Inaugural Oval Racers Alliance Event a Success

The weekend of February 5-7, 2010 marked the beginning of the Oval Racers Alliance’s first season.  A total of approximately 536 entries and 120 drivers made for extremely close racing in both modern and vintage classes at the I-94 Speedway in Sauk Centre, MN.
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Wanderscheid Earns World Championship Pole In Friday Night Program

PJ Wanderscheid earned the pole position for Sunday's World Championship with a Sweet Sixteen victory Friday night.

Arctic Cat’s P.J. Wanderscheid started his pursuit to become the first four-time Eagle River World Champion in style, earning the pole position in a smooth and efficient Friday Night Thunder program at the famous Derby Track in northern Wisconsin.

     Wanderscheid, age 26, led the World Snowmobile Headquarters-sponsored Sweet Sixteen Pole Position race from the opening green flag all the way to the checkered flag 16 laps later, besting a star-studded field of competitors all aiming for the World Championship title on Sunday. He was chased throughout the race by Nick VanStrydonk and Thursday’s time trial winner Matt Schulz – with Schulz undercutting VanStrydonk on the last lap to claim second. Malcolm Chartier took fourth, with three-time champ Jacques Villeneuve fifth and two-time champ Gary Moyle sixth.

     Ultimately, only first place counted on Friday night – that person gets to skip Saturday’s multi-round qualifying process and transfers directly into Sunday front row pole position. Wanderscheid earned that honor in style, and put all of his competition on notice.

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Eagle River Time Trials: Schulz On Top!

Matt Schulz, pictured here at Shakopee being chased by Dustin Wahl, earned the fast time in qualifying at Eagle River Thursday afternoon.

The time trials for the Eagle River World Championship have wrapped up, and the man at the top of the list isn’t an ex-champion, but rather a young racer who has been lightning fast this year.

     Matt Schulz of Wausau, Wisconsin, posted a 17.813 second qualifying time, besting a field that includes three multi-time champions and putting his Wahl-chassis up front in Saturday’s qualifying heat races.

     Another young racer from Wisconsin’s Northwoods took the second spot. Nick VanStrydonk of nearby Tomahawk was two-hundreths behind Schulz, posting a 17.833 on his Polaris-powered mod.

     Dustin Wahl (18.148) posted the third-fast time on his Wahl/Polaris combination. He’ll try again to be the third Wahl to earn a World Championship on Sunday. Malcolm Chartier (18.198) took fourth on his Houle-built, Ski-Doo powered Champ sled.

     The first ex-champion in time trials was three-time winner Jacques Villeneuve (18.203), and he was followed closely by fellow three-timer PJ Wanderschied (18.203). Both are attempting to be the first to earn four titles at Eagle River.

     The rest of the top 10 were Dan Fenhaus (18.337), Nick Lagoy (18.355), two-time defending champion Bryan Bewcyk (18.391) and Jay Ryden (18.406). Last week’s winner at the USSA race in Plymouth, Spencer Graff, timed in 11th.

     Of the rest of the pack of 25 who took the flag for time trials, the most notable fact was that two-time champion Gary Moyle was way back in 14th place. He’s got a funky new chassis this year, and he may not have it figured out yet. That said, Moyle has done this before – timed in at mid-pack – and came back and won on Sunday.

     Maybe it’s because Moyle knows time trials mean very little here. With the Derby’s unique qualifying process, which involve a couple rounds of heat races on Saturday, time trials means very little, other than the seating in those heat races. Still, Schulz showed incredible strength in gaining the fast time, and may have opened some eyes in the pits.

     Check back all weekend for updates. Things really get rolling tomorrow, with the big Friday Night Thunder program, and we’ll be there, taking photos and giving you the inside scoop. Tell your friends!

Tim Tremblay Ends Hibbert’s Run Of Perfection

Tucker Hibbert’s run of perfection is over, and the person who broke the string is somebody that hardly anybody would have picked a couple weeks ago.

     First-year pro Tim Tremblay, running a Warnert Racing, NSK-sponsored Ski-Doo, led pretty much from green to checkered Saturday night in Sandy, Utah, running away with the Pro Open final.

     The victory followed Tremblay’s second-place finish in Pro Stock moments ago, proving that his victory was no fluke. Some doubters may note that Hibbert crashed with eight laps left in the race, but Hibbert was not a factor in this final – he was running third at the time, roughly five seconds behind Tremblay, and three seconds behind Ross Martin, who held second place until the end.

