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RUSH-O-MANIA

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We’ve noticed a ton more Polaris RUSH models out on the trails than last year. Seems dealers are pretty much sold out and the consumers who have purchased one are very happy.

Last year’s first-in 600 model was a moderate success but not that many were built, so sightings tended to be pretty rare. This year, by adding more models, particularly a very good 800, Polaris has created a lot more visibility for the revolutionary Pro-Ride with the kinky-looking back end. The big deal is that customers are really avid about the delivery on the ones they’ve purchased.

“Delivery” is a very important aspect of introducing a new model. Delivery can be defined as after-purchase satisfaction. In other words, once a consumer (you) has laid down the cash; how happy are you with what you’ve bought?

It’s a huge factor in the automobile business and is one of the reasons companies like BMW are enjoying so much success and why Ford is suddenly doing so well.

Interestingly, price isn’t the main factor. People are generally willing to pay more to get what they deem to be high quality, strong performance and the “whole package”. However, this mindset can also work the opposite way. If the product does not “deliver”, consumers will generally un-sell all their friends and bad-mouth their disappointment with the product.

It looks like Polaris has nailed the “delivery” aspect with the RUSH. The owners we’ve been talking to have a cult-like affinity for the sled and aren’t just in love – they’re obsessed with the superiority of the design.

BOSS Racing’s Derek Ellis Podiums Again

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Once again, BOSS Racing’s Derek Ellis gave competitors a run for the money; taking another podium this weekend during the Vision Kia Eastern Nationals at the Finger Lakes Racetrack in Farmington, New York.

In day one of the highly competitive Semi-Pro Super Stock, Derek Ellis and Corey Watkinson had strong qualifying runs. Both advanced to the main, with Ellis holding 2nd place in the final until the last lap; winding up with a 3rd place overall for the day.

Saturday’s Round of Super Stock, saw Ellis to the Main, where he tangled in a sudden and volatile first turn pile-up; even by snocross standards. After extracting himself from the wreck, Ellis had a vast gap to recover; coming across the line well behind the lead pack.

BOSS Pro, #16 Brett Turcotte saw a similar fate in his Pro Stock Class. He pulled a hole-shot in the main, and up-ended his equipment in a dramatic wreck, winding up with a 10th overall there.

Saturday’s Pro Open class started on a positive note with Turcotte pulling first off the line in his round one qualifier.

A bump from behind launched Turcotte off-track dislodging a side panel and resulting in a DQ. Round 2 he was his usual self, finishing 2nd. The 1st round DQ forced a Last Chance run, where another wreck took him out of the running for the rest of the event.

Next -Up is the TRAXXAS Michigan National at the Pontiac Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan. This is a single day event to be held on Saturday, February 12th.

THIRTY-TWO WIN WEEKEND FOR TEAM ARCTIC

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On Top in Eastern/Canadian Snocross and Western Hillclimbs

It’s the middle of the race season, and Team Arctic snocross and hillclimb racers delivered a 32-win weekend that makes the competition wish winter was over.

Leading the victory lap parade in snocross were Tucker Hibbert and Cody Thomsen, each winning a class at the ISOC Eastern National in Farmington, NY.

Hibbert’s win in Pro Open marked his 62nd career Pro class win, and overshadowed the troubles that derailed his efforts in Pro Stock, in which he finished fifth.

Pro teammates Garth Kaufman, Logan Christian and Dan Ebert found additional speed in Farmington, with Kaufman taking a second in Pro Stock, while Christian and Ebert each notched a fourth place.

Factory Team Arctic standout Cody Thomsen continued his season-long onslaught of the Semi Pro class, winning one final, taking a second in the other and leaving New York with a commanding points lead.

While Team Arctic snocrossers were winning in Farmington, the hillclimb team set the high mark with 13 wins at the RMSHA season-opener in Bear Lake, Idaho.

It was a familiar family of names who once again proved the superiority of the M Series, as Chance Buckallew, Amy Zollinger, Kyle Tapio and Bryant Ropelato each won multiple events, including Kyle and Bryant’s King titles.

