Tony Simek is a lifelong snowmobiler and racer originally from Wisconsin. He has spent his career questioning conventional thinking and pushing snowmobile performance forward.
My relationship with Tony started with a question. I had been looking at his clutching and noticed that his angles and overall approach were unlike nearly every other brand and theory I had seen. I called him and asked, “Why is your setup so different from everyone else’s?”
The answerTony did not try to explain it over the phone.
“Let’s meet up, and I’ll prove it to you.”
That answer got my attention. I am a data-driven person, especially when it comes to race-sled performance. I loaded my race sleds, the fastest clutching setups I had developed and a timing system. Tony brought a boatload of TRS clutching components, and we headed into the mountains to test everything against the clock.
There was no guessing and no relying only on how something felt. We tested acceleration, backshift, track speed and throttle response. Across the areas we measured, Tony’s combinations outperformed the setups I had spent years developing. The results were clear enough that there was no debate about what belonged in the race sleds.
Tony joined the #22 program, and TRS clutching has remained in every one of my race sleds since that first mountain test. Tony has always said we will run the fastest setup, regardless of whose name is on the clutching. That willingness to let the data decide is one of the biggest reasons our partnership has lasted.
Over time, Tony became much more than a product supplier. He began coming to races and working alongside Curt Owen. His products, knowledge and willingness to keep testing helped take the #22 program to another level. More importantly, Tony became a trusted friend and part of the backbone of our race team.
Our partnership was not built from a sales pitch. It began with a challenge to prove performance on the mountain—and Tony did exactly that.