     A sizable crowd was on hand in the Salt Lake City suburb, making host organization ISOC very happy they took the risk to venture west.

     After the race, the Quebecois winner searched for words to describe how good it all felt.

     “I’m living a dream right now, I can’t believe it — To get first place in the pros, I can’t believe it,” Tremblay said. “I felt like Ross Martin was behind me, but I just didn’t look back and I had great lines, and I tried to put everything (together) to go fast, and it just worked good.”

     Martin finished a solid second and solidified himself in the points, while fellow Polaris racer Robbie Malinoski recovered from some qualifying-race crashes that left him banged up and starting in the back row to finish third.

     “It was one of those deal where I found a little hole off the starting line and was able to get through it,” Malinoski said. “Then I just put my head down and continued to work hard. I’m super pumped. We were kind of down in the dumps earlier today after we had a couple of crashes in the qualifiers, this is exactly what we needed.”

     Cory Davis finished fourth, followed by fellow Cat racers Garth Kaufman, Dan Ebert and Hibbert, who remounted and climbed his way back up to seventh.

     Make sure to check out our story on the Pro Stock final elsewhere on this web site.

Big Excitement In Utah National

People in the pits talk about what it’s going to take to stop the T-Train, the nickname for snocross stud Tucker Hibbert.

      He went undefeated last year, and this year he opened the second by sweeping both pro classes at Duluth, Minnesota, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

      Well in Utah for round three, that train turned into a self described “monster truck” but kept on a roll in Pro Stock.

      Hibbert was the No. 1 qualifier and jumped out to a holeshot and immediately started pulling away from the field on his Monster Energy Drink-sponsored Arctic Cat.

      Behind him, two first-year pros battled it out for second place, as Minnesota Cat rider Dan Ebert and Quebec-native Tim Tremblay on a Ski-Doo swapped the second spot. Ebert was second off the line, but Tremblay took the spot by the end of the first lap. Ebert grabbed the spot back about four laps later and held the runner up spot until about lap 6, when the two traded paint and Tremblay returned to second.

      Behind them, Zach Pattyn, Ross Martin and Levi Lavallee slotted into the next three spots and stayed close to each other throughout the event.

      About eight laps into the 22-lap final, however, Matt Judnick and Ryan Simons got tangled up in turn in particularly loose snow, and they and corner workers couldn’t separate the two machines. That created a race-long obstacle for competitors, and it just about ended Hibbert run of perfection.

      Shortly before Hibbert entered the turn with about 9 laps to go, a third sled got tangled in the mess, and Hibbert came hot into the turn with nowhere to go.

      “It was pretty wild man,” Hibbert explained after the race. “Some sleds were stuck there the whole time, and I came around one lap and there was a third sled there and I didn’t know what to do, I just drove right into them….I thought I was done for sure, I said it to myself in my helmet.”

      But then Hibbert went “monster truck” on the whole event, clawing his way over Judnick’s sled to get out of the mess. He lost a couple seconds off of his 5-second lead, but he escaped.  

      “I think I owe those guy some new parts, because I wrecked their sleds there when I went over them,” Hibbert said with a chuckle.

      He expanded his lead back to 4.188 seconds by the time he went by the waving checkered flag with his 51rst Pro victory. Everybody behind him stayed in line, meaning Tremblay (Doo) was second, Ebert (Cat) third, and then Pattyn (Cat), Martin (Pol) and LaVallee (Pol). Kaufman (Cat) held seventh, with Steve Taylor (Doo), Robbie Malinoski (Pol) and Andrew Johnstad (Pol) rounding out the top 10.

      Tremblay unleashed a fist pump when he crossed the finish line in second. “Second place for my first year as a pro, that’s a pretty good finish, I think,” the French-Canadian racer said afterward.

      Ebert seemed to appreciate his spot on the podium, and his battle with Tremblay.

      “We had a little contact there but it was good, it was a lot of fun racing there,” Ebert said.

      The Pro Open final is just about an hour away – check back for details.

Wahl Opens Season On Top

If you are a snowmobile racing fan within an easy drive of Minnesota’s Twin Cities, shame on you for missing a fabulous event.

            The WSA Pro-Ice season opener December 19-20 at Shakopee, Minnesota’s Raceway Park was a really good racing event at a really cool facility. Sadly, it was missed by most, as only a small crowd was on hand to see some very exciting racing, particularly in the Champ 440 class.