They were joined in the winner’s circle by Nels Tapio, Todd Tupper, Taylor Siemers and Casey Morley, giving Arctic Cat the top spot in more than half of the class finals.

At the Soo International 500 enduro in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., Team Arctic’s Isaac Wolfgang was oh-so-close to notching his first victory, finishing in the runner-up position just five seconds out of first.

“This was one of those weekends where Team Arctic racers won all-over the North American map in all forms of competition,” said Mike Kloety, Race Manager. “While we didn’t win every time we hit the track, notching 32 wins tells the story of our racers, crews and snowmobiles, while highlighting the strength of our program.”

Snowsquall Live Vintage Ride

Looking for something memorable to do this weekend? Bring the whole family out to Snowsquall Live Vintage Ride Featuring Hus-ski 50th Anniversary Ride.

This event takes place this weekend on February 12th in Alliston, Ontario. All brands welcome and the cost like last year will be $20 per rider.



Again this year there will be the 660 foot drag track, there will be pylons marking the track and return routes.

Please pay attention and heed the lanes for safety

After last year’s Sled Slalom course success we are bringing it back again this year, but with a twist.

For any family wanting to go tobogging, bring along your tubes or sleds because we have a really awesome hill.



Again this year there will be food served the day of the ride coffee ready to go for the early morning arrivals.



Lock the following address into your GPS today:

5708A Scotch Line
Essa Ontario
L9R 1V2


For more information go to Snowsquall.ca or call Shawn Horner at 705.435.9534.

See more details below:

Gates open at 7:30am

8:00am:

Opening remarks and rules for the day.
Welcome Hus-ski/ Diablo Rouge group.
Barrie Graham Hus-ski anniversary.
Please review the site map of the riding areas for the day.

9:30am to 12:00pm: Sled slolam course north of the barn.

12:00pm to 1:00pm: Lunch break.

1:00pm to 1:15pm: Group shot picture( Please line up your sleds 3 rows deep north of the barn).

1:15pm to 3:30pm: Radar runs west of the barn.

1:15pm to 3:30pm: Hus-ski/Diablo games and plane fly by!!!

Warm up area all inside the shop in the barn, eat your lunch or just come in to warm up and shot the brezze and bench race.

Food booth from 11:00am to 2:30pm. Coffee and hot chocolate all day.

Porta potty on the grounds

Friday night drop off is ok.

World Record Distance Attempt On Snowmobile

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What: Nick Musters will be attempting to break the current Guinness World Record for the furthest distance travelled by an individual rider on a snowmobile. This attempt is being made in support of The Kelly Shires Foundation.

When: February 15, 2011 @ 9:00am through to February 16, 2011 @ 9:00am

Where: Norway Point – Lake of Bays, Ontario (From Toronto: Travel North on Highway 400 toward Barrie. Continue on Highway 11 North toward Huntsville. Exit #193 onto Highway 117 toward Baysville. Turn left at Glenmount Rd. and continue on Old Highway 117 until the base camp is reached)

Planned Course: The attempt will take place on a closed course encompassing Bigwin Island that is approximately 10km in length. The official track will be surveyed prior to the attempt by Robert M. McDermott Surveying Limited.

Attempt Data: In order to validate the attempt there will be official timekeepers monitoring the run, recording each lap time and the cumulative distance, while other support members will be filming from multiple vantage points with the official time clock in view at all times. There will also be a personal GPS unit mounted on the rider.

Support Staff: Top performance and safety will be made possible with the help of qualified support staff including: Bombardier Certified Technicians, EMS Paramedics, Fuelling Personnel, Local trail grooming staff, and an event coordinator. Constant communications will be made available via high end radio systems provided by Racing Radios.

Equipment: The run will be made on a 2011 Ski-Doo TNT 800 E-Tec snowmobile generously provided by Northland Recreation and BRP. Nick will be outfitted with the latest Technical Winter Wear from Ski-doo and provided by BRP and Tek Vest.

Hibbert Delivers Pro Open Win in N.Y.

