Hibbert Wins Thrilling Race In Front Of Huge Crowd

Twenty-four hours after a fabulous Pro Open final on a rough track at Shakopee, Minnesota’s Canterbury Park, the best snocross racers on the planet did it again – putting on a spectacular final in front of a huge crowd at the ISOC National sponsored by Traxxis and Jimmy John’s.

.       Weather that has been mega-depressing for snowmobilers in southern and central Minnesota proved to be excellent for snowmobile racing. Under a full moon on a perfectly clear night, the crowd exceeded promoters expectations both nights. Virtually every seat inside and outside of the horse racing track was filled, and hundreds if not thousands of additional fans crowded the standing area near the track.

.       After two rounds of qualifying heats and a last chance qualifying race, Saskatchewan-native Robbie Malinoski and Vermont-based TJ Gulla were the top qualifiers on their Scheuring Speed Sports Ski-Doo and Hentges Racing Polaris, respectively. The 15 who made the final (out of 25 entries) included six Ski-Doos, five Polaris sleds and four Arctic Cats.

.       On green for the 22-lap final, the black Amsoil-backed sleds of Malinoski and teammate Darrin Mees lurched into the lead, with Tucker Hibbert’s Cat and Tim Tremblay’s Ski-Doo hot on their heels, and points leader Ross Martin right behind them.

.       The first couple of laps, Malinoski pulled out to a 2.5 second lead, but there was a war behind him. Mees struggled to hold off Tremblay, while Hibbert was running fast and loose in fourth on his Monster Energy Arctic Cat. Then came the three Polaris of Martin, Gulla and Mike Bauer, with Logan Christian, Mathieu Morin and Bobby LePage rounding out the top 10.

.       By lap 4, Hibbert was on the move, literally flying past Tremblay at the starting line tabletop jump, then chasing down Mees and knifing past him with a block pass on lap 8. The winningest racer in modern snocross history spent the next five laps searching for lines while reeling in Malinowski. The two flew past flagman Bruce Mosher virtually tied on lap 15, but then Hibbert held the gas deep into turn one, doubling over a big hole that had gotten worn in by other riders and sailing into the lead.

[Read more]

Tremblay Claims Entertaining ISOC Canterbury Snocross

In one of the most entertaining final races in years, Quebec’s Tim Tremblay overcame a dogfight with three other top competitors to win Friday night’s Pro Open final at the Traxxis-sponsored Canterbury National in Shakopee, Minnesota.

.       Before that, however, Tremblay’s main fight this week was with customs agents that almost prevented his appearance at the race – more on that later.

.       On an unseasonably warm and windy night, 15 top pros worked their way into the final after two rounds of heat, followed by a last chance qualifier for some competitors.

.      The top qualifier was Wisconsin-based Polaris racer Ross Martin, and the season points leader showed his strength right away after the green flag waved, jumping out to an early lead while many sleds traded paint behind him.

.       After an initial shuffle, Amsoil Schuering Speed Sports teammates Robbie Malinoski and Darren Mees slotted in at second and third, with Cat racers Dan Ebert and Tucker Hibbert fourth and fifth. Then came Mathieu Morin, Tremblay, Garth Kaufman, recent jump record setter Levi LaVallee and Mike Bauer.

.       Four laps into the race, Malinoski started pressuring Martin. The two traded paint a couple of times, with Malinoski running into the back of Martin on one lap, then Martin forcing Malinoski over the burm in the same turn four a lap later. The two ran probably 8 laps never more than 8 sled-lengths apart.

[Read more]

Martin Wins Duluth National Final Sunday

Ross Martin proved that his Friday night victory was no fluke, while three-time defending Pro Class sweeper at Duluth Tucker Hibbert proved he and Arctic Cat have some work to be done as the Amsoil Duluth National wrapped up in northeastern Minnesota Sunday afternoon. It was the first round in what should prove to be a very interesting and competitive ISOC Amsoil Championship Snocross Series this winter.

.         After rugged qualifying rounds and a star-studded LCQ race (which saw Saturday night’s Pro winner Robbie Malinoski fall one spot short of qualifying for Sunday’s final) is was race time. Martin grabbed the Stud Boy holeshot award but ended up chasing Tim Tremblay’s Foremost Insurance-sponsored Ski-Doo down the hill for the first time and, in fact, for the first lap and a half. Behind them, carnage reigned, as first-year Pro Justin Broberg – the surprise No. 1 qualifier based on his excellent heat race results – tumbled in front of the pack while crowd favorite Levi LaVallee and LCQ winner Brett Bender also got caught up in the mess. Other sleds dove everywhere to stay out of the mess. LaVallee and Bender would rejoin the race in the back, but Broberg’s day was done.

