Round three of the USXC series took place this past weekend at the Willmar Area Lakes 1000 in Willmar, Minn. and Arctic Cat racers continued their early-season dominance by sweeping the podium in both Pro classes.

The USXC crew laid out roughly a 10-mile course on the frozen surface of Foot Lake. Racers set up shop at the Kandiyohi County fairgrounds and fans lined up on the ice along the shore Saturday to watch the action from the warmth of their vehicles.

Arctic Cat rider Zach Herfindahl started the day off by claiming the first Pro win of his career in the Speedwerx Pro Open class. The 16-year-old rookie Pro is spearheading the youth movement in cross-country snowmobile racing and laid down the fastest time in the five-lap, 50-mile race (47:37.106) besting his teammate Ryan Simons (47:42.328) by over five seconds. Brian Dick, another one of Herfindahl’s teammates, finished in third with a time of 47:44.148.

Riders left in flights of two in the 10-lap DRIFT Racing Pro 600 class. After the 100-mile race that included a mandatory fuel stop, Brian Dick rode his Arctic Cat to victory with a time of 1:34:40.222, seven seconds faster than second place finisher Herfindahl and over a minute faster than the third place Arctic Cat of Wes Selby. Just behind Selby was Simons and rounding out the Top 5 was the Arctic Cat of Chad Lian.

The Polaris snowmobile racing paddock is going to look a lot different after this season as Polaris Racing Manager Tom Rager Sr. is preparing to retire at season’s end.

Rager, who joined Polaris in August 2000 and has directed the racing program ever since, will be succeeded by his son, Tom Rager, Jr., who currently serves as Polaris Race Coordinator.

“It’s been a great career,” says the elder Rager. “I’ve watched my son grow and develop and he’s ready to take this thing on. He has worked hard.”

Rager Sr. joined Polaris after spending over 15 years with the Ski-Doo snowmobile racing program, including the final seven years as race manager.

In what has to be Yamaha’s best day of snowmobile racing in years, Yamaha FX Nytro snowmobiles won a perfect seven out of seven Sport, Semi-Pro and Pro events they entered in a great day of cross-country racing in Mercer, Wis. on Sat., Feb. 4.

Yamaha snowmobile R&D engineer, Andy Storbeck, won the Sprint and Distance races in the amateur Sport category, Ben Lindbom swept the same events in Semi Pro, and Nathan Titus topped both events in the Pro category. Making the day even better, Titus later teamed up with semi-pro racer Jake Jorgenson to win the team race.

A group of snowmobilers were having some fun in the steep and deep in Washington when one of the riders triggered a small avalanche that buried member of the group.

Someone else in the group had the video camera rolling and you can see the one rider just disappear under the snow. Fortunately for everybody, he was quickly spotted and dug out. You can watch it all yourself in the video below.

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

Photo courtesy Sledracer.com

BRP’s Ski-Doo X-Team snocross racer Tim Tremblay, riding for the Warnert Racing team, bested a talented field of riders to win the Pro Open snocross World Championship at the 49th World Championship Snowmobile Derby in Eagle River, Wis. on Jan. 22.

The Derby featured a snocross track located inside the famed ice oval that featured a mix of jumps, tight turns and rough mogul sections. After seeing sub-zero temperatures for the first two days of racing at the Derby, Sunday dawned gray, but warmer, with temperatures reaching 20-degrees Fahrenheit.

X-Team rider Robbie Malinoski, of Scheuring Speed Sports, won the Pro Open snocross race during the Derby’s Friday Night Thunder event and was the favorite to win the Pro Open World Championship race, but an incident with another rider off the start in final left him at the back of the pack. Tremblay, who got a clean start, rode to the win setting a blazing pace around the rough track. Tremblay was joined on the podium by Polaris’ Ross Martin in second and Warnert Racing teammate Justin Broberg in third. Ski-Doo rider Darren Mees was close behind Broberg finishing fourth.