Jake Scott Talks About His Championship Snocross Season

Jake Scott was dominant in the second half of the 2012-12 AMSOIL Championshp Snocross season. The Mystic Lubricants/Loctite/Polaris rider wrapped up the Pro Lite championship this past Friday in Lake Geneva, Wis., besting rivals Andrew Lieders and David Joanis.

ISOC caught up with Scott to get his take on this past season, some of the highlights and his feelings on being crowned the Pro Light class champion.

ISOC: Jake, congrats on your Pro Lite title. What a dynamite year, especially the second half of the season when you were pretty much unstoppable. Talk about the 2012-’13 AMSOIL Championship Snocross season and where the turning point was that allowed you string together such an impressive run of victories.

Jake Scott: The 2012-’13 snocross season was for sure the highlight of my career so far. It was full of great competition and memorable moments. I think the turning point in my season had to be qualifying for the Winter X Games. I carried the confidence from that, back to the ISOC snocross series and just had fun with it!

ISOC: This may seem like no big deal to you, but how does a guy from Long Island, N.Y., become a Pro class champion in the world’s most prestigious snowmobile racing series?

Jake Scott: Growing up on Long Island definitely didn’t make snocross life easy. It isn’t a place that gets a ton of snow, so at 14 years old I had to make the decision to become homeschooled so I could start traveling more. After that I just had to work twice as hard. The home schooling made racing easier because I had much more opportunity to train on a sled, but the down side to it was the school work was incredibly hard. I had to be fully dedicated every day of my life to achieve this goal and now that I finally did it, I feel like I’m on top of the world! I couldn’t be happier right now.

ISOC: Flash back just a couple days … was that cool helping Team USA to a victory over the World Team in the inaugural Ram World Cup?

Jake Scott: Helping bring Team USA to victory was awesome! Being teamed up with Kyle Pallin, Kody Kamm, Andy Lieders and Andrew Carlson was like a dream team. It was a tough race but I’m glad the team was able to take the win!

ISOC: Talk a bit about the Seneca Allegany race. How cool was that to go 1st/1st in front of your home state fans and with such a massive crowd on hand?

Jake Scott: The Seneca Allegany race was a great addition to the ISOC series and I really hope we go back there for years to come. It was my home state race, but it was still about an eight hour drive from home – so I was extremely excited to see how many friends and family made it out to watch me race. With all the bad luck I had in the heat races and even going to an LCQ, getting 1st in both finals in front of all my family and home state fans was crazy! I couldn’t have asked for a more exciting weekend.

ISOC: How’s it working with snocross great Levi LaVallee? Did he ever dare you to hit is freestyle ramp?

Jake Scott: Working with Levi is a dream come true! Two years ago when my dad told me I was riding for Team LaVallee I thought he was joking at first. Levi has helped me progress my career to heights I never thought possible … I can’t thank him enough for all I’ve accomplished since I’ve been with the team. This past fall while Levi was jumping freestyle, it got me curious as to what it would be like to hit a freestyle ramp on a snowmobile. I jumped on his freestyle sled and gave it a shot! Even though he only had it set at a 45 foot gap the first few jumps were pretty scary, but really fun I’m glad I went for it!

ISOC: You and David Joanis and Travis Muller had a pretty good battle going there. Andrew Lieders came on strong towards the end of the season, as did Andrew Carlson. Talk a bit about the talent in this year’s ACS Pro Lite class and some of the strategy you and your team put in place in order to come out on top.

Jake Scott: This year’s Pro Lite class was crazy! There were at least ten of us that could have won any race. It was just whoever was on it that weekend would take it. The game plan we put together for me at Team LaVallee was just to have fun, ride my own race and just do the best I can. In the end that’s all you can ask for, so I tried not to get stressed out over a bad heat race. I just kept my head up and kept having fun.

ISOC: It’s likely that not many people are aware of the extent of the knee injury you dealt with for much of the season. Talk about that, how it affected you and if you’re going to have to get it cleaned up over the summer.

Jake Scott: I actually injured my knee at X Games on one of the smallest jumps on the track. I over jumped one jump into the lip of the next and hyperextended my knee. For a while I could barely walk on it but come race time I just had to put the pain aside and push through it. I have an appointment with a specialist coming up so I’m hoping everything goes well.

ISOC: What are your plans between now and Duluth this fall?

Jake Scott: Between now and Duluth I’m planning on riding my dirt bike and doing some races and hopefully I can get out wakeboarding a ton this summer! I can’t think of any better way to pass the time than my two favorite hobbies.

ISOC: Finally, you ran well in the Pro Open class this past Saturday at Lake Geneva. There’s certainly been talk of you moving up to the Pro Open class. Is that decision a “for sure” yet?

Jake Scott: My plan is to make the jump to Pro Open – which would be awesome. But nothing is official yet.

ISOC: Thanks again, Jake, and congrats from everyone at ISOC on your championship season.

Jake Scott: Thank you!