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It was a weekend of highs and lows for Monster Energy/Arctic Cat’s Tucker Hibbert at the AMSOIL Championship Snocross Series stop in Farmington, New York.

Hibbert made uncharacteristic mistakes Friday night to finish fifth in the Pro Super Stock final but an overflow crowd watched him redeem himself Saturday night with a nail biting performance in the Pro Open final.

The Eastern National at Finger Lakes Casino & Racetrack featured a technical track with deep holes and ice edges. After qualifying seventh for the Pro Super Stock final Friday night, Hibbert came out of the first corner nearly last – 12th out of 15 riders.

By lap three, he had already charged his way to fifth and four laps later moved into fourth with the leaders in sight. The next lap, he caught an ice edge, lost grip of the handlebars and was thrown from his sled.

By the time he got running again, he was in 14th place. He put on a last chance charge, moving through traffic quickly to finish the 22-lap race in fifth and clocking the fastest lap time of the night.

With light snow falling and an electric crowd packed into the venue Saturday night, Hibbert entered the Pro Open final determined to win. He got a second place start behind no. 837 Ross Martin and stalked him for the first eight laps.

He utilized the whole track, searching for lines and made the pass for the lead on lap nine. He started to pull a gap on Martin but with only four laps to go, he over jumped a triple, lost control and slid over a berm.

He quickly regrouped and pulled back onto the track right in front of Martin. By the end 22-lap final, he opened nearly a six second lead on Martin for his 62nd career national win.

Next up for Hibbert is the only indoor event of the season at the Silverdome in Pontiac, Mich. Saturday night. After Pontiac, the tour will enjoy a two-week break before it charges into the final three races of the season.

CSRA RACE REPORT FROM BARRIE, ONTARIO

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Racing kicked off under the lights Friday night at Georgian Downs in Barrie, Ontario for the Royal Distributing Cup, Round #3 in the CSRA National Series.

Friday night’s program featured a ProAm class combining both Pro and Semi-Pro racers. Rockstar/Polaris claimed the top of the podium with #93 Iain Hayden taking the win ahead of Royal Distributing team-mates #115 David Joanis in second place and #937 Dylan Martin in third. The Pro Women also participated in the evening’s races with #111s Stacey Orr dominating the class and impressing the crowd with her big air time.

With a record number of spectators and race entries, Saturday got off to a great start with packed amateur classes entertaining the crowd as they anxiously awaited the afternoon’s feature events.

The mild temperatures and sunny skies drew the crowd outside from the indoor grandstands when Winter X Games finalist, Jimmy Blaze, pulled off some incredible Freestyle stunts including the fan-favourite back-flip! With the crowd already on their feet, the Pro’s took to the track for the Pro Open final.

It seemed to be a repeat of Friday night, with Rockstar racers taking over the podium. #93 Iain Hayden grabbed the win on his Rockstar Polaris while his team-mate Butler finished up in fourth position behind the Royal Distributing/Rockstar duo of #115 David Joanis and #937 Dylan Martin.

Moving on to the Semi-Pro division for the Semi-Pro Stock Final, #421 Dylan Hall from Royal Distributing/Rockstar held on to the lead for the win ahead of Byers Motorsport/Polaris racer #381 J.B. Dennis. Rounding out the top three was #333 Jeremy VanDolder (Labourers Union/Dayco).

Sunday’s feature events kicked off with Vintage racing. Over 30 vintage sleds and their owners had found their way to Georgian Downs to put on quite the show.

Four different classes took to the track, with #96 Kyle Hammell being the top Vintage racer of the weekend. Hammell raced his 1982 Yamaha Enticer 340 to the checkered flag for the win in both the Open Fan and Open Liquid classes. Going from one extreme to another, attention moved towards the start line as the Pro’s warmed up their sleds for the Pro Open Final.

Off the start it was #937 Dylan Martin in the lead looking as if he was to start pulling away when he suddenly exited the track on the third lap appearing to be favouring an injury. #11 Katejun Coonishish, who had been following Martin on the first lap, also left the track returning in the last lap. With two riders out of the race, it opened up the oppourtunity for #93 Iain Hayden to take over the lead ahead of #115 David Joanis who was creating a gap between himself and #73 Lee Butler in third place.

