Jimmy Jarrett left no question in anyone’s mind that he was the fastest rider at Round 2 of the AMA Championship Snow Bike Series held in Morgan, Utah on January 24, 2017. After taking second at Round-1 n Elk River, Minnesota, Jimmy said, “I had a slow start and then had to fight with the heavy snow spray; I just was not happy with my performance there. I spent the following weeks before Round 2 doing a lot of riding, pushing myself and getting really aggressive with my snow bike. I knew that I had to get out in front on the start and hold a large gap between me and the other riders to insure a win.”
And win he did, riding flawlessly and mistake-free for 12 laps on a very difficult, icy, short race course, where one bobble or wrong move would have cost him the win. The biggest challenge at the Morgan race was the surprising lack of snow. Utah has been enjoying a big winter and there was two feet of the white stuff in Morgan only days before the event, but a week of unexpected rain and warm temperatures took 90 percent of the snow away. The AMA Series Director, Ron Dillon, worked with John Wilkinson, from Morgan Valley Polaris, to get 80 dump truck loads of snow delivered to the site and John and his crew, armed with three, large front-end loaders moved snow for 12 hours to get a course built just in time for the following morning’s race. The snow groomer, skillfully driven by Dan Wilkinson, managed to keep the minimal, snow together long enough to complete a full day of racing.
We asked Jimmy where he sees the sport going in the future, and he said “with the X Games and the AMA Series both getting behind the sport, it is going to explode by next year. This new sport offers a sort of leveling, where all types of riders and disciplines can race together; if you know how to ride a dirt bike you can ride a snow bike. In the sport, the tracks are not too difficult and with the sport being new, we are all trying to figure it out together.”
The X Games and Round 3 – McCall, Idaho are running the same weekend. The X Games on Friday, January 27 and Round 3 on Saturday, January 28th and Jimmy is going to attempt to ride both. It is a 12 hour drive from Aspen, Colorado to McCall, Idaho, but this awesome racer is going to continue going all out, competing in the sport that he is helping to build. Jimmy Jarrett is the defending champion for the 2016 Championship Series and it appears that he is going all out to defend his title in 2017.
Ronda Gibbons / AMA Championship Snow Bike Series - 208-800-2036