            Sixteen of the very best drivers in the Upper Midwest, including World Champions PJ Wanderscheid (2002, 2003, 2006), Gary Moyle (2005, 2007) and Bryan Bewcyk (2008, 2009) battled it out on the ice-covered blacktop racing track, but in the end the winner was a second-generation driver that many are expecting to be a future World Champion.

            Dustin Wahl of the Greenbush, Minnesota-based Wahl Bros. Racing Team opened the season on top, first claiming the super-exciting 600 class Saturday afternoon and then the event-closing Champ 440 final Sunday afternoon in front of a fast field.

            Wanderscheid got the holeshot and held the point for the first half of the race, but standing trackside it was obvious that it was only a matter of time before the talented Cat racer gave way to the faster Polaris-powered mod being driven by Wahl. Just past the halfway point, Wahl claimed the lead by driving under Wanderscheid on the front stretch, then he pulled away. Wanderscheid finished a solid second. Moyle was mired back in traffic on his new, tubular chassis machine, and Bewcyk didn’t make the 12-sled final.

            Wahl’s victory was more dramatic Saturday, when he used a last-lap pass to slice past Mike Schultz for the victory.

          After the race, Dustin’s father Dave Wahl reported that the sled the team was using was actually last year’s chassis. A new chassis has been completed, but “we thought this one was fast enough,” said the retired three-time champion. We guess so. 

            Check back with SnowGoerRacing.com later this week – we took a ton of photos and will upload a bunch from snowmobile oval racing, ATV racing on the same surface and, yes, even lawn mower racing. Stay tuned.

Hibbert Takes National Win No. 50 Saturday Night In Milwaukee

This just in, Tucker Hibbert is human – and he was actually beat at the snowy and windy Milwaukee National.

Tucker Hibbert took Pro win No. 50 in his career at Milwaukee

The problem, at least for the competition, is that Hibbert’s defeats came in heat races. When it was time to chase the cheese, Hibbert again schooled the field in both Pro Stock on Friday night and Pro Open on Sunday night.

            For Hibbert, the driver who swept every Pro weekend last year before leaving the circuit to chase his motocross dreams, it was another weekend sweep to start this season after doing the same thing last weekend in Duluth, Minnesota. It was win number 50 on the national snocross scene – between WPSA and ISOC – for Hibbert.

            Saturday night, Hibbert again scored a come behind victory. The holeshot and early lead was claimed by Brett Bender on the No. 19 Polaris of New York, Bender held the point for the first three laps in the 22 lap final before being passed in the air over the main tabletop jump by Hibbert. Hibbert again methodically pulled away on his Monster Energy Drink Arctic Cat, pulling away to a 9 second victory.

            On the podium, Hibbert said about the only problem he has was with the roost, reporting that one time he got a mouthful of snow when pulling up behind a sled he was about to lap that made it hard for him to breath. From the outside, though, nobody could tell, as Hibbert again looked close to perfect.

            Bender held second the rest of the race – fellow Polaris racer Ross Martin closed within .8 seconds a couple of times, but he never got close enough to truly challenge. Those two took the last two spots on the podium.

            “Right before the race I was telling my dad [hall of fame racer Tim Bender] and everybody [on his team] that if I just got through the first corner I’d be excited because it seems I haven’t got through that first corner yet this year,” said Bender, who had gotten tangled up with riders early in the other three finals this year.

            “As soon as [Hibbert] got by me, I though, OK, just calm down and try to stay with him and see what he’s doing,” Bender said. But Bender bobbled a couple times and allowed Hibbert out of his sights.  

            Hibbert, meanwhile, admitted being human on the podium, saying that sometimes he struggles to find the motivation to keep training for riding. But, between devine inspiration for the religious rider, a desire to not let his team down and the threat of competitors sneaking up on him, Hibbert continues to push to improve.

            “I’d like to say thanks to the fans, the whole team, and thanks to the guys on the podium for giving me the motivation to keep working hard,” Hibbert said.

            Robbie Malinoski (Pol) finished fourth, followed be Brett Tucotte (Doo), Cory Davis (Cat), Tim Tremblay (Doo), Emil Ohman (Doo), Dan Ebert (Cat) and Paul Bauerly (Doo). Crowd favorite Levi LaVallee struggled deep in the pack before coming off his ride with about five laps left.

            Earlier, Logan Christian claimed a very entertaining Semi-Pro Stock victory.

