Minnesota State Representative Mike Jaros of Duluth, a Democrat from district 7B, has introduced HF3781 for consideration by the Minnesota State House of Representatives Transportation Finance Committee.

This bill is very bad news for snowmobilers and off-road enthusiasts. If passed, the bill would end the current policy of using un-refunded gasoline tax revenue to pay for snowmobile, ATV and OHV trail maintenance.

According to the Minnesota United Snowmobilers’ Association, about a third of all snowmobile trail maintenance revenue comes from un-refunded gasoline tax. Jaros’ bill would prohibit the use of the tax revenue for anything but on-highway projects.

Off-road enthusiasts statewide should contact their state representative and oppose this bill and ask that it not be heard by the committee.

Off-road enthusiasts generate millions of dollars for the state’s economy, and they purchase large volumes of gasoline for use in their snowmobiles and ATVs. Of course, Minnesota is also home to two of the largest snowmobile and ATV manufacturers—Polaris and Arctic Cat, that provide thousands of jobs in the state.

A hearing of the bill is scheduled for Tuesday, March 25th at 4PM before the Transportation Finance Committee and off-road enthusiasts are encouraged to attend.

For more information, visit www.mnsnowmobiler.org.

To find out how to contact your state representative to ask them to oppose the bill, visit www.house.leg.state.mn.us

Press Release –

Well, another Cain’s Quest is over. What an exciting race! Once again the many volunteers from Labrador City/Wabush, Churchill Falls and Happy Valley-Goose Bay pulled off a world class event.

Already the race committee is talking about next year’s race and how to make it even better.

A great time was had by all at the awards ceremonies. Special thanks Janice Barnes, Bev Elliot, Linda Dumaresque, Amy Do and Melissa Coombs for organizing the ceremonies. Great job as always.

Cain’s Quest is also fortunate to have some great sponsors. Their support is critical to the success of this race.

The Cain’s Quest committee thanks you for your support.

Official Team Time Results are as follows:

The Cain’s Quest 2008 placements and official finishing times are:

1st Place: Team 8 (Rumbolt/Efford) from Labrador City – Finishing March 13th at 10:33:01

2nd Place: Team 25 (AuCoin/Frechette) from Nova Scotia and Quebec – Finishing March 13th at 11:43:20

3rd Place: Team 21 (Boisvert/Boisvert) from New Hampshire – Finishing March 13th at 11:47:30

4th Place: Team 22 (Knipping/Gardner) from Maine – Finishing March 13th at 11:48:00

5th Place: Team 28 (Hibbert/Dick) from Idaho and Minnesota – Finishing March 13th at 11: 48:12

6th Place: Team 10 (Hovington/Deschesnes)from Quebec – Finishing March 13th at 12:00:12

7th Place: Team 23(Dionne/Letourneau) from Quebec – Finishing March 13th at 12:16:11

8th Place: Team 26 (Desrosiers/Arsenault) from Quebec – Finishing March 13th at 12:30:23

9th Place: Team 1 (Myles/Tremblay) from Labrador – Finishing March 13th at 13:00:01

10th Place: Team 9 (Grouchy/Andrews) from Labrador – Finishing March 13th at 13:16:30

11th Place: Team 20 (Chatman/Watkins) from Labrador – Finishing March 13th at 15:45:00

12th Place: Team 15 (Scott/Richards) from Maine – Finishing March 14th at 00:12:30

13th Place: Team 3 (Heald/Farley) from Maine – Finishing March 14th at 00:12:33

14th Place: Team 7 (Price/Hastings) from Ontario – Finishing March 14th at 1:18:00

Visit CainsQuest.com for more details.

Press Release –

Polaris snocross racers completed another dominating season on the WPSA race circuit by winning season points titles in Pro Open, Pro Women’s Super Stock and both Semi-Pro classes, giving Polaris points titles in four of the five premier race classes this winter.

At the completion of the March 14-16 WPSA season finale at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, these Polaris racers were crowned season points champions:

• Ross Martin (Judnick Motorsports) won Pro Open, where Polaris racers swept the top three spots in points. Martin also won this title last season, giving him two Pro Open championships in his first two seasons as a Pro.

• Andrew Johnstad (Avalanche Racing) won points titles in Semi-Pro Open and Semi-Pro Super Stock. The Open title represented a great leap up in points, as he had finished seventh in the class last winter.

• Kylie Abrahamson (Avalanche Racing) won her second-straight Pro Women’s title in the newly renamed Pro Women’s Super Sport class.

All season long, Polaris snocross racers used the performance advantage of their Polaris IQ® Race Sleds and Liberty® engines to overwhelm the competition in the Pro and Semi-Pro points races. Consider this:

• Polaris racers finished 1-2-3 in Pro Open points. Martin won the title by 1 point over TJ Gulla (Hentges Racing) while Levi LaVallee (Hentges Racing) came in third. Five of the top eight finishers in Pro Open points were Polaris racers.

• In Pro Super Stock, Polaris racers filled positions two through seven, with Martin and Dennis Eckstrom (Scheuring Speed Sports) finishing second and third in points, respectively.

• Not only did Johnstad win both Semi-Pro points titles, but Polaris racers filled five of the top seven slots in the Open class and six of the top 10 in Super Stock.