.         Up front, Tremblay quickly built a nice lead, with Martin in tow and then a gap back to TJ Gulla (Polaris), Johan Lidman (Cat), Justin Tate (Polaris), Darrin Mees (Ski-Doo) and Dan Ebert (Cat), with cousins Tucker Hibbert (Cat) and Garth Kauffman (Cat) eighth and ninth.

.         It only took a couple of laps for things to change dramatically, and it started up front. Tremblay coasted off the track with an ill-running sled – an engine problem would end his day early and slot him into 14^th spot overall. Moments later, Justin Tate got separated from his sled just short of the start/finish line. Bender pulled off shortly thereafter – he reported having vision problems after his first lap crash.

.         Tremblay’s troubles left Martin all alone up front on his DuPont/Jack Links Polaris, and he didn’t spoil the opportunity. He put down one good lap after another with precision and pulled far ahead.

Ross Martin, right, pictured here with Colorado Rob Powers at Eagle River last year, earned two big victories at Duluth over the weekend. Look for photos from Duluth on this site later this week.

.         Deep in the pack, snocross dominator Hibbert was making a charge. He got a horrible holeshot and had to fight through traffic, similar to Saturday night’s final, but he was making it work. He worked his way past Mees on about lap 9, then sliced past Lidman into third on lap 11. He would spend the next 9 laps in pursuit of Gulla.

.         Gulla was making time on a track that almost ended his career two years earlier. On December 12, 2009, Gulla got separate from his sled in a qualifying race, scrambled to his feet and was running toward his machine when another sled landed on him. He ended up with a fractured skull that kept him off a sled until last November. A couple of weeks after that, he finished fourth here at Duluth last year. [Read more]

Tucker Hibbert Wins Piranha-X Western Nationals In Utah

PRESS RELEASE: Tucker Hibbert made his new sponsor proud winning the Piranha-X Pro Super Stock final at the third round of

Tucker Hibbert takes flight. Photo by Wayne Davis, courtesy of ISOC

competition in the AMSOIL Championship Snocross Series at beautiful Rio Tinto stadium in Sandy, Utah. Just as it has played out at each of the previous two rounds this season, Hibbert backed up his performance with a win in the AMSOIL Pro Open, sweeping the Piranha-X Western National presented by Fly Racing.

Ross Martin has been the quick starter at most of the rounds so far, but Saturday night it was Bobby LePage who jumped to the lead on his LeVallee Racing Polaris. This on the heels of a first lap red flag restart that saw several riders pile up on the back straight. Once in the lead, LePage stretched his margin with Ross Martin in tow. Midway through the final, Martin worked his way by LePage, while Hibbert began his charge.

[Read more]

Hibbert Sweeps Again, This Time In Fargo

We’re two full weekends through the International Series of Champions Amsoil Super Snocross season, and the pecking order has taken shape.

            Combining Pro Open and Pro Super Stock, there have been four finals. In all four, Tucker Hibbert won the race on his Monster Energy-backed Arctic Cat. In all four finals, Ross Martin has finished second on his Dupont-backed Polaris. And, in three out of four, Tim Tremblay took third on his Warnert Racing Ski-Doo.  

            In Fargo, North Dakota, this weekend, Hibbert continued his domination of the national snocross scene, but Martin made it clear that he isn’t going to go down without a fight.

            In a change from the norm, the Pro Open class ran first this weekend, and Robbie Malinoski was the top qualifier after a couple rounds of heats. In the final, however, Martin was first off the line and jumped out to a lead he would hold for the first 16 laps. Hibbert actually dismounted briefly while in chase, but remounted and ended up taking the lead late and pulling away to a 4.8-second victory.

            If that sounds familiar, it’s because Hibbert followed Martin at Duluth in Pro Open, took the lead late and had a 4.4 second victory there.

            Tremblay overcame his own dismount and hung on for third, with Malinowski forth on his Amsoil-backed Ski-Doo. Finishing one lap down but in fifth place was first-year pro Justin Broberg. The rest of the top 10 were TJ Gulla, Dan Ebert, Christian Salemark, Zach Pattyn and Johan Lidman.

            It was chilly for the Pro Open final Friday night, but it was downright wicked cold Saturday for Pro Super Stock. The sun was shining, but the wind was howling, creating a windchill of minus 25. The area was spared the monster snow found across the border and further southeast in Minnesota, to the delight of race officials who wanted a crowd, but we’re guessing most riders in the area would have welcomed the fresh white stuff.

