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Ten years ago, on July 4, 1998, 14 members of the Polaris/Victory staff at the company’s Spirit Lake, Iowa, manufacturing plant went into the plant on their day off and built the first Victory production model.
It was a Saturday and it was a holiday, the Fourth of July. But the employees knew they were about to begin Victory production the following week, and they figured they would launch the brand on the nation’s birthday.
“We saw that our starting date was going to be July 6th, but in a production meeting I said, ‘why don’t we make it on the Fourth of July,’” then-Plant Manager Chuck Crone said at the time. “In two days the idea had caught on. Then it was like, ‘Yeah, let’s do it!’”
The Fall 1998 issue of Polaris PRO Spirit magazine contained an article about the making of the first bike. Here’s an excerpt:
Joel Hoenk, manufacturing engineering supervisor, was initially reluctant about making July 4th the V92C’s birth date.
“First off, it’s right in the middle of a long holiday weekend, but then you think, ‘wait a minute, this could make for a pretty interesting story.’ I thought it would be pretty neat… In hindsight, it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. If you can seize the moment, you might as well do it, and that’s what we did.”
From that same issue, here is what amounts to the official record of the start of Victory production:
Official Birth Data for Production Bike #1
For the record, the Victory V92C motorcycle was built on July 4, 1998, at the Spirit Lake, Iowa, production facility. The bike was completed at approximately 1 p.m. (CDT).
Then the assembly team turned off the lights and resumed celebrating the nation’s birthday.
The Victory team members who took part that day were: Marshall Tennermann, Al Regelstad, Marilyn Helmers, Joel Hoenk, Tom Neil, Mike Kusche, Mark Welch, Dave Jones, Steve Miller, Bob Pecks, Tom Luers, Mike Richter, Greg Richards and Plant Manager Chuck Crone.
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