Snowmobile snocross signing season kicked into overdrive early this week. Big name drivers – including past champions – gained new rides, while rumored expansion of other teams helped fill the Pro field.
Less than a week ago, we brought fans up-to-speed on off-season snocross racing news and hinted at major signings on the horizon. They pretty much all came true and then some. There are still a few slots left open, though.
The highest profile signing announced might be Kody Kamm joining a re-signed Emil Harr at Judnick Racing. About on par with that, though, is Kamm’s former teammate at Hentges Racing moving to the expanding KC Motorsports team. Both drivers will stay on Polaris sleds.
Meanwhile, a new Wisconsin-based Ski-Doo team announced it was bringing over a top Scandinavian rider for a full season on the ISOC circuit. Plus, Hemmer Motorsports filled out its roster. Let’s get you caught up.
Snocross Team Pairs Harr And Kamm
Judnick Racing has long been one of Polaris’ top snocross teams. It cemented that position with the re-signing of Emil Harr and the new addition of Kody Kamm. Both received multi-year contracts, according to a Judnick press release.
Kamm, 29, was recently cut loose with the demise of the Hentges Racing team for which he had competed for the past 13 years. Early in his career, Kamm was a high-risk/high-reward aggressive racer but he then settled into the role of a much more consistent performer. That allowed him to capture a points championship in 2017. He then finished second in points behind Tucker Hibbert in 2018 and second behind Elias Ishoel in 2019.
In 2020, Kamm’s season was cut short by a major knee injury, so the Hentges team brought over a 19-year-old Swedish rider named Emil Harr to fill in for the rest of the season. Harr immediately looked like he fit in with the other Pros that season. He scored a season-best fifth-place finish in Iowa. So, the following season, when Kamm returned to his ride at Hentges, Harr signed with the Judnick team.
Harr earned one podium finish in 2021 en route to ending the season fifth in points. In 2022, Harr had a breakthrough victory and seven total podium finishes, resulting in a fourth-place points position. Last season, Harr truly had a breakout season. He had a victory and four total podiums in the traditional format of racing in the season’s first half. Then, when ISOC switched to a moto format, Harr mopped up 10 victories in 18 motos. That included an incredible run of eight in a row. He became the clear lead challenger to Elias Ishoel’s dominating run.
“The team couldn’t be more excited to have Kody on board,” Scott Judnick said in a press release. “Between Kody and Emil, they won half of the ISOC events last season. After Ross [Martin] retired, we had some pretty tough years in the Pro class and now to have these two front runners in the Judnick Motorsports trailer, I couldn’t be more happy and fired up! Everything is in place for the next three years between our partnership with Polaris, the crew led by Tony Swiontek, our sponsors who are all smiling, and Kody and Emil are hungry for wins and championships more than ever. I believe the next three years will be the most successful three years in Judnick Motorsports history and I can’t wait to get to the track and see what happens.”
To make room in the trailer for Kamm, Judnick will not re-sign Pro Lite racer Carson Alread.
Snocross Racer Norum To KC Team
The other big-time Pro racer at Hentges racing ended up with a veteran team that is adding its first Pro rider in a while.
Oskar Norum has signed to be the lead racer for the KC Motorsport team from Finley, North Dakota. Owned by Karl Christian, the Polaris-based KC team has had many top Pro Lite racer over the years. By adding Norum, they gain a 30-year-old racer renowned for his hard-working style.
Norum came to North America in 2020 after notching 34 Pro victories overseas. He scored a breakthrough national victory at Eagle River, Wisconsin, in March of 2021, and finished the season third in points overall. His performance slipped a bit in the 2022 season but he looked primed for great things in 2023. A leg injury in the first round at Fargo, however, ended his season before it hardly even got started.
“It feels awesome to be joining the team,” Norum said in a KC Motorsport press release. “I’m super excited about this new opportunity from KC Motorsports & Polaris. It’s going to be a lot of fun to continue racing in ISOC snocross. I want to win so I’m really looking forward to coming back to the U.S.”
Karl Christian said, “Our family is super excited to have Oskar on the team. We are making a major commitment to our future in professional snocross and to secure a proven winner like Oskar is a big part of that.”
Pro Lite racer Evan Christian will return to the KC team to lead its Pro Lite effort. There was no mention of Evan Daudt’s future.
New Snocross Team In The Mix
The Pro class will also gain a full-time rider from a new team in 2023-24. Gustav Sahlsten, a Swede who made a spot-appearance for the Green Mountain team last year, will lead the new Elite Motorsports team. The team will race Ski-Doos for the full season on the ISOC Amsoil Championship Snocross series.
In its press release, Elite said Sahlsten will be paired with his mechanic from the past five years of racing overseas, Eric Bylund. The duo is the reigning Snowcross Super Lead champion in Europe.
Elite has also signed a potential contender for the Pro Lite title. Adam Ashline was dominant in the Sport class in 2022, gaining 11 victories in 16 rounds of racing with Scheuring Speed Sports. Last year, though, the Vermont native only ran a partial season in Pro Lite, filling in for One Three Motorsports. Now with a full-time ride, it’ll be interesting to see how he’ll compete on the next level.
The new Elite Motorsports team will have a race shop in Salem, Wisconsin. It will test and train out of the RK Compound in Hartford, Wisconsin. It also will have many other drivers, including Matt Greenwood in Pro Am 30 and three drivers each in Sport Lite and Transition 9-13.
Hemmer Motorsports Changes Thing Up
Meanwhile, the Hemmer Motorsports Polaris team out of Nowthen, Minnesota, announced its new team. It added Tyler Archambault for the Pro Lite class and Inanna Hauger for Pro Womens.
“We are excited to bring Archambault onto the team and continue his growth in the sport,” the Hemmer team announced. “Last season, racing in the FXR Sport division, Tyler finished on the podium 11 times, along with scoring his first win in Deadwood, SD, all of this in just his 3rd year of full time racing. Tyler proved he had the ability to be a consistent front runner and was also the top finishing Polaris in the year-end Sport class points standings with 3rd place.”
With Hauger, the team adds a popular racer in an important class.
“Inanna is a proven contender in the Pro Women’s class, with multiple wins and countless podiums,” Nick Hemmer said in a press release. “Her drive, professionalism, and personality mesh perfectly with our family-based team dynamic. We are looking forward to the podiums and wins that are sure to come.”
Nick Lorentz raced in Pro Lite for Hemmer last year but he has moved to the West Coast Customs team.
UPDATE: Snocross Minuses
Another team announced it was leaving the sport on Tuesday afternoon. Zandstra Motorsports, a respected, family-based Arctic Cat team that last year focused primarily on the undercard classes, said it is leaving snocross.
“We have had many podiums/wins over the years. But we also had many bad days but that’s part of racing!” the team posted on its Facebook page. “The saying is if your not having fun then why do it and snocross to us became a chore so we just decided to hang it up.” The test had previous had Pro drivers including Fillip Harr and Jacob Yurk.
It joins the All Finish Arctic Cat team and the Hentges Racing Polaris team on the sidelines.
