Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme : FIM Snowcross World Championship

Emil Ohman – 2011 FIM Snowcross World Champion

Sun, 27 Mar 2011 10:19:00 +0200

The FIM Snowcross World Champion title is back to Sweden through the hands of Emil Ohman, the 24 years-old from Tvaran takes home his second title after winning it in 2008. The VillageShop circuit in Tuuri, the "good luck community", as it is called by the Finnish population surely had some effect on today's results although not for all the riders.

The prize for the unluckiest rider of the weekend will definitely go to one of this year's favourite Finnish: Janne Jurvelin. The Finn struggled early in the day with mechanical problems on his snowmobile that followed him until race two, ending the day involved on a crash with his Swede 'neighbour' Johan Lidman who also saw his dream of a World Title fading away on the first corner.

The fast 700 meters circuit alongside the Keskinen Brothers mega commercial setting suffered some changes from yesterday's free-practice as the riders mentioned icy surfaces in a number of corners and after a broken sled frame the landing from one of the jumps was also changed. After working on the track until very late at night, the Finnish Snowmobile Association, SuSeMk, was ready to receive a unanimous compliment from the riders on Sunday morning for the results achieved.

On the first race of the day Petter Narsa got up front closely followed by Johan Lidman. Tucker Hibbert started in ninth position, taking him sixteen laps to reach Lidman who at this time had lost the pace for the leader. With only four laps to finish Tucker took the lead showing the Scandinavians that they would have to upper their game on the next two outings. Emil Ohman also recovered two positions finishing sixth right behind his country fellow, Arctic Cat's Johan Lidman.

The second race saw Tucker's sled breaking its drive belt when the American rider was leading halfway through the race. Same bad luck happened last year when Emil Ohman crashed on race two leaving the Swede without any chance to fight for the title. This time around he benefited from Tucker's technical problems and got up to first position with Lidman right behind him. Having started from the penultimate spot, American rider Garth Kaufman made all the way through the pack only stopping when he got to third position.

After seeing Johan Lidman, the strongest contender to this year's win, crashing on the start, Emil knew he only had to keep it close to Petter Narsa if he wanted to have a go at the overall victory. The first two laps of the final race of the day were wild but Narsa managed to find his way overtaking the best of the Finns, Aki Pihlaja, and positioning himself at the front only to be replaced by Ohman after ten laps. In the meantime Tucker Hibbert was recovering positions fast and inevitably got the lead from Ohman just two laps after the Lynx rider got there.

Hibbert: "I had a broken drive belt on my snowmobile which is not something that I consider as common for me, it's just one of those things that happen in racing and we had a bad race today. Emil was strong in Sweden last year and I think that when he gets in his helmet at home he's got that extra support unlike when he's racing in America. He's riding really well so congratulations to him."

Narsa: "I wasn't expecting to finish second today, maybe top-ten. I had a good start on the first and third heat and starts are very important. Some of the corners were a bit tight to pass but my riding was good so I'm very happy with this result of course"

Ohman: "In 2008 I won my first World Championship but I've always tried to win it back again since then. I told Tucker before the third race that I felt bad for him as he had been faster than me but in racing stuff like this happens sometimes. I'm really happy to be on top as I worked hard for this."

RESULTS

RACE 1: 1. Tucker Hibbert, Arctic Cat, USA; 2. Petter Nårsa, Lynx, SWE; 3. Johan Lidman, Arctic Cat, SWE; 4. Emil Öhman, Lynx, SWE; 5. Garth Kaufman, Arctic Cat, USA; 6. Aki Pihlaja, Arctic Cat, FIN; 7. Ville Lehtisalo, Lynx, FIN; 8. Peter Ericson, Lynx, SWE; 9. Cody Thomsen, Arctic Cat, USA; 10. Viktor Hertén, Ski-Doo, FIN

Race 2: 1. Emil Öhman, Lynx, SWE; 2. Johan Lidman, Arctic Cat, SWE; 3. Garth Kaufman, Arctic Cat, USA; 4. Cody Thomsen, Arctic Cat, USA; 5. Aki Pihlaja, Arctic Cat, FIN; 6. Adam Renheim, Lynx, SWE; 7. Petter Nårsa, Lynx, SWE; 8. Marcus Evensson, Polaris, SWE; 9. Ville Lehtisalo, Lynx, FIN; 10. Peter Ericson, Lynx, SWE

Race 3: 1. Tucker Hibbert, Arctic Cat, USA; 2. Emil Öhman, Lynx, SWE; 3. Petter Nårsa, Lynx, SWE; 4. Christian Logan, Arctic Cat, USA; 5. Cody Thomsen, Arctic Cat, USA; 6. Garth Kaufman, Arctic Cat, USA; 7. Adam Renheim, Lynx, SWE; 8. Hannu Toppala, Lynx, FIN; 9. Viktor Hertén, Ski-Doo, FIN; 10. Ville Lehtisalo, Lynx, FIN