            Once again, Martin lead early but Hibbert overcame an early battle with Malinoski, then chased down and passed Martin late en route to a 3.6-second victory. A tussle in traffic resulted in a front suspension damage and an early end to Malinoski’s day. Tremblay held on for third. TJ Gulla was the only other sled on the lead lap and claimed fourth on his Polaris, with Cat’s Garth Kaufman fifth.

            Dan Ebert was sixth on his Cat, with Andrew Johnstad a strong seventh on a Polaris after being let go from the Schuering Speed Sports Ski-Doo team after the Duluth event. Pattyn, Lidman and Wes Selby rounded out the top 10.

Johnson wins at Beausejour; Johnstad Out, Elam In At Schuering Speed Sports

Let’s get you caught up on some quick racing news this Monday:

Johnson Wins At Beausejour

The ice oval racing season started this weekend at Beausejour, and the final results that are posted at the CPTC web site list Brandon Johnson as the winner on his Wahl Bros. No. 22 Polaris. But, according to the buzz on the message boards at snowgoer.com, it wasn’t as simple as that.

Brandon Johnson, pictured here on last year's sled at Eagle River, claimed first in Champ 440 at Beausejour, Manitoba

           Michigan’s Gary Moyle led several laps at the beginning of the race on his Rotax-powered mod before he blew a belt. That handed the lead to “Flyin’” Bryan Bewcyk of neighboring Winnipeg, who later succumbed to problems related to a coolant leak.

            All of this is not to say that Johnson was slow on his Jimmy John’s backed sled, however. He was the only driver to make it through all four of his heat races with victories. Michigan’s Malcolm Chartier finished second on his Houle-built Ski-Doo, with three-time World Champ PJ Wanderscheid third on his Hooper Cat.

           It appeared to be a good weekend for Team Wahl Bros. Dustin Wahl took the Champ 600 final ahead of Matt Schulz and Brandon Johnson. Jordan Wahl claimed the Formula 500 final.

            For more, and for some cool photos of the event by Rob Bye, make sure to check out the Ovals board on the SnowGoer website.

Elam In, Johnstad Out With Schuering

The Amsoil-backed Schuering Speed Sports team will have a new look this weekend at round two of the ISOC season. Andrew Johnstad has left the team and has been replaced in the Pro class by Willie Elam.

Willie Elam will join the Pro ranks for Schuering Speed Sports

            Johnstad, 24, of Beltrami, Minnesota, is a former Semi-Pro points champion on the national snocross circuit, but he looked quite bad at the season-opening Duluth Snocross race November 26-28, with a fifth being his best Pro Super Stock class finish, and a seventh was his best heat in Pro Open. Not surprisingly, he didn’t qualify for either final. No word on whether the problem was related to injury or mechanical issues, but Johnstad looked noticeable slow and unenthused going around the track.

            Elam, of Buhl, Idaho, is a longtime racer out West who has made appearances in Pro and Semi Pro on Cat, Polaris and Ski-Doo equipment over the years. Last year he only raced one weekend on the ISOC circuit, and claimed third in the Semi-Pro Open final at Utah.

            ““Willie was in Duluth racing out of his own pocket and that alone says a lot about his character and determination,” said team owner Steve Scheuring. Elam is also an experienced free rider and is expected to take part in the Speed & Style competition at the Winter X Games.

News & Notes From The Duluth Snocross

As with any event, several things occurred at the season-opening ISOC Amsoil Duluth National that didn’t make the main story. Here’s a notebook dump of sorts, plus a look at some of the stats behind the race.

• The Pro Super Stock final Saturday night included 6 Polaris sleds, 5 Arctic Cats and 4 Ski-Doos, which reflected their driver entry numbers fairly well, as Polaris had 12 entries in the class, Cat had 11 and Ski-Doo had 6. In the Pro Open, Cat had 7 of its 10 sleds in the final, Polaris had just 4 of its 10 and Ski-Doo placed 4 of its 6 entries.
• Each day, the Pro podium looked the same, from a brand standpoint, with a Cat driver on the top step (that’s Tucker Hibbert), a Polaris driver on his right (second-place Ross Martin each day) and a third-place Ski-Doo Canadian driver on his left (Tim Tremblay in Stock, Brett Turcotte in Pro Open).
  

  Before Sunday's Pro final, (from left) Garth Kaufman, Tucker Hibbert and TJ Gulla searched the race track on foot, looking for good lines.

