Ross Martin Determined to Challenge for Snocross Championship

With cold winds whipping across the North Dakota prairie, the first of two rounds of the Fargo National race at Buffalo River Race Park was unleashed from the starting grid Friday evening. Coming to the line as the number one qualifier, MotorFist athlete and past national snocross champion Ross Martin, was determined to follow-up his back-to-back heat wins with a top podium finish in the final and in the process regain the year-endchampionship lead.

A looping track that featured three 180-degree turnback corners, proved to make passing difficult and front row selection a game of chance rather than calculation. At the start, Martin emerged from the first turn in fourth, and from there he set his sights on charging to the front and passing early race leader Cody Thomsen as quickly as possible. However, the torrent pace of Martin proved to be his undoing, as he aggressively bumped Thomsen in a corner while attempting a pass. The contact was met with a furled flag pointed in Martin’s direction and subsequently the loss of five positions as Ross pulled over and served the discretionary penalty.

“Ross was in race mode,” says Judnick/MotorFist race team owner and manager Scott Judnick. “With limited passing, he (Ross) wanted to get to the front as quickly as possible. He forced the issue a little bit and had to pay the penalty.”

The setback forced Martin to settle for a fifth place finish at the close of the race.

Saturday evening was met with more top qualifying efforts from Martin. With another choice selection on the front row, Martin experienced a “freak” mechanical issue as he charged into the opening turn. The “stumble” quickly deposited Martin deep in the pack as he exited the opening turn. Despite blistering speed, the late pack start kept Martin from the podium. Instead it put him in a three-way battle with Hibbert and Malinoski for much of the race. Eventually Martin disposed of Hibbert and just missed the third step on the box, as he followed Malinoski over the tabletop finish nose to tail, both vying for the final podium spot.

“It wasn’t how we envisioned the weekend unfolding,” says Judnick. “There’s a lot of ‘whatifs’ that happened, but we can’t think about that now. We can still earn the year-end title, and Ross is feeling strong and can’t wait to put down some fast laps on the huge ERX track we’ll see this coming weekend.”

Fellow MotorFist athlete Mike Bauer returned to action in Fargo after sitting out several rounds with a broken wrist. Mike made the main event both nights and finished in the top ten. In Pro-Lite action, James Johnstad continued to perform with consistency, making the Pro-Lite final both nights, and scoring a sixth place finish Friday evening. After eleven rounds of action, James sits comfortably in third place in the year-end Pro-Lite point chase.

Next up for Judnick Motorsports and the MotorFist athletes is the ERX National in Elk River, Minn, March 9-11, 2012.