After the 2016-17 snocross season, the rules were changed and so-called “Pro Open” sleds were replaced by “Pro Stock” machines as the sport’s premier class.
Then, after the 2017-18 season wrapped up, snocross superstar Tucker Hibbert hung up his helmet and No. 68 bib for good, leaving the sport to a younger field of drivers who would duke it out in his wake.
Well, duking it out is exactly what they’ve been doing! As we sit on the doorstep of the season finale of the 2024-25 snocross season, we did a little math. And the results surprised us.
The year after the class rule change, just three drivers won Pro Stock finals. In 17 rounds of racing, Tucker Hibbert won 11 finales, Kody Kamm claimed five and Lincoln Lemieux grabbed the other. Then Hibbert retired, and Lemieux only lasted a few more seasons before having his career cut short by injuries (though he’s still involved – now as a race team owner). Only Kamm remains, and he actually won the most recent round of racing in Eagle River, Wisconsin.
In the 107 Pro finals since then, there have been 15 different winners on the circuit in the seven seasons since Hibbert retired. That includes 10 who have won three finals or more. Let’s look at the list. Place a chosen racer’s name in the search bar above to read recaps of many of the races mentioned.
(Editor’s Note: To make the statistics consistent over the years, we combined moto points in the first year of the triple crown format – the last few rounds of the 2023 season – to match today’s format. Thankfully there were no ties at the top, so it all made sense.)
Elias Ishoel = 46 Snocross Wins
To anybody who has been paying attention, the man at the top of the list won’t come as a surprise. Elias Ishoel won five consecutive points championships between 2019 and 2023 on the ISOC Amsoil Championship Snocross series, but has had the last two seasons curtailed by injury. All victories came on Ski-Doos, but for several different teams.
Emil Harr = 19 Snocross Wins
The lanky Swedish sensation will very likely wrap up his second consecutive points title in Duluth on the weekend of April 4-6. Yes, he has shined most when Ishoel was down, but take nothing away from the Polaris racer. He’s won 18 finals in the last three years – an incredible feat.
Kody Kamm, Jordan Lebel, Daniel Benham & Francis Pelletier = 5 Snocross Wins Each
After the top two, there’s a big drop off, but each of the drivers on this list is very accomplished. Kamm’s now the wiley vet on the circuit. If you include the 2017 and 2018 seasons, his total rockets to 15 in the last 9 seasons. That 2017 season is also when he earned his points championship.
Benham’s victories have been spread between teams and brands: He won in Michigan in 2019 on a Cat factory sled; in 2020 at Deadwood on a Warnert Racing Ski-Doo; in 2022 in Fargo on an All-Seasons Racing Arctic Cat; and twice in 2024 in New York on a Woodies Racing Arctic Cat. He’s now on a Polaris and has been looking good in recent weeks.
Lebel and Pelletier are the two young Ski-Doo who really bear watching going forward.
Pelletier looked like a budding superstar in his 2022 rookie season, claiming four victories. But injuries have altered his course and he’s only won once since then.
Lebel followed a similar path, winning 4 finals in his first year as a Pro (2024). He collected one win earlier this season and currently sits in second in season points behind Harr.
Hunter Patenaude, Aki Pihlaja, Lincoln Lemieux = 4 Snocross Wins Each
Here’s where we’re guessing some folks may have missed a few names on our social media quiz?
As mentioned earlier in the story, Lemieux was coming on like gangbusters in 2019, when his four wins were only edged by Ishoel’s five victories that season. But some horrific crashes shortened his promising career.
Hunter Patenaude looked unstoppable for a short period in 2023 – sweeping two finals at Shakopee, Minnesota, and quickly following up with a win at ERX a couple of weeks later. But he’s kind of become a mid-pack runner at best since then. with only one podium finish in the last two seasons combined.
Aki Pihlaja, meanwhile, earned two victories in 2019 and two more in 2020 as one of the sport’s elder statesmen. He’s still getting it done in Europe these days.
Adam Renheim = 3 Snocross Wins
Speaking of Scandinavian racers, Adam Renheim may be an interesting name from the not-too-distant past for some fans. The stocky Swede won finals in Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin in the 2018-19 season but never found the top step of the podium again before retiring from snocross. He’s still active in snowmobile racing, though. He did great things in watercross racing last summer in Scandinavia and tried his hand at hill climb racing at Jackson Hole recently.
Logan Christian, Oskar Norum = 2 Snocross Wins
An immensely popular racer from Fertile, Minnesota, Christian earned two victories in this time period racing for his family’s Christian Brothers Racing Arctic Cat team in 2020 and 2021 before he jumped on a Scheuring Speed Sports Ski-Doo ride for 2022.
Norum, meanwhile, broke through with a weekend sweep at Eagle River, Wisconsin, in March of 2021, but hasn’t sniffed victory since.
Kyle Pallin, Jacob Yurk & Adam Peterson = 1 Snocross Win Each
When you’ve got two guys at the top hogging a bunch of victories plus a very deep field, even eearning one victory in modern snocross racing it tough. These are the guys who broke through during the era in question.
The inclusion of the now-retired Pallin on this list should come with an asterisk. He actually collected his first Pro victory way back in January of 2015 ahead of Tucker Hibbert and Ross Martin. In the post-Hibbert era that is the focus of this article, though, he had one lonely victory in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in 2021.
The brand loyal Jacob Yurk is campaigning on an Arctic Cat again this year with very little support, but he’s showing up well – including winning some individual rounds in the triple crowd format. His lone full final victory, though, came in Deadwood in 2021.
Adam Peterson broke through recently in his home state of Wisconsin with his first Pro class victory.
