Duluth, Minn. – November 28, 2016 – Jack LInk’s/AMSOIL/Axalta/Polaris Pro Lite racers Jake Angove and Nick Lorenz opened the 2017 snocross season in style Saturday night, finishing first and third in the 15-man final.
It was a perfect day for Angove, who swept his qualifying rounds and led the main event from start to finish. Angove is coming off his first complete season in the Lites class where he finished second in the championship and is hungry for a title in 2017. “It couldn’t have gone any better,” said Angove. Top go 1-1-1 at Duluth, I usually don’t have very good Duluths, so to start the the season off like this it just pumps me up so much. And to have Nick on the podium with me makes it even better.”
For rookie Nick Lorenz, the fast start was exactly what the team was hoping for when the 2016 Sport class champion was signed during the summer. Lorenz qualified inside the top three in both of his heat races and was running second to Angove when a broken idler wheel forced him to nurse his machine through the closing laps of the final. “I felt awesome,” said Lorenz. I made my way up to second and had a little problem with a bogey wheel but we made our way to the podium and that’s all we’re worried about so I’m happy.
It was a mad rush up to the start of the season with weather hampering snow-making in northern Minnesota, but a massive cold front that moved through the area just five days before the event allowed race officials to not only build a track, but one of the biggest layouts the Spirit Mt. ski area has ever seen. Action kicked off on Friday night with the traditional AMSOIL Dominator race that pits the top 16 Pro Open racers in a head-to-head, winner-take-all competition. Ross Martin won his first round elimination heat over fellow Polaris rival Kody Kamm. Martin, a two-time winner of the $10,000 prize was then knocked out in the quarter finals by Tucker Hibbert.
Saturday, Martin qualified 5-2 for a spot in the Pro Open main event. Martin battled much of the race in the sixth through eighth positions. The wet, heavy roost made it extremely difficult to see optional lines on the track but Ross was able to move up in the closing laps to finish sixth overall.
Unfortunately, Mother Nature took another turn for the worse on Sunday morning as a thick blanket of fog rolled up the hill from Lake Superior and hovered over the course for the entire morning. At 12:30 pm, race officials made the call to cancel the event, suspending round two of series. It is anticipated that an additional day of racing will be added to the January date in Shakopee, Minnesota, to preserve all rounds of the schedule.
With snow in limited supply in the region, the teams will go to work this week cleaning equipment and prepping for the upcoming trip west for rounds three and four in Winter Park, Colorado on December 16-17.