By Michael Dapper
VRA Page Webmaster

July 4th is prime time in Spirit Lake, Iowa. That’s the peak of the summer tourist season in what is known as the “Iowa Great Lakes Region.”

In Spirit Lake, the Fourth of July is a day to celebrate, a day to party and enjoy summer fun.

In 1998, it was a day to make a new kind of history – two-wheeled history.

On July 4, 1998, a small team of about a dozen Polaris/Victory employees awoke and drove to the assembly facility in Sprit Lake to build Victory No. 1.

The start of Victory’s mass production had been delayed somewhat by supplier snags, but everything needed for a handful of production models was available at the plant. The small team led by then-Plant Manager Chuck Crone decided the nation’s birthday was the ideal day for the first Victory to be born.

They met at the plant, assembled an Antares Red V92C on the new assembly line and celebrated as it fired to life in the final test station. They didn’t crate it because it would need to fulfill some celebrity obligations such as posing for photos in the next week with Hall Wendel, Jr., then the CEO of Polaris.

They only made one Victory that day. That was all it took to make history and put a new brand of motorcycle on the road.

After assembling the bike, the history makers left the plant to join family and friends at more-traditional Fourth of July activities in the Great Lakes area.

When Hall visited the plant, he was about to ride No. 1 between two rows of employees lined up to frame him on the bike’s first “ride.” Just before he took off, he asked a woman employee if she wanted to get on. “Sure,” she said, and she jumped on the passenger seat to share that first ride with the company’s chief.

Today, Victory No. 1 is on display at the Victory Roadhouse, the employee restaurant inside the company’s corporate headquarters in Medina, Minnesota.

Today, thousands and thousands of Victory riders are enjoying the Victory experience that started on July 4, 1998. That’s when a dedicated and history-aware group of employees decided to make company – and motorcycle history – on the most significant date in the nation’s history.

Happy Birthday, Victory.