He's been approached by motocross riders from Timaru, and elsewhere, who have begun to race bikes in summer and Ski-Doos (Ski-Doo, snowmobile and sled are used interchangeably) in winter.
Snowmobile use in New Zealand had previously been limited to maintenance and patrol work on professional skifields, or as winter transportation on high country sheep and wind farms, said Murrell.
"But that's changing - more of the high performance racing machines are being sold and a lot of guys can't wait to get their hands on them. These sleds have more suspension, you can't ride them two-up and they have vastly more performance. In fact, they'll go 150km/h or faster.
"In North America Ski-Doo racing has been popular for years and though we'll never see that kind of scale here, just watch. The sport shows every sign of following the tracks of racing motorcycles, jetskis and quad bikes.
"First off all these vehicles just got used for transportation, work and recreation purposes, but then later for competition as well.
"Small as the sport may be - it will be no different with snowmobiles."