Overall Championship Standings: 1. Emil Öhman, 65pts; 2. Petter Nårsa, 56pts; 3. Tucker Hibbert, 55pts; 4. Garth Kaufman, 51pts; 5. Cody Thomsen, 46pts; 6. Johan Lidman, 42pts; 7. Aki Pihlaja, 40pts; 8. Ville Lehtisalo, 37pts; 9. Adam Renheim, 36pts; 10. Viktor Hertén, 33ptsPhotos: Youthstream

Parade of champions in Tuuri

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 15:45:00 +0100

Following last year's strong win by American rider Tucker Hibbert ending a predictable Scandinavian supremacy, the 2011 edition of the FIM Snowcross World Championship returns to the village of Tuuri in Finland on the 25th March weekend after hosting the event in 2008.

The small 500 inhabitant's village inherited its name from an ancient Finnish god of luck, which could hopefully do some good to 43 of the best Snowcross riders in Europe plus four American representatives.

On this occasion what Tuuri expects could already be considered the Snowcross 'battle-of-the-battles', such is the amount of established champions gathered by the Finnish organiser at the Keskinen Brothers VillageShop circuit. Three decisive races in a technically challenging 700 meters track put together by the Finnish Motorcycling Federation with the Snowmobile Association promoter – SuSeMk.

Six times Winter X-Games Snowcross gold medallist and reining World Champion Tucker Hibbert will be in Tuuri defending his Title carrying not only the #1 plate on his Monster Energy/ Arctic Cat, but two more trophies in his bag; the American rider just wrapped up the AMSOIL Pro-Open and the Pro-Stock championships' titles during the past weekend in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin and he's eager to finish his season in style in Tuuri.

With Tucker comes Garth Kaufman and Christian Logan of Team Arctic/ Christian Bros., both regularly inside the top-10 Pro points in the American championship. Surprise late entry comes from the recently crowned Semi-Pro American national series champion, Factory Team Arctic's Cody Thomsen, who will surely have a word or two to say.

Taking advantage of Finland's home crowd support, 8-times Finnish champion Janne Jurvelin is seeking his career first world medal, too. It's no secret that he and Jussi Honka, both Snowcross European champions, together with Iisko-Matti Näkkäläjärvi, Hannu Toppala, Aki Pihlaja and with many others have all been working their way to take the World Title back to Finland, which Janne Tapio conquered for the Finnish six years ago.

Double race winner in Tuuri on his campaign to clinch the FIM Snowcross World Championship title three years ago is Emil Öhman, who's been competing in the American national series under the Warnert Racing team awning. The Swede has just come back home to rest after missing the start of the last stage of the US nationals in Lake Geneva due to a nasty flu. The 24 years-old rider was the only one able to stop Hibbert's winning streak last year and he will certainly make it tough for the American a second time.

World's Vice-Champion Johan Lidman and 2009 World champion Peter Ericsson, who is back to competition after last year's absence, together with several other talented Swedes including Johan Dahlgren and the European Championship runner-up Johan Eriksson will form a strong line-up to fight back from their lost golden medal.

The Norwegians will make their appearance in Tuuri with eight riders topped up by the recently crowned European Snowcross Champion Magnus Lindbäck. Along with Magnus comes Ståle Eggen, last year's best Norwegian snowcrosser at the FIM World Snowcross Championship event in Mala, Sweden, as well as Jostein Biti and Kristoffer Holm who won't certainly miss any opportunity to get into the fight.

Last minute entries also came from the Russian federation also with eight of their best riders, the majority on the Lynx machines. Interesting to see how the present competitive level is in the eastern country as the last occasion Russian riders entered the FIM World Championship was back in 2005 with Pavel Zakharov finishing in the middle pack; we might be out for a nice surprise.

Estonia's sole representative, national Quad and Snowcross ace Kaspar Kangur has been regularly winning in the Estonian Snowcross Open class; this all-rounder BRP Lynx rider will surely have an exciting style to watch.

Fierce battles are expected with an entry list filled up with World, European and national champions who will surely make the wonders of the crowd with their 'screaming' snowmobiles and impressive air jumps. With an expected packed-house in Tuuri, this edition of the FIM Snowcross World Championship has all the ingredients to become one worth remembering.

Snowcross World Championship back in Tuuri

Fri, 04 Mar 2011 13:27:00 +0100

March 26th marks the return of the FIM Snowcross World Championship to Finland being held once more in Tuuri, a village within the municipality of Töysä in the Southern Ostrobothnia region.

The "Tuuri" name itself means luck and this "good luck community", as it's kindly called by the Finnish population, has no more than 500 inhabitants although it hosts the country's second-largest commercial complex: the Keskinen Brothers VillageShop, which attracts over 6 million yearly visitors!

