Multi-tasker Steve Houle: A cut above from the Golden Age of Snowmobile Racing

Every well-told story must adhere to a simple process: a beginning, middle and an end. For the current generation of snowmobile racers and enthusiasts, most would see the rise of Speedwerx, and its owner Steve Houle, as one complete story. They might see Houle as a mad scientist, one with an advanced degree in snowmobile technology, a man who produced immeasurable horsepower for Tucker Hibbert for nearly two decades. But 20 years is just a snapshot. It’s neither the beginning nor the end of the Steve Houle narrative.

Snowmobile racing was a family affair for the Houle’s. His dad raced sleds when Steve was just a small boy, predominantly staying local to the tracks and events in his home state of Minnesota. But when Steve turned 13, he traveled to a World Series of Snowmobile Racing event in Malone, N.Y., where his dad would square off against some of the sports best racers.

“I remember being excited because he was going to be racing against all of the big name racers that I would read about in the racing magazines,” said Houle. “Guys like Eastman, DuHamel, Bernat, etc. My Dad didn’t cross paths with the factory teams too often. When the flag dropped, he took an early lead and never looked back, winning the 800 mod class. At that point I was definitely hooked on racing.”

For most teenagers, that would have been a springboard into a self-fulling prophecy, one that would possibly start a successful racing career. But the younger Houle had other aspirations and abilities, choosing to focus on America’s Pastime rather than Winter’s Pursuit.

“It took a few years before I got my chance,” recalls Houle. “I finished high school and went off to college to play baseball. I ended up injuring my shoulder to the point where I couldn’t throw anymore, so that ended the baseball career.

“So, in 1980 at the age of 20, I got my first chance at racing. I borrowed a three year old 1977 TXL from my dad and entered a 250 mile ICCSF sanctioned cross country race in Cable, Wis. I remember there being about 200 entries and it was 250 miles long, all in one day. That was also the first year that Polaris built the TXL Indy IFS sleds, so I had to race a leaf spring sled against the new Indy’s. I don’t remember a lot about the race other than I finished 11^th and was the highest placing leaf spring sled.”

A lot was learned in the following few years as an independent. He would parlay his newfound success into a career-changing ride on Yamaha’s “Dream Team”, with top racers Tim Bender, Bobby Donahue and Guy Useldinger. Houle’s time with Yamaha would catapult him into another atmosphere, but instead of cross country, he would focus on snocross and ice-lemans racing throughout the mid-1980’s. He captured three straight MRP championships, as well as World Series titles and won the coveted Toyota/Yamaha Formula Challenge for three straight years and taking home more than 50 individual class wins.

“Winning those Challenge races in 1986, ’87 and ’88 was one of my career highlights,” said Houle. “Those were the only three years the race was held. It was basically a combination of Ice Lemans, Snow Cross and Enduro racing. Whoever compiled the most points won a new Toyota pick-up truck with a snowplow, a new Yamaha snowmobile and a nice check. It was the biggest pay-out of that era, so all of the top guns, many now in the Hall of Fame, were there to compete. Somehow, we ended up with three new trucks, three snowplows, three new snowmobiles and three big checks.”

In the late 1980’s, Houle flipped the script again, leaving Yamaha and returning to his roots and running with Polaris. He would also switch disciplines as he looked to challenge the world’s best ice racers. For Houle, and for many of the day’s racers, the decision was simple economics.

“Oval racing really started to take off again in the late 80’s,” said Houle. “Along with that came larger payouts for the winners. Racing was my main income back then, so the money was important. After being with Yamaha, they decided to downsize their race program. When word got out, I was contacted by Polaris and Pro-5 Racing and signed on with them in 1989. They wanted me to focus primarily on ice oval racing and we could race three or four different machines in three or four different classes, so there was an opportunity for a good paycheck every weekend.”

He would become one of ice racings all-time greats, claiming eight wins at the Eagle River World Championships, including another career highlight when he won the 1993 Formula III title from the back row.

“We had failed a crankshaft in one of the qualifying heats on Saturday,” said Houle. “The crew had to stay up almost all night long to get the sled rebuilt for the last chance qualifier race on Sunday morning. The top two finishers from the LCQ advanced to the final but had to start in the second row behind everyone else. I won the LCQ while breaking in a brand new engine. In the final, I remember passing quite a few sleds on the first lap and then just picking off sleds one at a time until I got into second place, and then making a pass for the lead on the last lap.”

Houle would also secure three World Series titles during his foray into full-time ice racing. He collected more than 60 total wins in oval competition, including 16 career Formula III victories and a string of 18 straight wins in the Mod II class.