• The top 9 drivers in the Pro Open final come from 9 different places. In order of finish, you’ve got Minnesota (Hibbert), Wisconsin (Martin), British Columbia (Turcotte), Sweden (Johan Lidman), Quebec (Tim Tremblay), Alberta (Ryan Simons), Idaho (Garth Kaufman), Vermont (TJ Gulla) and Ontario (Iain Hayden). It wasn’t until we got to Quebecois Matheiu Morin that we had our first repeat in terms of state or province. 
• From the “friendly faces” department, it was good to see Justin Tate back out at the snocross races again this year. The 34-year-old now living in Scandia, Minnesota, won every time he hit the track in Pro Am Plus 30, and he missed the regular Pro Super Stock final by one spot after finishing sixth in the LCQ.
  

  Kody Kamm (center) is flanked by James Johnstad and Brett Nastala in the all-Polaris Sport Super Stock podium

• A total of 48 drivers were entered in the Semi-Pro Super Stock class, but there was a clear pecking order at Duluth, as the same five drivers finished in the top five positions both days – you’d think at least one of them would have had trouble in a heat race or something in such a crowded field. Again, there was a lot of geography covered: Minnesotan Cody Thomsen won the final in the class Saturday night on his Cat ahead of Darrin Mees (New York, Ski-Doo), Mike Bauer (Wisconsin, Polaris), Derek Ellis (North Dakota, Ski-Doo) and John Stenberg (Sweden, Ski-Doo). Sunday, it was Ellis winning, followed by Thomsen, Mees, Stenberg and then Bauer. They may be setting up a season-long battle to be the new Semi-Pro Super Stock champ after last year’s title holder, Logan Christian, moved up to Pro this year. [Read more]

Hibbert Scores Season-Opening Stock Victory

It didn’t look good for the king of snocross racing at the season-opening ISOC Amsoil Duluth National. Through heat races, mega superstar Tucker Hibbert didn’t sniff the lead, getting beat in round one by Bobby LePage and then finishing behind both Ross Martin and Tim Tremblay in the second round.

            Then, in the final on a temperate night at the host Spirit Mountain Ski Resort just south of Duluth, Minnesota, Hibbert reacted slow at the starting line and started the race in the middle of the pack. Up at the front? It was TJ Gulla, Martin and Tremblay.

Tucker Hibbert celebrates his Pro Stock final victory at Duluth

          But with money on the line, Hibbert methodically picked his way through traffic on his Arctic Cat, searched for winning lines and took home another victory before a cheering crowd.

            The highest qualifier after the heat races was Brett Turcotte on his No. 16 Boss Racing Ski-Doo. The driver from British Columbia got the all important line choice for the crowded start, but it didn’t work out to his favor. He got caught in a washout and ended up toward the back of the pack.

            Instead, it was the Vermont-native Gulla charging into the lead on his Hentges Racing Polaris. Insiders in the infield and some up on the pit wall were openly cheering – it was one year ago at this very event where Gulla suffered a season-ending and career-threatening injury. Seeing him back on the track was inspirational enough – seeing him in the lead was awe-inspiring.

Another podium shot, another big win by Cody Thomsen

[Read more]

Winter Kicks Off With Duluth Snocross, And Fantasy Sports For Sledheads

The winter snowmobile racing season is here – at last!!

            I work with words for a living, but I can’t find any to describe how excited I am for the coming snowmobiling season. Right now, Andy is coming back from a dealership with two brand new Ski-Doo demo units; at the same time Randy is in the office next to me working on promotional materials for the new Snow Goer Snowmobile Racing Challenge that launched yesterday; at the same time as that, I’ve been exchanging emails with ISOC officials in preparation for this weekend’s Amsoil Duluth National, which will kick off the racing season.

          Busy? Yes. Excited? Beyond words!

         Let’s get into the racing stuff, in reverse order of how I mentioned them above. The Duluth National is an event I simply refuse to miss. I attended my first one in 1993 and fell in love – what an awesome way to kick off the new winter every year.

         Officials from the host Spirit Mountain ski hill and the host race circuit, the International Series of Champions, have been building a wonderful track, race teams have been busy practicing at their own facilities, and it’s almost go-time.

         You want updates from the races this weekend? You can come right back here to the blog site for them! I’ll be there Saturday and Sunday, and I’ll post news each evening from the event.

          Beyond that, me and Art Director Randy Kepner will see exactly how smart our smart phone is, with updates from the infield posted to our Facebook page (friend SnowGoer Magazine, if you haven’t already).

