Excellent snow conditions and riders anxious to get back out on the track kicked off the International Series of Champions (ISOC) Amsoil National Snocross Championship tour this weekend at Spirit Mountain in Duluth, MN. In addition to having a new sanctioning body officiate the proceedings, the most prestigious snocross series in North America has adopted a revamped format that sees heat races of 15 laps and finals of 30 laps, a move that doubles the time spent racing.
Pro Open... Although the series opener in Duluth didn’t see the four-stroke FX Nytro sleds of Yamaha Factory Team’s Steve Taylor and Iain Hayden in the final Pro Open race, team owner/manager Andre Laurin was anything but disappointed with the weekend’s results.
“Our Yamaha Factory team is competing against the stiffest competition in the world over the roughest race courses imaginable with our industry-leading 4-stroke technology. Our goal is the same as when Yamaha entered the moto-cross world with a 4-stroke – prove that we can win.” said Laurin. “As in any development race program, the first race on the FXNytro-based 2009 race sled under a new race format is always a learning experience. While we did a lot of valuable testing time at Planet X prior to this event, we focused on proving the sled durability and calibrating the sled handling for speed over the technical double and triple mogul rhythm sections, but by Sunday the track conditions deteriorated so timing over the rough sections was not possible and we had to “bash” through the course. While our sleds and drivers took the punishment, we were just not fast enough. We know where we stand now under these track conditions and we know which way we have to go in order to be in contention for the championship.”
| Pro Open |
| 1 |
Tucker Hibbert |
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| 2 |
Ryan Simons |
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| 3 |
Ross Martin |
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| 4 |
Brett Turcotte |
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| 5 |
Mathieu Morin |
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| 6 |
Matt Piche |
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| 7 |
Shaun Crapo |
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| 8 |
Mike Schultz |
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| 9 |
TJ Gulla |
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| 10 |
Matt Judnick |
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