PRO OPEN: Martin Edges Gulla for the Crown

Pros ran finals on Friday, March 14, and Sunday the 16th at Lake Geneva, and Martin’s victory on Friday was the key to his winning the points title over fellow Polaris racer Gulla, who finished second on Friday. On Sunday, Gulla took second again while Martin slipped back to fifth. That left Martin with 502 points to Gulla’s 501.

LaVallee finished third in Pro Open points, followed by Eckstrom in sixth, Shaun Crapo (Scheuring Speed Sports) in eighth and Mike Schultz (Avalanche Racing) in 12th.

PRO SUPER STOCK: Polaris Racers Pack the Top 10

In both Pro Super Stock finals at Lake Geneva, four Polaris racers finished in the top 10, but none of them finished consistently high enough on the weekend to earn the season points title.

Martin finished a disappointing 14th on Friday, putting a serious dent in his title hopes. He came back to finish second on Sunday, putting him second place in points.

Eckstrom finished two points behind Martin after running fifth Friday and fourth on Sunday. Eckstrom rebounded impressively this season, as his third-place finish in points represents an improvement of eight positions over last season.

Gulla, who won Pro Stock last season, ran 8-3 at Lake Geneva and finished fourth in points, followed by Polaris racers LaVallee in fifth (up from eighth last season), Crapo in sixth (up from 13th last season) and Schultz in seventh.

SEMI-PRO: Johnstad Runs Strong & Consistent

Andrew Johnstad didn’t win every race this winter, but ran well consistently enough to jump from seventh in Pro Open points last season to winning the title by 18 points over fellow Polaris racer Bobby LePage (Hentges Racing) this winter.

Johnstad won Semi-Pro Open at Lake Geneva to clinch the class title, and he finished second behind LePage in Semi-Pro Super Stock in Wisconsin to sew up that points title.

LePage also had an excellent season, winning several times and finishing second in Open and third in Super Stock points – just one season after finishing 10th in points in both classes.

In both Semi-Pro classes, Mike Bauer (Kafka Motorsports) finished fifth in points and Brett Bender (Hentges Racing) took sixth. Matt Bristow (Bristow Racing) finished seventh in Open and eighth in Super Stock.

PRO WOMEN: Abrahamson Repeats as Points Champion

Kylie Abrahamson joined Avalanche Racing prior to this winter and had another championship season, winning at Lake Geneva to secure the Pro Women’s Super Stock points title by 21 points. Those 21 points are a huge margin compared to last winter, when she won the points crown by just four points.

Polaris racer Christina Herheim (Triple H&J Racing) was seventh in points, an improvement over her 11th-place finish last winter, and Kendra Daniel was 10th.

SPORT & JUNIOR CLASS WINS

Tomorrow’s Polaris Pro racers are today’s Junior and Sport racers, and two young racers stood out with their performance at Lake Geneva.

Andy Lieders won the Sport Super Stock 1 class in Wisconsin and finished second in Sport Super Stock 2, while James Johnstad (Avalanche Racing) won both the Junior 16-17 and Junior 14-15 classes at Lake Geneva.

Press Release –

Brainerd International Raceway in Brainerd, Minn., played host to the penultimate WPSA PowerSports Snowmobile Tour event this past weekend and Team Arctic’s snocross racers came ready win.

And win they did, taking victories in Pro Stock and Semi-Pro Open and scattering green across the podiums in pretty much every class all weekend.

The event was billed as a double header, so there were two sets of finals in each Pro and Semi-Pro class.

Coming off a gold medal performance at the Winter X Games, Tucker Hibbert took the win in the Pro Super Stock class and also notched two second place finishes, one in Pro Open and one in Pro Super Stock. Ryan Simons also made the podium, finishing third in Pro Open.

“I feel pretty good about the weekend overall,” said Hibbert. “We had three podiums, but compared to what we’ve done all year and I how I felt on the sled and track, I’m a little disappointed in my performance.”

Riding a wave of success, Hibbert went into the last final of the weekend with high hopes, but an on-track incident ended his streak of podium finishes.

“The track was rough,” said Hibbert. “In the last final, I felt good and was really confident I could run up front. I was in second and was closing in on Levi. With 20 laps, I knew I could hang with him and was looking to make a move for the lead. I took a hard hit on lap four and by the time I got up, I was in dead last. I was pretty shook up and knew there was no chance of getting to the front again so I pulled off to get out of the way and to let racing continue. It’s definitely not the way we wanted to end the weekend but we still had a lot of success so I’m keeping my head up.”

Dan Ebert continues his quest for the Semi-Pro points championships and scored huge in Brainerd, winning one Semi-Pro Open final and finishing fifth in the other.

Swedish rider Christian Salemark backed up Ebert, finishing second in Semi-Pro Open. Ebert also stood on the podium in Semi-Pro Super Stock, taking a third. Ebert sits in third place in both Semi-Pro points standings.

“Brainerd was a great event for Team Arctic and the new Sno Pro 600,” said Assistant Team Arctic Race Manager Mike Kloety. “Tucker’s win by two seconds backed up by Ryan’s third place finish in the Pro classes along with Dan and Christian’s podiums in Semi-Pro showed we ran at the front all weekend. And don’t forget Cody Thomsen’s win in the Sport class. Cody is a great young rider and we’re looking forward to the future with him.”

Other Team Arctic wins included Levi Tipcke in the Junior 16-17 class and Trent Wittwer in the 120 Champ class.