          Now, to the other big news: the kickoff of fantasy sports for sledheads – the Snow Goer Snowmobile Racing Challenge. You can read our press release material by clicking here, I’ll give you the cliff notes: Players pick from a menu of drivers, and get points based upon how their drivers finish. Top players can earn prizes, but everybody battles for bragging rights. The Challenge covers all of the ISOC national snocross races, plus the Eagle River World Championship, the Soo I-500, the USCC Red Lake I-500 cross country event and the Winter X Games snocross final. For year-end points, only your best eight weeks will count, so people can join late, or blow off a couple of events if they want to.

          It’s really cool, and it’s generating a lot of excitement right out of the box. It went live about 4 p.m. yesterday, and we’ve already got 48 players as I write this at 11:30 a.m. the next day. Fabulous!! Sign up now – it’s free, fun and easy!

Ah, winter. I’m so glad to see you!

Want Snowmobile Racing To Be Fun? Pay Attention

 We’re just days away from the opening of the snowmobile racing season, with the ISOC Duluth Snocross kicking off next Friday, November 26, in Duluth, Minnesota. The following weekend, the oval racing season kicks off at one of the coolest venues in the sport – the Canadian Power Toboggan Championships track in Beausejour, Manitoba. The weekend after that, things get going out east with the East Coast Snocross opener in Burke, Vermont.

These guys switched brands for the coming season: Knowing that makes how they do in Duluth this year very interesting.

          Good times await for family members and true fans at the various venues. And, as a fan of any sort of motorsport myself, I can’t wait. But I realized a couple weekends ago, while at a NASCAR race in Texas, the difference between truly enjoying a motorized soap opera and merely watching fast machines making laps. It is all about the bye-in of the individual fan.

            I was at the NASCAR race as a part of a REALLY cool Arctic Cat junket involved the company’s ATV division. That weekend at Texas Motor Speedway, Arctic Cat had its name emblazoned on the No. 1 Chevy driven by the popular Jamie McMurray. It was fabulous.

            But while sitting in the crowd immerse in the events happening on each lap, I looked around me at several fellow motor journalists and some Arctic Cat officials and saw completely different levels of interest. A few of us were literally hanging on the edge of our seat, leaning forward toward the action, completely saturated. Many others in our group, however, including many fellow snowmobilers and a few snowmobile racing fans, were leaning back and staring off into the distance.

            The difference, of course, was how big of fans of this type of racing we were, but tied to that was how much members of the two different groups were absorbing based on their background.

Having a Cat-sponsored car to cheer for in Texas.

            To me and a couple of others, we immediately saw Kurt Busch dropping toward the back and wondered what that said about the Penske Dodges on this day. We saw five different cars come in during the first 20 laps to have tape removed from the front end of the cars, and knew that overheating was the problem. We saw eventual winner Denny Hamlin drift backwards early in the race and knew the potential implications in the standings. We saw perennial good-guy Jeff Burton completely take out Jeff Gordon, and wondered how that could be. We hooted and hollered when bad boy Kyle Busch was penalized two laps for flipping off a NASCAR official.

            The others in our group? They heard loud engines, saw flashes of colors and general enjoyed themselves, but they didn’t know all of the stories and subplots, they weren’t engaged in the implications and meanings.

            I see the same thing at some snowmobile races. I’ve brought some friends, and a couple of times my son, to sled races and they merely saw sleds clicking off laps. It’s fun, but they weren’t intrigued enough to go back. But if they only knew that the guy who won the race in front of them was a semi-pro last year but he just beat Tucker Hibbert in a heat, they’d appreciate it more. If they knew that Polaris hadn’t won an Eagle River World Championship since 1978, they would have been more intrigued as Matt Schulz was putting together a stellar weekend at the Derby last year. Some people merely saw sleds driving across the water last summer at Grantsburg; others saw a second generation victory by the son of a legend.

Each driver who touches the cup at Eagle River has a story to tell.

    Some of that background information is gained through experience, but it’s amazing how much can be gained by paying attention to the announcers and doing just a tiny bit of homework before you go to an event. When I go to a car race at a local Saturday night racetrack, I pay attention and find out who the points leader is in each class, and when an underdog wins a class, I’m pretty darned happy for him. Before I go to the World Of Outlaw sprint car races in Wisconsin every July, I go to the World Of Outlaw web site and find out who’s leading the points, who’s been doing well and who’s making a comeback – it truly enhances the experience for me.

            Bottom line: I hope to see some of you at Duluth next weekend; I’m not going to make it to Beausejour, but I’ll be watching the web to see who does well. If you go, do yourself a favor and either do a little digging before you go, or pay attention to the P.A. announcer – maybe even walk through the pits, if you’re allowed to. You’ll have a much better time, and you’ll go home with much better memories.

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