Hibbert Clinches Snocross Championship In Lake Geneva

Monster Energy/Arctic Cat‘s Tucker Hibbert wrapped up one of the most impressive racing seasons in recent memory when he picked up his 11th win in 16 races at the AMSOIL Championshp Snocross Grand Finale at Lake Geneva Resort in Wisconsin.

Hibbert clinched the title before the main event got underway on Friday, thanks to his performance in the heat race. However, that didn’t stop him for going for the checkers. Hibbert put a statement-type pass on defending ACS Pro Open champion Tim Tremblay (Scheuring Speed Sports/AMSOIL/Ski-Doo) and walked away with the victory by some 15 seconds over Tremblay and third place Kody Kamm (Monster Energy/Hentges Racing/Polaris).

“Feels awesome. This championship means a lot for sure,” says Hibbert. “I got injured here last year, so to be able to come back and win was fun. Thanks so much to all the Monster Energy/Arctic Cat team.”

With Kamm pulling the Stud Boy Holeshot, the race lead was quickly relinquished to a charging Tremblay. But avoiding the carnage that collected Zach Pattyn (Stud Boy/Ski-Doo) and (Scheuring Speed Sports/AMSOIL/Ski-Doo) on the first turn was Hibbert, who was up onto Tremblay within a half lap.

“Feels awesome. This championship means a lot for sure,” said Hibbert. “I got injured here last year, so to be able to come back and win was fun. Thanks so much to all the Monster Energy/Arctic Cat team.”

With Kamm pulling the Stud Boy Holeshot, the race lead was quickly relinquished to a charging Tremblay. But avoiding the carnage that collected Zach Pattyn (Stud Boy/Ski-Doo) and Robbie Malinoski (Scheuring Speed Sports/AMSOIL/Ski-Doo) on the first turn was Hibbert, who was up onto Tremblay within a half lap.

While Friday’s win came relatively easy, Hibbert would not be so lucky in Saturday’s Pro Open main event as he went toe-to-toe with (DuPont/Jack Links/Polaris) Ross Martin and lost by 23/100ths of a second in a thrilling dash to the finish.

Pulling the Stud Boy Holeshot and running up front for the entire race, Martin’s victorious effort gave him second place in the overall Pro Open final standings, having entered Saturday’s race trailing Tim Tremblay (Scheuring Speed Sports/AMSOIL/Ski-Doo) by two points.

“Man, I wish every race was like this,” says Martin to the approval of some 12,000 fans packing the grandstands, lodge and hillsides at Lake Geneva’s Mountain Top ski hill. “We had a rough day yesterday, so to come back and win here tonight – at the last race of the season – was excellent.”

With Martin, Kody Kamm (Monster Energy/Hentges Racing/Polaris) and Tremblay up front, Hibbert – in rare moment short of perfection this season – flinched just a bit off the line and lost the drag race up the initial hillclimb, coming out of the first turn in an un-Hibbert-like seventh place. Tremblay would quickly dispose of Kamm and give chase to Martin, letting everything hang out of this the last race of the 2012-’13 ACS season. But the defending champ would check up on a number of occasions, which allowed Martin to get away and Hibbert to get by for second place.

“I’m not really happy to be up here in third place,” says Tremblay from the podium. “It’s good to be on the podium, but I just made too many mistakes when I was trying to catch Ross. But this was the best track we raced all year and the fans were crazy.”

Hibbert was possessed in his pursuit of Martin. With four laps to go in the ten-lap contest he passed three of the world’s fastest snocross racers, including Tremblay with a powerful move on a steep uphill section to set his site on Martin. In his pursuit of the leaders Hibbert cracked off a blistering 1:07.402, the weekend’s fastest lap time, and was making up nearly three seconds a lap on Martin. But “Ross the Boss” stood strong and rode a wide sled and held off Hibbert by 23/100th of a second in quite possibly the most thrilling finish of the season on the AMSOIL Championship Snocross tour.

“I’m kinda glad it’s over, that was pretty gnarly out there,” says Hibbert. “Good racing with Ross and Tim. Thanks to my team, I’m excited to be up here.”