Hibbert’s Chase Of Perfection Continues In Milwaukee

If you like to watch perfection, keep your eyes on the ISOC racing series for the first half of this season. If you like to watch close finishes and various people winning? Well, it might be a long season.

        The Tucker Hibbert show continues Friday night at the Milwaukee Mile, where Hibbert again watched for a couple laps, then stormed away to an easy-looking victory in the Pro Super Stock final. It was the Goodrich, Minnesota, racer’s 49^th Pro victory on the national series, and it continued an upbeaten string that dates back a couple of years.

            Polaris racer Ross Martin actually gave Hibbert a decent challenge in a heat race, but when the money was on the line, local boy Martin could only hold back Hibbert for a couple of laps after grabbing the early lead. Six laps into the 22-lap final, Hibbert chose a different line on his Monster Energy Cat down the backstretch, swapped to the inside line in the far turn and then took a lead he’d never relinquish. Then, lap after lap, Hibbert pulled away, adding about a second each lap over the talented Martin.

            Martin held second for the rest of the event, but behind him, there was chaos, as drivers swapped positions, there was a small fire and racers battled for the final podium spot. Levi LaVallee held third for the first third of the race before fading to an eventual eighth place finish. Steve Taylor grabbed the third spot on his Ski-Doo at the midway point but he faded to fifth.

            Garth Kaufman, meanwhile, was going the other direction on his No. 48 Cat. He held eighth for several laps early, then started picking his way through the field. He claimed third with five laps left and held on. Robbie Malinoski started strong, faded in the middle, then came back to claim fourth on his Polaris. Tim Tremblay (Doo) was sixth behind Taylor, and second-best qualifier Emil Ohman overcame a first-lap tie-up with Brett Bender, among others, to work up to seventh ahead of LaVallee.

            More huge racing tomorrow, including the Pro Open final.

Tate, Broberg earn undercard wins at Milwaukee

The Pro Super Stock final at the ISOC National at the Milwaukee Mile is about to begin, but here’s a quick update on the last two finals.

       In the Fox Shox-sponsored Pro Plus 30 Super Stock class, Justin Tate is already threatening to take the season over. For the second time in as many rounds this season, “Tator” easily pulled away to a commanding victory, though at Milwaukee his level of domination even topped what the Scandia, Minnesota-based Polaris rider accomplished last weekend at the Duluth Nation.

       Lap after lap, Tate pulled further and further ahead in the 12-lap final, winning the race by more than 15 seconds over second place Earl Reimer on the No. 100 Ski-Doo.

       Even more impressive, Ontario’s Reimer – a seasoned Pro himself – was the only other driver on he lead lap. Paul Bauerly took the third spot on the podium, after finishing as the lead sled of the only two sleds to finish one lap down. That’s right – in a 12-lap final, Tate lapped all but the top four twice.

       The Semi-Pro Open final featured an early leader, a middle leader and a winner. The holeshot and early leadwent to Justin Steck, the No. 8 qualifier who pulled off to a surprising early lead ahead of a star-studded field. It didn’t last long, though, as he crashed within the first two laps. That handed the lead to Dylan Martin on his Ski-Doo, and he held the point for the next 10 laps.

       Behind him, his Warnert Racing teammate Justin Broberg was clicking off strong, consistent laps and working through lapped traffic with ease. With three and a half lps to go, he claimed the point and eased away from Martin to claim the win. Logan Christian overcame a mid-air paint swapping with Duluth winner Cody Thomsen to finish third, with Thomsen fourth.

       Earlier, Kylie Abrahamson continued her domination of the Pro Women’s class, earning a win ahead of Carly Davis,  with Nikiya Adomaitis claiming third.

Oval Racing Season Starts In Minnesota

Oval racing is back. This image of PJ Wanderscheid is from Eagle River last eyar.

At long last, the snowmobile oval racing season is about to start, thanks to the opening round of the WSA Pro-Ice circuit, held this year at the famous Raceway Park car racing track near Shakopee, Minnesota.

Traditionally, the opening of the oval racing season in the Upper Midwest has been at Beausejour, Manitoba, but that early December race was cancelled due to warm weather. The weather also ate into testing time for most teams. With a couple of cold weeks behind us, however, racers are eager to face off on the track.

Now, the ice is in place, the haybales are being stacked and the racing action is on its way. Racing will be held Saturday, December 18 and Sunday, December 19. Featured racing action will be held from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. each afternoon. Gate fees are $20 either day, or $30 for the full weekend pass. For more information, visit www.pro-ice.com.

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