Giant snow storms hit the western United States, delivering snow, the likes of which has not been seen in 35-years or more. The irony of this was that while most of Utah and neighboring states struggled to deal with record amounts of snow, the little town of Morgan, Utah, got far less, and then lost even that to days of pounding rain. The result was a couple of inches of frozen slush, only a few days before the race. The problem was solved when 80 truck-loads of snow were hauled and dumped trackside. Three front loaders courtesy of Wilkinson Construction, worked nonstop for 12 hours, moving the piles into place, then a grooming machine hopped on, and by Friday night a 20-foot wide, 3/10 mile track with jumps and turns existed at last.

Racers showed up, eager to avenge some Round 1, Elk River, Minnesota scores and everyone kept a great, positive attitude throughout the day with the much shorter than planned track. Relatively warm, low 30’s temperatures, plus constant grooming got the track knocked into surprisingly decent shape and no injuries occurred, although there were several crashes amidst the heavy racing, and a few dirt spots showed in places on the track.

Defending National Snow Bike, and former GNCC champ, Idaho rider Jimmy Jarrett simply rode like his bike was strapped to a rocket. He won his heat race with ease and led the A Main from start to finish, cutting laps in the 30-second range on his KTM equipped Timbersled and nearly dragging his handlebars in the turns. Crazy fast, Cody Thomsen from Nisswa, Minnesota, had to settle for second this time after soundly beating Jarrett in Round 1. Things are going to only get more intense between these two, the older, wily, tough Jarret and young, Camsoriding Thomsen; it is quite possible that the AMA Championship title will come right down to the wire, and in two weeks both riders will meet again in the X Games, which will raise the bar another notch.

Oregon’s Darin Mees (also X Games bound) charged hard in the A Main before crashing and dropping back and new Colorado snow biker Mark Wilson also cut some fast laps until several spills detuned his ride. Montana’s Keaton Ward also looked really fast, pushing Thomsen hard toward the end of the race, finishing a solid third. The intense rivalry between South Dakota’s Shayna Lier and Idaho’s Shayla Fulfer was a blast to watch. After getting soundly beat by Lier at round 1, Fulfer rode a smart and aggressive race to beat Lier at Round 2. These two are set to go at it all season, just like they did in 2016. The current numbers of female racers may be small, but they really put on a show and after racing each other, both women took on the men; Lier finished 9th in the B Main and Fulfer finished 2nd in the C Main.

Other noteworthy rides included the nine-rider Senior, over 40 class where Colorado’s Jeff Seigfreid barely edged out Oregon’s Justin Homan for the win. This new class for older riders is going to grow like crazy and the sport continues to attract name riders from a variety of disciplines; Endurocross pro, Cory Graffunder topped the B Main and long-time working pro motocrosser Jimmy Lamastus won the C Main.

Both just climbed on snow bikes for the first time within a few days of the race and will only get faster in the future.

Round 3 of the AMA Championship Snow Bike Series will be held in McCall, Idaho on January 28, 2017. Started in 2009, it is the oldest and largest snow bike race in the world, pulling 1,205 spectators and 57 races last year, and it will feature an all new, 1-mile track at an all new location for 2017.

The series partners are: Nitro Lubricants, Moto Trax, Camso, Arctiva Clothing, Fox Suspension, Snomoto.com, Timbersled, CMX, Cyclops, Pro-Moto Billet, Snow Tech MX, HMK, Rekluse, and Excel Fabrication, and Fresh Moto who create the custom event trophies for each event.