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.
