The Yamaha Nytro MTX earned his first podium finish of the year in the 2013 RMSHA hillclimb series. Chad Jorgensen piloted his four-stroke sled to a third-place finish in the Pro 600 Modified class at Beaver Mountain in Garden City, Utah. This is just the second podium in RMSHA history for a Yamaha four-stroke snowmobile.

Jorgensen added a top-five finish in Pro 600 Improved, with Cable Willford finishing eighth in the class. Willford then grabbed a sixth and Kody Malmborg a 10th in Pro 700 Improved, while Jorgensen took a sixth in Pro 700 Modified and Kolton Malmborg added a sixth in Semi Pro Modified. Finally, Kolton put his Nytro MTX into the Semi Pro Stock final, marking the first time a Nytro has qualified among its 800cc two-stroke rivals in a stock class.

Yamaha snowmobile racers had perhaps their most successful racing weekend of the season as Ben Lindbom clinched a championship with a victory at the USXC finale, while Ty Free and Chad Jorgensen earned four top-five finishes at the RMSHA White Pine Hillclimb.

Lindbom rode his Yamaha Nytro RTX to victory in the 100-mile Semi-Pro Improved event at the USXC Warroad 100 in Warroad, Minn. This was Lindbom’s sixth win of the season in the class – a personal record and also a record for the RTX.

Lindbom built a massive lead on the rest of the field over 10 laps to score the convincing win. The victory also proved a great confidence builder for the likable Yamaha rider as he moves from Semi-Pro to the Pro ranks next season.

“This was longest Semi-Pro Improved race of the year, twice as long as any other race this season,” says Brian Strawsell, Yamaha’s racing technical coordinator. “Two hours at race speeds over terrain this bumpy was a great endurance test for the riders – and a fantastic one for the sleds.”

Arctic Cat has announced that it has entered into an engine supply agreement with Yamaha starting in the 2014 model year. Arctic Cat initially entered into an agreement to purchase Yamaha 123cc 4-stroke engines for its youth snowmobile in 2009. This agreement has now been expanded to include select 4-stroke engines from Yamaha.

“The engine purchase agreement with Yamaha, combined with the engines that we plan to manufacture in house, will provide Arctic Cat’s customers with the most well-rounded engine choices when it comes to technology, reliability and horsepower,” says Brad Darling, Arctic Cat’s snow division vice president and general manager.

Yamaha snowmobiles had a successful Jan. 26-27 race weekend in everything from the snowy X Games in Aspen, Colo. to frigid cross-country competition in Minnesota and Maine.

Leading the charge for Yamaha was Doug Henry, formerly a motocross champion and now a snowmobiling inspiration, who led most of the X Games SnoCross Adaptive race aboard his FX Nytro RTX before ultimately finishing a close second. In Minnesota, Ben Lindbom won the 50-mile USXC Semi Pro Improved event, while in Maine, Erik Frigon grabbed a strong third in the 20-mile USSC East Pro Open race, both aboard Nytro RTXs.

Henry rewrote the motocross rulebook when he won the 1998 AMA Motocross title on Yamaha’s YZ400F four-stroke. After suffering a career-ending spinal injury in 2007, he then rewrote the rulebook for handicapped athletes by outfitting a Yamaha snowmobile with a special shock-absorbing seat to race snocross. After taking a bronze in X Games 14, this weekend Henry returned to Aspen and led nearly the entire final aboard his specially outfitted sled before finishing second to Mike Schultz and claiming a silver medal.

“My Yamaha gave me a great start and put me out front, and after that I just tried to have fun,” says. Henry. “Thanks to Yamaha Snowmobiles for getting me the equipment and to ESPN for putting on the event.”

Once again the Keweenaw Research Center at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Mich. will host the SAE Snowmobile Challenge. This year’s event will be the biggest ever as a record 21 college and university teams have registered. The event takes place March 4-9, 2013.

Arctic Cat, BRP (Ski-Doo), Polaris, and Yamaha are gold level sponsors of the event. Staff from all four manufacturers will be involved, with many serving as judges and reviewers of the competition.

The intent of the competition is to design a snowmobile that will primarily be ridden on groomed snowmobile trails. The use of unreliable, expensive solutions is strongly discouraged! Modern snowmobiles are engineered to meet the current standards for noise and emissions. Teams are expected to add innovative solutions for improving on performance of the base sled that they start with. Design judges (written and oral) will be looking for innovations and incorporating that into their scores.