Rounding out the top five were Kamm in fourth and Kyle Pallin (Mystic Lubricants/Loctite/Polaris) in fifth.

Pro Lite

Grabbing the holeshot and early lead in Friday’s Pro Lite main event was Polaris racer Andrew Carlson, followed closely by Andrew Lieders (Leighton Motorsports/Polaris) and Pro Lite points leader Jake Scott. Carlson would lead the first couple laps, while Scott and Lieders would battle – with Scott moving up to second on lap two.

Biding his time during the six-lap main on the largest (lap time) track the AMSOIL Championship Snocross series has competed on this year, Scott would track, catch and pass Carlson at the last corner of lap three following the steep downhill section on the ski hill-turned-snocross track.

During the battle up front David Joanis (Royal Distributing/Ski-Doo) rallied back from a lackluster start to move up to the third podium position. As Scott began to check out the Carlson vs. Joanis battle heated up. Joanis would end up getting by Carlson at the end of the front straight, making the pass stick on the first uphill climb.

The race would end with Scott in first, Joanis in second and Carlson in third, along with Lieders in fourth and Daniel Dolecki (Dee’s Marina/Ski-Doo) in fifth.

“I’m so pumped right now,” says Scott from. “Our team worked so hard for this all year … this is just excellent. Thanks to my team and my family and friends for coming out to watch.”

After finishing just off the podium on Friday, Lieders put the hammer down on Saturday and picked up his firsts Pro Lite victory of the season, using a slick inside/outside pass on Carlson midway through the final ACS Pro Lite main event of the year.

“I’m so glad to be up here tonight,” said Lieders from the top of the Lake Geneva podium. “I’ve got so many friends and family here … glad to be able to pull this off at the last race of the season. Feels awesome!”

Out of the gate first, or so it appeared, was Leighton Motorsports/Polaris’ Trevor Leighton. But ISOC officials deemed that Leighton jumped the start and the black flag was drawn/pointed at Leighton, sending him to the back of the pack. Unaffected by the false start was Carlson who ripped up front quickly, leading Lieders and Joanis.

While Carlson rode strong in the clean air up front, Lieders and Joanis battled like crazy – elevating Lieders’ lap times and allowing him to catch up to Carlson. Lieders’ 1:14.545 was the only sub-1:15 lap run all night, with Carlson clocking the second-fastest lap time of 1:15.07.

With two laps to go Lieders and Carlson had separated from Joanis, who himself had separated from the rest the pack. The six-lap Pro Lite main event was spread out well enough on Lake Geneva’s ski area that lapped traffic wasn’t a problem for the leaders. So when the checkers flew it was Lieders up front in first, followed by Carlson in second and Joanis in third. Rounding out the top five were Travis Muller (NSK/Foremost Insurance/Ski-Doo) in fourth and Max Taillefer (Laval West/Ski-Doo) in fifth.

ACSS Pro-Open Standings				ACSS Pro Lite Standings
Pos.	Rider	Sled	Points	Pos.	Rider	Sled	Points
1.	Tucker Hibbert	Arctic Cat	663	1.	Jake Scott	Polaris	572
2.	Ross Martin	Polaris	575	2.	Andrew Lieders	Polaris	550
3.	Tim Tremblay	Ski-Doo	572	3.	David Joanis	Ski-Doo	542
4.	Kody Kamm	Polaris	494	4.	Travis Muller	Ski-Doo	526
5.	Emil Ohman	Ski-Doo	453	5.	Andrew Carlson	Polaris	446
6.	Robbie Malinoski	Ski-Doo	442	6.	Renaud Alexandre	Ski-Doo	442
7.	Kyle Palin	Polaris	437	7	Dylan Hall	Ski-Doo	434
8.	Logan Christian	Arctic Cat	436	8.	Chase Rosemeyer	Ski-Doo	362
9.	Justin Broberg	Polaris	419	9.	Matt Pincher	Arctic Cat	347
10.	Johan Lidman	Polaris	353	10.	Trevor Leighton	Polaris	344