With a large crowd attendance nearly guaranteed, the Finnish Motorcycling Federation together with SuSeMk -the Snowmobile Association promoter- is setting up an event that will surely deliver again a great display of snowmobile racing.

Following the same formula as the 2008 edition and continuing an enthusiastic partnership with Scott, the 700 meter long track built beside the VillageShop is expecting the attendance of some of the world's best snowmobile riders from Canada, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Italy, and Switzerland and obviously the best of the Finnish contingent.

The huge Keskinen Brothers VillageShop complex is a commercial oasis offering a warm welcome in the middle of the large cold surroundings; it is not just a store, it's a tourist attraction. A family venue full of activity comprising a department store, food store, a hotel, a caravan site, a restaurant, a petrol station and many more… It holds around fifty distinct events per year from dog shows and rock concerts to the Miss Finland tour.

After last year's exhilarating races held in Mala, Sweden, the snowmobile racing action of the FIM Snowcross World Championship 2011 edition in Tuuri will certainly be another one to remember, as the motocross style riding and the big-air jumps will fire up everyone even in the coldest weather!

Tucker Hibbert, the FIM Snowcross World Champion 2010

Sun, 28 Mar 2010 17:33:00 +0200

American rider Tucker Hibbert is the FIM Snowcross World Champion 2010. The 25 year old rider from Minnesota won two of three races, Swedish rider Johan Lidman is the Vice-World Champion, Cory Davis from Alaska finished third. This is the great success of the Arctic Cat manufacture.

The event has started on Friday with the opening press conference. There was a big interest for American riders and Swedish National Champion Johan Lidman of course. Already a day before the main day many spectators and journalists attended the event. Riders tried the track for the first time. In Mala there was snowing both days, what made the racing conditions more difficult. But the organizer made a good job on the track. Despite the fact it was snowing all the time, about 10.000 spectators came to see the best snowcross riders in the World on the racing day. The track was ruff, it was getting more difficult in every race.

All of three races were very exciting. In the first race Finnish rider Jussi Honka took the lead in front of Cory Davis. Tucker Hibbert did not have very successful start and he attacked from the back. Also home favourite Emil Ohman was not in front. But they were both riding very fast and risky. Hibbert won and Ohman was second. Swedish rider Viktor Stenman, who was also one of the home favourites for the podium did not finish the first race and already at the beginning he lost chances to finish on the podium.

Before the second race Snowcross World Champion 2008 Emil Ohman had still a chance to fight for the new Title. His dreams disappeared in the third lap, when a crash put him out the race. Tucker Hibbert and Johan Lidman were fighting for the win. Lidman surprised Hibbert in the middle of the race when he overtook the American. Hibbert attacked back and Lidman could not resist. It was the second win for Hibbert, who was very close to take the Title.

In the last race Emil Ohman decided to make the complete attack to take at least the win, if he was already out of fight for the Title. Hibber took the holeshot but this time was not easy to stay on the top. Ohman passed him and was riding too fast for everyone.

Tucker Hibbert is the winner of the FIM Snowcross World Championship. Swedish Champion Johan Lidman was more than happy for the second position. Cory Davis was satisfied for the third position. Emil Ohman missed the podium for three points, finished fourth and his Swedish colleague Jhan Dahlgren was fifth. Hibber was self confident from the beginning. He said: "I came all over to Sweden and took the World Champion Title, this is great. I knew I am strong but the race was far away from my home and other riders are more used to ride on this track. Fortunately we could bring our snowmobiles with us, what was easier. You can never make other bike the same as yours and that is why it was important to have own bike. This title means a lot to me. I won so many races in United States and now I showed that I can win also here."

Johan Lidman started the event with the fifth place. At the end he took the second position. Lidman said: "What can I say, I am so happy for this result. Many people expected a good result and I was under the pressure. I am really glad to finished second, between two American riders."

Third rider of the FIM Snowcross World Championship Cory Davis said: "I came to Sweden to give my best but I did not know how high I can finish. Third place is very good. The whole event was fantastic. Racing conditions were quite difficult, the visibility was getting worse at the end. It was nice to compete with all these riders."

Overall Championship Standings: 1. Hibbert Tucker (USA) 72 pt, 2. Johan Lidman (Swe) 56, 3. Cory Davis (USA) 52, 4. Emil Ohman (Swe) 49, 5. Johan Dahlgren (Swe) 45, 6. Janne Jurvelin (Fin) 45, 7. Jussi Honka (Fin) 44, 8. Markus Evensson (Swe) 44, 9. Iisko Nakkalajarvi (Fin) 39, 10. Dan Lang (Swe) 36

Entry list for the FIM Snowcross World Championship

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 21:24:00 +0100

The official entry list for the FIM Snowcross World Championship, to be held on Saturday 27 March in Mala, Sweden, includes the following 40 riders.

