The snocross snowmobile racing season is now officially just around the corner – you know, if that corner is 21 days long. That’s right, just three weeks from today, the snowmobile racing season kicks off with the Amsoil Duluth National on ISOC’s Amsoil Championship Snocross series. It’s a personal favorite of ours, an absolute can’t miss way to kick off the winter — by seeing great racing, trying out our new snowmobile gear, smelling race gas and two stroke exhaust and knowing that the opening of the snowmobile trail riding season is, by then, just days away!!
In anticipation of that arrival, we offer this: the Top 5 ISOC Snocross Snowmobile Races For 2012-13 as today’s Friday’s Fast Five. The other races on the schedule are also certainly worth attending as well, but these are the five that jump out at us. Also, make sure to check out our 5 Best Snocross Racers for 2012-13 list we put together back in August. We hear we may have “poked the bear” a little bit by placing Tucker Hibbert so low (4th) and he may be inspired to prove us wrong… time will tell, but it all starts in Duluth. There are typically two Pro Open finals per stop.
1) Amsoil Duluth National (November 23-25)– Hosted at Spirit Mountain in Duluth, Minnesota, this is always the first place to see the new iron, see drivers who have switched brands on different equipment and see which drivers got better (or worse) in a long off-season of training (or eating potato chips). Last year’s winners: Ross Martin (Friday), Robbie Malinoski (Saturday) and Ross Martin again (Sunday).
2) Nielsen Enterprises Grand Finale (March 15-17) – Hosted by the Grand Geneva Resort in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, this is always one of the very best ways to close the season. It’s the season’s last race, which means points titles are on the line. Yet for many race teams, it’s a fun-filled goodbye to a huge group of race fans in typically warm mid-March conditions. Also, some years this is a great place to check out the next year’s snowmobiles on display by the major manufacturers. Last year’s winners: Ross Martin (Saturday) and Kody Kamm (Sunday).
3) Seneca Allegany Snocross (February 22-24) – Hosted by the Seneca Allegany Casino & Hotel this year in Salamanca, New York, this will be ISOC’s lone visit to the East this season. But the eastern swing is a longstanding traditional on the national snocross scene, and it always brings together racers from ISOC, the Quebec-base SCM and the Eastern Pro Tour from New England, creating a super-sized field of racers. Last year’s winners, when the rescheduled race was held in Farmington, New York, were Robbie Malinoski and Ross Martin.
4) Turtle Creek’s US27 Motorsports Snocross (February 8-9) – Hosted by the Turtle Creek Casino & Hotel in Williamsburg (near Traverse City), Michigan, this fills another important and historic role in the national snocross scene – a high profile stop in Michigan. The fans in Michigan never let the racing circuit down, and the racer respond in kind, offering great performances. Last year’s Michigan stop was a one-night stand in the Silverdome won by Tim Tremblay.
5) Canterbury Park’s Traxxas Snocross (January 4-5) – Hosted by the Canterbury Park horse racing and gaming facility in Shakopee, Minnesota, Canterbury has been a regular, high-profile and high-attendance stop on the national snocross scene since the mid 1990s. There was no race there in 2011, but when the circuit returned there last winter it attracted a massive crowd of adoring fans. Like last year, this will be the circuit’s third stop of the season, and the first weekend in January. Last year’s winners were Tim Tremblay (Friday) and Tucker Hibbert (Saturday).
For the record, the other ISOC snocross snowmobile races this season will be at Bessemer Michigan (December 7-8); Deadwood, South Dakota (February 1-2); and Glyndon, Minnesota (March 8-9). We meant no disrespect to them – but the name of the department is Friday’s Fast Five, not Friday’s Elite Eight, or something like that. See you at the track!