At the checkered flag it was Rockstar/Polaris #93 Iain Hayden taking the win and the Royal Distributing Cup with Lee Butler in third. Royal Distributing’s #115 David Joanis finished between the Polaris team-mates for second place. Not to be out-done by his Pro team-mate, #421 Dylan Hall took the holeshot and the win making his contribution to the Rockstar/Royal Distributing team in the Semi-Pro Open final.

Coming off the start in second place was #219 Jamie Byers (Supertrax/Byers Motorsports) ahead of #381 J.B. Dennis (Byers Motorsports/Scott) in third. Dennis eventually made the pass on Byers and took second at the finish putting Byers in a respectable third position on the podium.

The Junior Challenge once again brought six teenagers to the track to experience snowcross racing for their very first time. Participants were each provided with a race sled and all protective equipment for FREE! Pro/Semi-Pro racers instructed the riders while they practiced on the track Saturday afternoon to prepare for their Sunday races. From St. Onge Recreation, Charlie and Tyler Ward, brothers from Barrie tried out the new Ski-Doo Ace 600 sled in the Junior F1 class.

After some practice on the track and instruction from #333 Jeremy VanDolder, they were starting to feel comfortable on the Ski-Doo’s and ready to race. Representing Central Ontario Powersports on the brand new Polaris Shift 550 were Mitchell Durrwachter and Trent Parsons. Both felt at ease almost instantly on the Polaris and were quite impressive for first time racers in the Junior F1 class on Sunday.

Local Arctic Cat dealer, RJ Motosports introduced us to Cody Tibbitts and Will Smith who had the chance to try out the new Arctic Cat SP500 sleds. On Sunday, Tibbitts found minutes went by as hours as he anxiously awaited his races, ready to try out the new skills he learnt in practice Saturday. Smith, who was a natural on the sled from the get-go, made a lasting impression when he qualified for the Junior F2 final and finished an incredible fourth place.

Congratulations Will, we expect that wasn’t the last we will see of you!

The next race will take place February 18 – 20th in Valcourt, Quebec for the Grand Prix Ski-Doo de Valcourt.

Ultimate Flatland Freeride Sled Build Using a 2010 RMK Assault

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In this segment, AJ swaps out the stock 146-inch mountain skid, track and drivers on a 2010 Polaris RMK Assault and replaces them with the 136er to make the ultimate flatland sled.

We Rode R-Motion!

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Honestly, we didn’t think the current XP/XR rear suspension in either 120 or 137-inch variants – the SC-5 -was in need of any major re-working. Were we ever wrong!

Ski-Doo has gone back to the drawing board with a new skid design (available only in 120-inch lengths in next year’s MX-Z X and XRS packages).

What is “R-Motion”? While it wasn’t really discussed at our early intro we think the ‘R’ is for “Rising Rate” and in a strange sort of way it would seem Polaris has made rising rate an issue in the biz right now.

Ski-Doo will never let anyone mow their lawn and to this end they’ve gone back to the drawing board in skidframe design and have not only produced a new rear suspension that offers true rising rate response from the shock but have done so while keeping the shock in the skid, something Polaris has made pretty clear can’t be done.

This argument is likely to go on for some time as Polaris does have some traction in their assertion.

The new R-Motion clearly has true rising rate response when measured at the shock however the torsion spring rate does fall off slightly at the end of the skid’s travel. Doesn’t matter as we had the opportunity to ride the new R Motion just one week ago and came away extremely impressed.

The new skid offers up significantly more rail travel but does not increase the sled’s static height by one millimeter!

This has been accomplished through the use of very techy packaging when the skid is fully collapsed. The secret was getting the skid to collapse further into the XP’s tunnel. The new R-Motion skid keeps the XP just one inch off the running boards at full collapse.

There’s more. The R-Motion uses what has to be the longest front (torque) arm we’ve ever seen. The front arm actually intersects the rails at a point that appears to be more than 50 percent to the rear of the actual rail extrusions.