A decade of dominance did little to slow Houle’s desire to challenge the best, no matter the discipline. After his unprecedented run in oval, he went back to the beginning, returning to his cross-country roots in the mid-1990’s, He quickly established himself as a contender, winning multiple times during ISOC’s first go-around.

That back-and-forth might seem like driving a spaceship for today’s racers, but it was common for the era, and the technology of the time allowed for racers to quickly adapt.

“It wasn’t too difficult switching disciplines back then,” said Houle. “In the stock class, you could use the same machine: Ice Lemans, snocross, cross-country or ovals. It just required some chassis and suspension changes. The mods were more purpose built and didn’t cross over quite as easy. Looking back, setting the sleds up for all these different scenarios was a good foundation for learning all of the inner workings of a snowmobile.”

And that brings us closer to a more modern-day Houle and recognizable storyline. With oval racing fading and his commitment to cross country, Houle began putting his well-known and sought-after talents to work, much to his benefit as his fellow competitors.

“I always had fast sleds and there were a lot of guys asking for clutching and tuning help to get their machines to go faster,” recalled Houle. “We had a good clientele of racers and that led to us tuning consumer machines. In 1994, I sold my nursery business to focus full-time on aftermarket performance parts. We worked with a lot of great racers and helping them win really helped to grow our brand.”

The Speedwerx brand would get a major boost in 1998, when a prodigy stepped into the spotlight and Houle began working with Tucker Hibbert and alongside Arctic Cat staples Kirk Hibbert and Russ Ebert to build a program that would become the standard-bearer in snowmobile racing for the next 20 years.

“Tucker was 13-years-old at the time and racing in the Junior class,” said Houle. “I stayed with him until he retired in 2018. Twenty years of racing with Tucker helped to grow the Speedwerx brand in an immeasurable way. Racing has always been the biggest part of our marketing strategy at Speedwerx and I’m very proud to say that no other performance company comes close to the number of wins, National and World Championships, that we have helped to achieve.”

Speedwerx, behind the guidance of Houle’s engine building and clutching, have helped racers win nearly 120 national snocross races, roughly 30 X-Games medals (12 Gold), nearly 70 World and National championships and almost 20 Jackson Hole World Championship Hillclimb titles.

The final chapters for Houle are still being written, all based upon the same model of success that helped propel both Houle and his businesses to the top of the snowmobile industry: a relentless work ethic, remarkable knowledge of his craft and an overwhelming desire to win. And just like his all-encompassing racing career, Houle is looking to conquer new sports including side-by-side and dirt track auto racing.

“First we decided to branch into ATV/UTV racing and performance products and then later we added automotive circle track racing,” said Houle. “I was a National Champion ATV racer back in the early 80’s (when they only had 3 wheels). It was pretty dangerous racing those things, but it gave me a good foundation for what we would need to get into that market. My son Jeremy, who manages Speedwerx, also started racing UTV’s. He’s been very successful and still does it today. We use the racetrack to test durability and performance of our products as much as possible.

“The circle track racing was an exciting new challenge. We wanted to develop and sell products for dirt track cars, but our knowledge was limited so we bought two new dirt track cars. One for Jeremy and one for me. We learned a lot that first season of racing and I was able to win the biggest race of the year (The Legendary 100) as a 51-year-old rookie. I retired and gave my car to Jeremy, and he won the same race the next two years in a row. We now build headers for dirt track cars year round and sell them all over the USA to some of the biggest name drivers out there like Tim McCready, Jimmy Mars, Brian Shirley and Pat Doar.”

Since his career hasn’t been defined by just one shining moment, he finds it difficult to center on one lone highlight. Along with the Formula 3 win at Eagle River and his three-peat in the Toyota Challenges, he finds humbleness in the entirety of his career, which was recognized by his 2016 induction into the Snowmobile Hall of Fame.

“It’s truly the highest honor you can achieve in our sport,” said Houle. “Equally awesome is to see all of the guy’s that we competed against also get inducted. Guy Useldinger, Tim Bender, Brian Sturgeon, Mike Houle, Archie Simonson, Kirk Hibbert and Brad Pake. Our era was filled with great drivers, and I think we would all agree that we pushed each other to our full potential.”

It’s been a lifetime of fulfilled potential for Houle, but sometimes stories go unfinished. It’s often due to lack of time, creativity or content. The story of Steve Houle may never truly come to an end. He will find a way to write a new chapter, that will be just as captivating, defiantly different and successful as the previous ones.