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]

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!

86 Degrees And Dreaming Of Sleds

It’s 86 degrees in the Twin Cities as I write this – Indian Summer (or, should I say, Native American Summer Soltice?) has officially taken hold. Half of our office (or more) is looking for an excuse to leave early. Motorcycles are everywhere on the local streets, folks are making plans for an unexpected last weekend of boating – and all I can think about is sleds!

            It’s crunch time in our office, as we work hard to get another issue of Snow Goer (in this case, our January cover date issue) to our printer. Andy’s off on one project, Tom’s off on another, so the only person here to give the pages a final read-through is little old me, and it’s killing me. In this case, “It” is not the workload; what’s killing me is reading all of these stories about riding.

            Managing Editor Andy Swanson has got a really good story about a club ride he took in northern Minnesota last year in this issue; longtime contributor Tim Erickson has an outstanding review of the 2011 Sno Pro 500 based on our ride at West Yellowstone, Montana, last spring; I’ve got a writeup on our Power Cruiser Shootout, featuring all of the big four strokes. Each story has a certain “put-you-there” charm that has me yearning for winter. I want to be on that trail that Andy talks about; I want to fling a Sno Pro 500 down a rugged ditchline, which Tim writes about….

This feature and many others have me dreaming of snow!!

            Instead, it’s 86 degrees and sunny.  Oh well.

            Whatever you have planned for this weekend, make it a good one. And remember, in as soon as eight weeks if snow permits, the snowmobile trails will start opening in some parts of the country!

Dan Ebert wins USCC Red Lake I-500

Dan Ebert powered across the finish line to win the USCC Red Lake I-500 today in Thief River Falls, Minn.

Arctic Cat racer Dan Ebert won the Pro 600 class in the 2010 United States Cross-Country (USCC) Red Lake I-500 today. He covered the 505-mile course in 8 hours, 11 minutes, 35 seconds. Gabe Bunke (8:13:42) finished second on a Polaris 600 Rush and Ryan Huston (8:16:22) finished third, also on an Arctic Cat.

[Read more]

Matt Schulz Earns Historic World Championship

Schulz hoists the coveted Snow Goer Cup after winning the World Championship.

The Eagle River World Championship Snowmobile Derby is always about history, but Matt Schulz’ victory Sunday at the famed Derby track truly was one for the ages.

     By winning in dominating fashion with a green-to-checkered run, Wausau, Wisconsin’s Schulz became:

• The first Wisconsin driver since Dale Loritz in 1995 to keep the Snow Goer Cup in its own state.
• The first Polaris driver to win the World Championship since Steve Thorsen claimed the title in 1978.
• The second second-generation driver to win snowmobiling’s premier race – following his uncle and lead mechanic Al Fenhaus, the 1993 champion, much like Terry Wahl followed in the footsteps of his uncle Dave Wahl.
• The comeback racer of the year. A year ago, Schulz showed up at Eagle River wearing a halo – he broke his neck the previous weekend at the USSA oval race in Plymouth, Wisconsin, and was forced to watch the World Championship race – without turning his head.

     Schulz was fast all weekend, claiming the fast time in Thursday’s trials and winning his heat and semi-final in Saturday’s qualifying. The only time he was beat on the track was in the Friday Night Thunder Program, when a clutching issues relegated him to second behind three-time champion PJ Wanderscheid.

Matt Schulz was flawless in the 25-lap final, and collected $20,000 for the effort.

     Sunday, the roles were reversed. Schulz clutching was dialed in perfectly, as his Larry Rugland Motorsports-powered mod rocketed off the starting line and into turn one ahead of a star-studded field that included four ex-champions that had claimed a combined 10 world titles (Jacques Villeneuve 3; Wanderscheid 3; Gary Moyle 2; Brian Bewcyk, 2).

     Wanderscheid settled into second, with the surprising Jason Lavallee claiming third for several laps. He was followed by an angry pack in the early going, with Dan Fenhaus on his heels, Malcolm Chartier in fourth and Dustin Wahl in fifth.

     Deep in the pack, the two former champs who started in the back row after qualifying through Sunday’s last chance qualifier, Villeneuve and Moyle, tried to fight through traffic. By lap six in the 25-lap final, Villeneuve was up to seventh in the 12-lap field.

[Read more]

Andrew Carlson Wins Elk River Semi-Pro Open

Elk River, Minnesota (January 5, 2010) – Racing your home track  is usually always cause for celebration, but this past weekend such jubilation was held in check for Team Sportech as the challenges of the ERX Motor Park track were heightened by lingering heavy snow dust creating a very difficult  racing environment. Still there was cause for celebration as Andrew Carlson captured his first win of the season in Semi-Pro Open amid very stiff competition.

        With an off-weekend on the national tour, the focus of the snocross racing community turned to the Minnesota Regional ISOC event held at ERX Motor Park in Elk River, Minnesota. Many of the Midwest’s top teams were in attendance taking advantage of the “close” proximity of the event thereby creating a level of competition likened to a national.

[Read more]