This long front arm allows the skid to have more uncoupled movement to absorb jigglers while producing some of the nicest weight transfer we’ve seen in over 15 years. The XP can be throttle modulated into and out of turns with as little or as much ‘wheelie’ as you wish. Nice.

Other features of the R-Motion is an available (Spring Break only) remote rear torsion spring preload adjuster using a slick hydraulic pump mounted on the running board on the left side.

Turning a large – gloves on – knob pushes oil through a braided steel hose into a nifty little hydraulic ram that cradles the torsion spring pig tails – effectively moving them up and down, creating more or less pre-load.

The other running board (right side) has a similar fixture thatt contains a gloves-on clicker knob to adjust rear arm shock compression damping. The knob is actually mounted on the shock’s remote reservoir connected to the rear damper with another braided steel hose. Again, nice.

How does it all work? The ride is quite honestly as smooth as Philly cream cheese. Like riding on a cloud. Ridiculously plush yet difficult to bottom even with minimum spring preload. Ski-lift is not amplified but actually better controlled than with SC-5.

We’ll have much more in the Supertrax Zinio on line edition in March.

Byers on the Podium at Barrie National

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Georgian Downs in Barrie, Ontario played host to one of the Largest CSRA events on the Circuit and National Round 3. Racing started Under the Lights Friday night, with racing Saturday and Sunday as well.

The Superbowl didn’t stop fans from coming out and witnessing the great racing as the grandstands were filled inside and out all weekend. Struggling at the start of the weekend, Supertrax Magazine/ Byers Motorsports/Polaris’ Jamie Byers was able to bring it together in the end.

Friday night hosted a new class called Pro-Am, combining Semi-Pro and Pro racers on their Mod sleds. In moto 1, Jamie had a good run, skiing out the huge finish-line double, finishing 4th.

He finished 5th in Moto 2 and started front row in the final. Jamie got a great start in the final but was cut off in the first corner which slowed him up.

On the second lap, Jamie cased the finish-line double and came off the sled. He was able to get back up and going but 1 lap later had to pull off the track due to a mechanical issue.

Jamie’s Semi-Pro Stock on Saturday started off with a 4th place finish in Moto 1. In Moto 2, Jamie got a great start launching himself into 2nd place.

Staying in a strong 2nd, Jamie got sideways in the rhythm section and came off the sled. He was able to get back up and finish 7th. Qualifying 11th for the final, starting back-row, Jamie lined up to the inside.

Unfortunately, on the start, the riders in front of Jamie didn’t get a good start and bunched up in front of him and he came out of the first corner almost last. He was able to make a few passes but couldn’t find the lines to pass the 10th place rider and finished 11th.

Frustrated after Saturday’s final, Jamie came into the Open class wanting a strong finish. In moto 1, he was running close with the leaders but made a mistake in the rhythm section which allowed 1st and 2nd to pull away and finished 3rd.

In Moto 2, He got a great start and made the pass for 2nd on the first lap and held on for the finish. With a 2nd and 3rd in the Motos, Jamie Qualified 4th for the final and grabbed an outside starting position. He got a bad start in the final but was able to stay far outside and make many passes to get up to 3rd by the second corner.

A mechanical failure by another rider gave Jamie 2nd where he ran for a couple laps before being passed by fellow Polaris rider # 381 Brady Dennis. Jamie didn’t let Dennis get out of his sights but held on for the Podium finish in 3rd.

“It was a great way to end off the weekend finishing on the podium. I struggled in the Stock final but I was able to find a good rhythm in the Open final and it paid off.” Jamie said after the weekend’s final race.

The next stop for Byers Motorsports in Round #4 of the CSRA National Circuit in Valcourt, Quebec, February 18-20 for the Grand Prix de Valcourt.

Thanks to All our Great Sponsors:

Supertrax Magazine, Byers Motorsports – Polaris, Gamma Sales- Fly Racing, Coldwave, Utopia Optics, Amsoil, Dayco, Creechers Design, Woody’s, CM Sports/Clean Media – Photography, Powermadd, TekVest