Tremblay wins Michigan Snocross National

The largest crowd of the 2011-’12 AMSOIL Championship Snocross Series season gathered indoors at the stately Pontiac Silverdome for round seven of the series – the Western Power Sports Michigan Snocross National, presented by Tim Hortons. Securing the premier class Pro Open win in front of an estimated crowd approaching 20,000 snowmobile racing fans was Canada’s Tim Tremblay (Ski-Doo).

And in the support Pro Light division racing North Dakota’s Derek Ellis (Ski-Doo) took top honors with a thrilling win over Polaris‘ Kody Kamm.

Pro Open

After Ski-Doo’s Justin Broberg pulled the Stud Boy Holeshot, the Pro Open turned into a classic cat-and-mouse chase between Tucker Hibbert (Arctic Cat) and Tremblay. Hibbert would work his way back up the charts after getting caught up at the start, clicking off fast lap after fast lap before catching up to race leader Tremblay by lap 11 (of 28).

Tim Tremblay bested the field to win the Western Power Sports Michigan Snocross National.

Whittling Tremblay’s lead down to three seconds – much because Tremblay ran into lapped traffic on the tight, 20-second lap, all-left-hand-turn course. A Tremblay mistake in the first turn after the finish line would put Hibbert into the lead momentarily, but Tremblay grabbed it right back. Hibbert would lead once more before Tremblay charged back to the front. Then, on lap 22, Hibbert got into the back of Tremblay’s sled and tipped over – dashing his chances for the win. Hibbert would re-mount and charge back towards the podium, but fellow Arctic Cat pilot Logan Christian would shut the door on Hibbert’s attempts at second place.

The final Pro Open podium at the Silverdome read: 1st – Tremblay; 2nd – Christian; 3rd – Hibbert.

“This was such a good night, I’m really happy to be up here,” says Tremblay. “It was really hard to pass those guys (lapped traffic). Almost crashed once, but my Ski-Doo team worked very hard [and] we won the race and I’m very happy for it.”

“Pretty rough at the end there, but pretty exciting,” says Hibbert.

Pro Light

In Friday’s Pro Light final at the Silverdome Polaris’ Kody Kamm looked to have it in the bag, taking a multiple-second lead into the white flag lap. Unfortunately, a mechanical gremlin stopped Kamm’s sled mid-lap in last of the 16-lap main event. Ironically, Ski-Doo’s Derek Ellis’ sled seemed to be belching smoke for the entire main, but Ellis soldiered on – never losing much time on Kamm – and was there in second place when Kamm’s sled quit to take the win.

“Wow. That was a wild race,” says Ellis. “My Ski-Doo was there in the end. Pumped with the win.”

Wrapping up the Pro Light podium at the Silverdome was John Stenberg (Ski-Doo) in second and Chase Rosemeyer (Ski-Doo) in third.