ENTRY LIST

2 Emil ÖHMAN, Lynx (Sweden)
4 Adam RENHEIM, Lynx (Sweden)
5 Petter NARSA, Lynx (Sweden)
6 Viktor STENMAN, Arctic Cat (Sweden)
7 Jostein BITI, Lynx (Norway)
8 Fredrik GRANBERG, Ski-Doo (Sweden)
9 Dan LANG, Polaris (Sweden)
10 Jussi HONKA, Ski-Doo (Finland)
11 Magnus LINDBACK, Arctic Cat (Norway)
12 Mads TAMNES, Ski-Doo (Norway)
13 Stale EGGEN, Polaris (Norway)
14 Johan LIDMAN, Arctic Cat (Sweden)
15 Brett BEMDER, Polaris (USA)
16 Alessandro PLONER, Polaris (Italy)
20 Jimmy JOHANSSON, Polaris (Sweden)
28 Kristoffer HOLM, Polaris (Norway)
30 Markus EVENSSON, Polaris (Sweden)
31 Jonas ÖSTBYHAUG, Lynx (Norway)
32 Ivar Johan GAUP, Arctic Cat (Norway)
33 Espen KJELLMAN, Lynx (Norway)
34 Olli-Pekka MÄKIREURA, Arctic Cat (Finland)
35 Viktor HERTEN, Ski-Doo (Finland)
36 Hannu TOPPALA, Polaris (Finland)
37 Vl Iisko NÄKKÄLÄJÄR, Polaris (Finland)
38 Janne JURVELIN, Lynx (Finland)
39 Ville YLIANTTILA, Ski-Doo (Finland)
40 Miikka PETERI, Polaris (Finland)
41 Jonas STEFANSSON, Lynx (Iceland)
42 Andreas JOSEFSEN, Lynx (Norway)
43 Alexander SHALNOV, Lynx (Russia)
45 Alexey BYKOV, Polaris (Russia)
44 Sergey ROMANENKO, Lynx (Russia)
46 Maxim SHEVCHENKO, Lynx (Russia)
47 Dmitry TSUKOV, Lynx (Russia)
48 Christer DE WALL, Lynx (Sweden)
68 Tucker HIBBERT, Arctic Cat (USA)
79 Johan DAHLGREN, Lynx (Sweden)
117 Adam ÖHMAN, Lynx (Sweden)
124 Paul BAUERLY, Arctic Cat (USA)
160 Cory DAVIS, Arctic Cat (USA)

Mala will host the best Snowcross riders in the World

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 12:09:00 +0100

Mala, idyllic place in Sweden, will host the FIM Snowcross World Championship 2010. The new Snowcross World Champion will be known on Saturday 27 March. Sweden is the European center of Snowcross and the home country of the 2009 World Champion Peter Eriksson.

Mala is a municipality in Västerbotten Country in northern Sweden. It is situated within the province of Lapland. The nearest towns are Arvidsjaur and Lycksele. Besides Mala the administrative district consists of 28 villages. Mala is one of the geological centres in Sweden. It is also rich of mineral resources. There are woodworking and engineering industries. Mala is well known for its good and beautiful environment.

Peter Eriksson will not defend his title because he decided to take a break from racing after winning last year's Title. There will be other strong Swedish riders like discovery of the season 2009, young Petter Narsa, the 2008 World Champion Emil Ohman, Viktor Stenman and many others. Also best riders from America and Canada will come to Sweden. In the last season home rider Emil Ohman was the defender of the 2008 Title but he lost it already in the second of three events, when he did not finish the first heat. It seems that this year the rivalry will be much stronger.

Last year riders had to attend three events to fight for the Snowcross World Champion Title. This season they will have only one. This will be also a big thing for the organizer, Swedish club Mala Snöskoter Klubb. Pauline Hedström, press responsible from the club explains: "It means a lot for us to host all the best riders. This is what we have been working for and now we finally have the chance to take the sport to a new level. For Mala generally this is the biggest event that Mala ever had. Every company in the village is somehow working for the event. The municipality collaborates with us and help us with the marketing. They see it as a winning situation and they want us to succeed."

After the successful event in the past season, Mala is interesting also for riders out of Europe. Pauline Hedström said: " There will be also three top American riders and four riders from Canada. This year a lot of American riders contacted us because now they have a chance to become the Snowcross World Champion. On Friday before the event we have an opening dinner for riders and collaborating people. On Saturday after the race there will be an evening with the unofficial prize giving ceremony and the dinner entertainment."

The organizer did not make any special changes on the track, because everyone was satisfied with it at the last year's event. The track is very pleasant for spectators, who can see riders all the time. The goal of the club is to have around 10.000 spectators, what will be more as last two years.