1967 season

The 1967 season was the second season of the Snowmobile World Championship. The Drivers' Championship was won by David Johnson and the Constructors' Championship was won by Bombardier - Rotax. There were 12 teams and 24 drivers taking part to the championship. Three new races were added for this season in Norway, Sweden and Finland.

Previous season (1966)

Next season (1968)

## Team changes

A new team, AMF, joined the Championship for the season, Arctic Cat switched from Onan engines to JLO engines and Sno-Jet switched from JLO engines to Kohler engines.

## Driver changes

Kenneth David and Jack Orlen were the two new drivers for 1967, both driving for AMF.

## Report

##### Bombardier - Rotax

For a second year in a row, Bombardier clearly had the best package, having a great chassis and an exclusive deal with Rotax and their powerful engine. David Johnson was at the peak of his powers and Jules Favreau made less mistakes than the previous year, even winning two Grand Prix. The team cruised easily to a second driver's title and their first constructor's title.

##### Evinrude - OMC

For 1967, Evinrude came back with almost the same chassis than the one used in the previous season. That cost them a lot, because it was heavier than the revised Bombardier sled of 1967. Therefore, Bob Larose could only win one race in Maine while Martin Brochu won the closing round in Quebec after a dreadful season, causing 5 accidents in 5 consecutive races. Bob Larose's excellent driving abilities clearly gave them second place, because Sno-Jet arguably had a better sled than Evinrude in 1967.

##### Sno-Jet - Kohler

After an awful 1966 season using JLO engines, Sno-Jet decided to sign a new contract with Kohler for 1967. That turned out to be a great decision as the Kohler was the second most powerful engine after the Rotax. René Simard finished fourth in the championship after winning three Grand Prix in New York, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Robert Smithson had a more difficult season, having three first lap incidents with other drivers in New Hampshire, Michigan and Wisconsin. On the other hand, his win in New Brunswick is considered to be one of the best defensive drive of all-time, keeping his faster teammate and David Johnson behind him for more than 30 laps.

##### Arctic Cat - JLO

With Onan deciding not to renew their contract with Arctic Cat at the end of 1966, the team had to quickly find a new engine manufacturer. The only available engines were the JLO and the Briggs & Stratton and Arctic Cat decided to go with the first one. They were never able to reach the success of the previous season with a barely competitive engine despite having one of the most durable chassis on the grid. Robert Maltais winnng in rainy conditions in Minnesota was the highlight of their season.

##### AFC - CCW

1967 was the revealing year for one of the greatest drivers in the history of the championship : Adrian Chavez from Spain. Despite, the uncompetitive nature of the AFC, Chavez managed to outperform massively and scored points in 8 of the 15 rounds and grabbed second place, a few seconds behind David Johnson, in New Hampshire. He completely dominated Karl Magnussen, scoring 41 points compared to 8 for his teammate. The small team from northern Ontario was more than pleased with the results of the season, but they ran out of money by the end of the season and had to declare bankruptcy. The team was sold to Canadian snowmobile manufacturer Alouette for 1968.

##### Sno-Prince - CCW

With a limited budget, Sno-Prince decided to reuse the same sled as the previous year. Philip Jones extracted all things possible from that limited one-year-old package in Michigan to win the race. On the other hand, Clarence Mack lacked pace all year long and took advantage of the massive crash in Finland to finish in second place behind Jules Favreau's Bombardier.

##### Polaris - Kohler

After a very competitive 1966 season where Frederick Hansen was a serious championship contender, Polaris arrived in 1967 with an innovative chassis designed around the use of a custom Kohler engine with liquid cooling and direct injection. Frederick Hansen won the first race of the season by over a minute and the legality of the engine was contested. The FIM decided that engine manufacturers had to provide the same engine for every team they had contracts with. As Polaris were the only Kohler users to have enough financial means to afford the improved engine, they had to switch for the same engine that was used by Sno-Jet. Their performances were massively impacted by that change as their chassis was designed for the other engine, thus Frederick Hansen and Ernest Smithson didn't win for the rest of the season.

##### Montgomery - CCW

Montgomery was still the smallest team in number of employees in 1967 and that started to impact the racing results more and more. The CCW engine was not very competitive but Montgomery's intelligent strategy in Vermont allowed him to win the race ahead of Bob Larose and David Johnson. The 12-sled crash at the start of the Sweden Grand Prix allowed Bernard Bouchard to secure second place, but those two races were the only positives of the year for Montgomery.

##### Ockelbo

Like in 1966, Ockelbo arrived in 1967 with a fast but very unreliable snowmobile. Agen Karlov et Magnus Olufsen scored podiums in Wisconsin and Norway but they did not finish more than half the races of the season.

##### Johnson - OMC

Despite OMC's raise of Johnson's budget for 1967, the competitiveness of the team was pretty much at the same level as the year before. With the use of a great refueling strategy in Manitoba, George Wallace was able to secure second place in the race. Patrick Smithson was often involved in crashes and scored six points during the season.

##### Larson - Briggs & Stratton

Larson's budget was so limited that they had to keep the exact same engine and chassis as the ones used in 1966. Albert Simard drove a great race in the rain in Minnesota to finish in third place, while Claude Veilleux was very slow and error-prone. On several occasions, both drivers had to retire from the races due to a broken gearbox, it being the same 4-speed manual as the one used in 1966.

##### AMF

AMF was the only new team for 1967. The company was one of the biggest recreational equipment manufacturer in the United States and dedicated a big budget to their new snowmobile racing team. That did not pay off as the sled was developed in a very small amount time and was not properly ready for the season. Their engine lacked power, the chassis was too heavy and the tracks were always breaking during races. Jack Orlen scored two points and a massive amount of retirements due to bad weather in Finland allowed Kenneth David to finish in third place.