paid for that episode. I know I didn't. Anyway,
the next day we got up to go to the track at
Belknapp. It was
white out and racing was out of the question. We just hung out most
of the day at the motel. We unloaded the sleds just to load them back
on the trucks again.
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by Everet B. Regal
Laconia was a horrible trip back. I had a 1965 Dodge window van and
was pulling a trailer with a couple of sleds on it. Dick Jerrett and
Dave Killian were riding with me. We followed Herm, who had a Chevy
truck with chains on the back, big wheels and 3 sleds crosswise in
the bed. His two boys rode with him.
We headed back in a blizzard about 2:00 in the afternoon from
New
Hampshire, heading down toward
Boston at a crawl. Herm
followed a snow plow as long as he could, which finally went off one
of the ramps and got stuck. Herm backed up and kept going down the
road and got off the next ramp into Boston.
Everything in Boston was plugged solid. I followed Herm's tracks. I was
glad he had chains and weight. We went round and round in Boston trying
to get on the Boston Turnpike. Everything was snowed shut. What a day!
We were all getting pretty weary and needed gas. We finally stopped
in Boston at a gas station to get fueled up. Dick was sleeping in
the back seat and Dave decided to call home and tell his wife where
we were.
While he was talking to her, Dick's father was at Dave's house and
asked to talk to me and Dave alone and make sure Dick didn't know
he was on the phone. He told us Dick's little 5 year old daughter
had been killed that morning by a school bus, in front of her house.
We now had to keep this information from getting to Dick, who was
still sleeping in the back seat of my van. We started driving again
with heavy hearts, dreading for Dick to wake up. Finally an alternate
route heading west, opened up and we followed Herm. We were still
about 5-6 hours from home.
Dick woke up and wanted to call home and talk to Judy. Of course,
he knew nothing at that time and Dave and I kept assuring him everything
was okay. He kept wanting me to stop so he could call. We were so
afraid if he talked to her, she would tell him and he would lose control
and put everyone in a dangerous situation. It was Hell talking him
out of stopping until we drove right to his door step about 2:00 in
the morning.
His wife,
Judy met him with the tragic news of their loss of that
sweet little girl, the previous morning. It was such a difficult moment.
That is an experience I shall never forget.
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In the spring,
Everet was looking for iron to compete in the summer
grass drags. The
Polaris Factory asked him to go to
Lambs Distributors,
in
Syracuse, New York and pick up an authorized
744cc Star Fugi
engine. Fay Parmley, was interested in driving.
Everet took the
368cc engine out of the
Colt he had from winter
oval racing and fitted it up the 744cc. Looking for a testing ground, a
great spot on the
Terripen Farm was spotted in
Pennellville, New
York. This proved to be the flats for all future testing of Regal's
iron.
George Wagner, from
Massachusetts, used to stop by and comment
on that sled being the fastest thing he'd ever seen. "It throws rocks
and sod 40 feet," he would say!
Everet had large resonating chambers mounted on the sled.
Parm called
them the "
Big Bertha" pipes, because they stuck out so
far. They really worked well on that engine. In fact, they recycled them
the following season and used them on the
744cc JLO Cat engine for
the winter ovals! They had a wild sound!
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