Another Pro Class Sweep for Tucker Hibbert in New York

Story by Lucas Cooney Feb. 08, 2016

Eight wins in 10 races for Hibbert this season

This is starting to get ridiculous. Tucker Hibbert continued his thrashing of the 2015-16 AMSOIL Championship Snocross Series by sweeping the Pro Open at the US Air Force Snocross National in Salamanca, NY.

Hibbert has now won eight of 10 main events this season, including three straight weekend sweeps. Throw in his dominating win at the recent Winter X Games and Hibbert has virtually untouchable this season.

Hibbert got things started on Friday by sweeping both of his heat races. When the main even began on Friday night, it was Jake Scott who jumped out to an early lead, claiming the Stud Boy Holeshot. Scott held on to the lead until Hibbert made a clean pass on the second lap. Hibbert checked out from there and cruised to victory, but a battle ensued behind him.

Kyle Pallin and Tim Tremblay were battling hard and made their way past Scott on lap 11. Things were holding steady until Logan Christian started making a big charge. He found a fast line and worked his way up to challenge Tremblay. Christian made his move on the final lap, passing Tremblay on the back stretch for third, joining Hibbert and Pallin on the podium.

“It was a fun race, put my head down and made some passes,” said Christian of his third place finish. “There is a big crew behind us and it takes a lot of work to get up here, can’t thank everyone enough.”

(Photo courtesy ISOC – Mike Roth)

Pallin was thrilled with his podium finish. “It is such a relief, I am so grateful to be up here. The last couple of years I have had a decent amount of success, this year it has been kind of hidden from me, It feels so good to be back up here,” said Pallin.

Saturday’s main event looked much the same for Hibbert. Lincoln Lemieux grabbed the holeshot, but Hibbert took over the lead before the end of the first lap.

Hibbert built a five-second lead on Lemieux by the fifth lap and by the time the 18-lap race was over, he went on to lap up to fourth place before taking a truly dominant win.

“I really couldn’t have asked for a better weekend. This is the second national in a row we [the team] have been able to sweep qualifying and the finals,” said Hibbert. “These weekends don’t come easy, especially now with the inverted start. Even with bad start line picks in my qualifying rounds and finals, I was able to pull almost every holeshot. That’s a testament to how good the guys have my sled dialed-in right now.

“The track changed a lot throughout the weekend. The snow went from slippery to mealy to icy. It was tricky and really kept you on your toes. There were a lot of crashes throughout the weekend. It just wasn’t a track you could take chances on. I’m thankful I got good starts so I didn’t have to push past my comfort zone to get to the front.

Lemieux raced hard held on to second place for the rest of the race. “Yesterday I had a little trouble, but we got a good start today, stayed in second. I tried to catch up to Tucker, but got into lapped traffic early that took me awhile to get through.” said Lemieux.

Kyle Pallin worked way to third place, but he was black flagged for passing under a yellow flag and had to be moved back two spots. Pallin fought his way back to fourth and set his sights on Logan Christian for third. Pallin gave Christian a taste of his own medicine by passing him on the last lap. The pair raced furiously until the end, with Pallin edging out Christian for the third and final podium spot.

Kyle Pallin earned a pair of Pro class podium finishes this weekend. (Photo courtesy Snocross.com)

“That race was crazy, I rolled like Levi LaVallee – fast but squirley,” said Pallin. “I was off the track here, and off over there, I was just happy I stayed on and happy to be on the podium.”

Hibbert now holds a 90-point lead over Tremblay in the chase for the Pro Open championship. The rest of the still has a few weekends of racing action left to catch up. The AMSOIL Championship Snocross Series returns to action February 26-27 at the Ram Trucks Snocross National in Mt. Pleasant, Mich.

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