Gilles Gagné, President of Gagné Lessard Sports Inc.

Video of Gilles Gagné in his workshop, seated on the snowmobile he invented, the G-Force One, telling the story of its technical achievements. The video includes pictures of the machine being tuned up and also on the race course.

Transcription:

[Gilles Gagné]

I was 14 years old when I saw a picture of a motorcycle speeding on the Bonneville Salt Flats. This dream of mine started then; talking about it today, I can still see that image in my head. So at 50 years old, I decide to get the project going. In 2005, I take the first step to realizing my dream. I go to the competition in Bonneville for the first time. I’m just amazed to see all the vehicles there. There’s the fastest lawn tractor in the world, the fastest ambulance, car, and motorcyle in the world, there’s all sorts of vehicles except our very own one that we invented right here in Quebec: the snowmobile, and it’s totally missing. So I meet with one of the officials of the international federation, and say, “At home in Quebec we race on lakes, we’re breaking speed records with snowmobiles, so why aren’t there any snowmobiles here?” Basically, he says to me: “It’s just because no one ever tried to enter a snowmobile. Work on one, build up your project, and then we’ll see. There’s surely a way for it to work out in Bonneville.” That’s all the encouragement I needed. Back home in Quebec, we started to build the famous G-Force One.

[A group of people are gathered around the G-Force One snowmobile, working on it]

[Voice off-screen]

We got together a little Quebec team of friends, snowmobile buffs, some employees. We decided to put our heads together to build what would become the fastest snowmobile in the world.

At Bonneville, when you manage to

[Screen back to Gilles Gagné]

pass 200 mph, 325 km/h, you become a lifetime member of the speed club, one of the racing greats. And we set ourselves a goal, even if it had never been achieved anywhere before on the planet, we believed we could do it. It took us 4 years of work before we thought it would actually be possible.

In August 2009, we get a call from Mr. Mike Cook, the promoter of the Mike Cook Shootout, the most prestigious event at Bonneville; he invites

[A group stands around the G-Force One snowmobile, tuning it up]

[Voice off-screen]

our little Coaticook team to participate in the Mike Cook Shootout. The driver will be Francis Morin of Coaticook. You have to understand that now we’re grouped with the top 10 fastest teams in the world.

[Back to Gilles Gagné]

When we get there, people laugh, because there has never been a snowmobile before at Bonneville. Our vehicle’s the only one that has never been raced on the salt flats.

[The G-Force One snowmobile is on the track, driven by Francis Morin. Then we see the engine, and all its parts, with two people looking on]

[Voice off-screen]

And so our first attempt is a catastrophe. The transmission breaks, and so we have to get off the track, and then all the Americans, everybody, is saying: “They’ll never make it. They’re nice guys, but their dream is over.” We spend 2 full days working to repair it in the desert;

[Back to Gilles Gagné]

we’ve brought parts, we have other parts made in town, we manage as best we can.

[The G-Force One snowmobile, driven on the track by Francis Morin]

[Voice off-screen]

Two days later, we’re ready for our 2nd trial, and on that day, our snowmobile establishes a world record of 203 mph in 2 combined rounds,

[Back to Gilles Gagné]

which is completely unexpected, becoming the new world record to beat; and that record holds to this day, and still hasn’t been beaten.