After some amateur racing starting in 1977, Bruce Vessair turned to professional snowmobile racing and over the next 20 years became one of the sport’s top competitors.

By the mid-1980s he was travelling to the main snowmobile race venues, and in 1985 won a Formula 1 race at Wisconsin’s Eagle River and the next year captured the Kawartha Cup.

The native of Honey Harbor, Ontario, competed in the Sno-Pro Oval Racing Title series (SPORT) as part of a North American effort to bring this winter form of motorsport to the forefront.

A well-funded effort with sponsorship from Canadian Tire’s Motomaster brand, Vessair was always in the thick of things, placing second in the standings in 1987 and 1988. The next season it all came together as he won three SPORT rounds and the main event at Eagle River, giving him the series championship.

He repeated his success for the 1989-90 season, the first racer to win back-to-back titles. He was also second in the Ontario Snowmobile Racing Federation’s Super Mod II class and third in points in the OSFR’s Formula 1 division.