A quick trip home to Norway, followed by a non-points tune-up race in Valcourt, Quebec, created the ultimate reset for Elias Ishoel who scored his second Pro class win of the 2023 AMSOIL Championship Snocross tour in Elk River, Minnesota.Ishoel followed up his win with a second place finish on night two and continued to extend his points lead in the premier division where he is the four time and defending Champion. Rounds 7 & 8 were originally scheduled for Western New York, where the series has an enormous fan base. However, a lack of snow forced a relocation to ERX Motor Park in Minnesota, which is the home practice track for many of the teams on the tour.
“For sure it felt good, I just wanted one or two more laps there at the end,” Ishoel said. “It felt good to come thru the pack, it was hard to pass and hard to find good lines to go faster but I found a couple good spots to get to second so I’m super stoked about that. We’re half way through the season and I just need to think about how I started the year so I can’t really complain about anything. I felt way better coming into this weekend and even though I struggled a bit with the heat races today I feel like I’m back to myself.”
Marcus Ogemar had his best weekend of the season in the Pro Lite class and has worked his way back into a more familiar top three spot in the standings. Ogemar added valuable points by never finishing out of the top three in any of his qualifying rounds, including a heat race win on Saturday.
In the main events, Marcus started second and held that position throughout Friday’s round seven final. On Saturday, he was once again among the top qualifiers, starting second and finishing third. Saturday was an especially gutsy performance by Ogemar who was nursing an ankle injury on a big air course that had more than its share of harsh landings.
The big, fast and technical course at ERX did not suite Pro Lite rookie Emeric Legendre. Legendre did collect a top 10 finish in ninth on Friday but failed to qualify for the main event on Saturday.
Crayden Dillon picked up where he left off at round six in South Dakota. After having his perfect record stopped at round five, Dillon swept the Sport class in Minnesota running his new win streak to three in a row.
Up next is a new venue for the tour as we make our first stop at the legendary Huset’s Speedway in Brandon, South Dakota on March 3-4.
You can follow the team all year on our social media links below and catch all of the on track action through the FloRacing streaming service at floracing.com.