Annual Snowmobile Event Returning:

Shoot Out to honor memory of co-founder George Taylor 

The Shoot Out, an annual event that features “out of the box” snowmobile testing and racing on the grounds of the Otter Lake Fish and Game  Club, is scheduled for Friday, December 7.

Now in its 23rd year, organizers have announced the event’s name change to The George Taylor Memorial Shoot Out, in homage to co-founder George Taylor who passed away on August 30, 2012.

Taylor, former owner of Van Auken’s Inne, co-founded the event with Jim Czekala of Dyno Tech Research and Tom Smith, former owner of Smith Marine.

The inaugural race was held on a farmer’s field on Route 12. But, according to Czekala, who worked side-by-side with Taylor since the Shoot Out’s inception, the event was then held at the Ole Barn in Inlet before finding a home for the last 15 years on the grounds of the Otter Lake Fish and Game Club.

Czekala said the idea for a local Shoot Out came about when the snowmobile trade magazines became suspicious that snowmobile manufacturers were modifying sleds and making them more powerful prior to the larger Shoot Outs they sponsored.

“The sleds they sent appeared to be normal looking, but they were more powerful than the ones the consumer got,” he said.

A true Shoot Out is a test of sled models that come right out of the box to see which accelerates the best and which is the fastest, Czekala said.

This year’s event will feature sleds from Smith Marine of Old Forge, Fun Unlimited of Watertown, and D.D. Water Sports of Lowville.

All of the new 120 and 150 horsepower class stock snowmobiles will be tested, according to Czekala, as will the unlimited and ultra performer stock snowmobiles, including the Arctic Cat Turbo and the Supercharged Yamaha Nytro.

Spectators can expect to see a new “Turbo Time” category of testing added to this year’s event, he said.

“We have invited all of the high performance tuning companies to bring Arctic Cat Turbo sleds to have a Shoot Out to see who can make the machines perform the fastest and the quickest on our test track,” he said.

The George Taylor Memorial Shoot Out is hosted by Czekala, Smith, and American Snowmobiler Magazine, and will be held the same weekend as Snodeo, Old Forge’s traditional kick-off event of the snowmobile season. More details about the Shoot Out will follow in the coming weeks.

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