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Kyle Pallin (foreground) flew his Polaris over the final jump as he battled 18-year-old Norwegian Elias Isohel, who won the Dominator in his first Pro Am event. Photo credit: John Gilbert

  It was only a Friday night special, the AMSOL Dominator feature attraction of the 25th Annual Snocross races at Spirit Mountain, and it was intended to whet the appetites of thousands of snowmobile race-watchers who filled the Chalet area while looking forward to the more serious races in all classes Saturday and Sunday.

   With all different classes for all different ages and all different genders, it promised to be a full weekend up on our favorite freeway bluff. The snow from a week earlier had led to more snow being made, and the racers would thrash all day Friday, then do it again all day Saturday, leading up to the first of the weekend’s Pro Open features, and then come back Sunday for a mid-afternoon second feature.

   By then, the Junior Class, Pro Am Plus, 120 Champ, Adaptive, Snow Bike, Sport, Pro Am Women and Pro Lite racers would have concluded their weekend at the season-opening event, and everything would come down to that second and final Pro Open match. In that context, the Friday night Dominator, which is a series of one-on-one two-lap bracket eliminations was interesting, but only a preview of what was to come.

   This would be the season-opening race weekend for the snowmobiles and all the thrashing and tuning and practicing led up to the questions that could only be answered on the course, and the Dominator, where racers in Pro Open go by brackets to eliminate down from 16 to 8 to 4 to 2 and then to a winner-take-all $10,000 winner. Even more important than that, for some racers, was whether anybody might have caught up to the dominator himself -- Tucker Hibbert, who has become an annual champion on his Arctic Cat. And this year, he showed up with unheard of fuel injection on his machine.

   “Nobody knows,” said Levi LaValle, retired racer and now team operator for top contender Kyle Pallin and his Polaris. “There might be some little adjustment issues, and we figure our engines are so close to the edge, his fuel-injection might not be an advantage. At any rate, the Dominator will be the perfect way to tell, because when you line up and go side-by-side for two laps, you can really tell if one guy has an advantage in power.”

Tucker Hibbert, left, hit the finish line on his Arctic Cat simultaneously with Kyle Pallin's Polaris but Pallin won the Dominator semifinal by 0.048-seconds in the best race of the 25th AMSOIL Snocross. Photo credit: John Gilbert

   It didn’t take long to find out. Without question, Hibbert’s black Arctic Cat took off like a rocket and he jumped to early leads and won his first two heats to reach the semifinal. Fuel injection looked like an unfair advantage, based on those two runs. And there, in the other semifinal lane at the top of the downhill homestretch, was Kyle Pallin on his Polaris.
There was no hole-shot this time, as the two went side by side down the hill and around the bottom turn to head back up over the hills and jumps on their two-lap circuit. When they came by again, Hibbert seemed to be slightly ahead, but Pallin had the inside line and gained the lead. Back up and then down to the finish, and the two of them hit the finish-line hill together. Both flew off into the blackened sky, as the checkered flag flew. When they landed, nobody watching had any idea which one won.

   They went to interview Pallin on the public address system, and first he said, “Did I win?” It was that close, and he really didn’t know. He had, indeed, won – by 0.048 of a second. That’s less than 5/100ths of a second. Don’t blink.   

   Meanwhile, Elias Ishoel, a hotshot 18-year-old from Norway,  just happened to be in the other bracket, riding a Ski-Doo from Wernert Racing of St. Cloud, and he kept winning. He beat three-time event winner Tim Tremblay and beat Ryan Springer in the semifinals to reach the final.  

   It seemed like it was Pallin’s night, although everybody was so enmeshed in the annual Polaris-Arctic Cat duel that nothing else seemed that important. Hibbert, from Pelican Rapids, Minnesota, and Pallin, who is from Ironwood, Michigan, but races out of Minnesota with LaValle, seem like the likely main rivals, but that would all get sorted out Saturday and Sunday at the Pro Open twin features.

   First there was the Dominator final, and Pallin found himself on the outside when Ishoel went for the front, and Pallin had to chase him the two laps and settle for second. When it’s $10,000 winner-take-all, second isn’t worth crowing about.

   Saturday was another mild day, better for spectators than race machines on man-made snow, but a strong crowd had a big day. When it got down to feature time, the field went off and, sure enough, Hibbert’s Arctic Cat was right next to Pallin’s Polaris as the two chased after Lincoln Lemieux, who is from St. Johnsbury, Vermont, but races out of Sheuring Speed Sports in Aurora, which has left the Polaris-Arctic Cat duel to deploy Ski-Doos as well.

   But Hibbert and Pallin came together in their quest, and went down. Tim Tremblay, Scheuring Speed Sport teammate of Lemieux, got by both of them to run second. It finished that way, with Hibbert recovering to take third, and Pallin fourth.

   Dramatic, and exciting, but there was still the grand finale, the Sunday afternoon showdown with the second Pro Open final of the weekend, and the build-up couldn’t have been more enticing. Could Ski-Doo do it again? Could Hibbert and his fuel-injection reassert themselves on top? Could Pallin, or one of the other top challengers, carry it off?

The only thing left moving in the fog of Sunday morning was an industrial strength snow machine. Photo credit: John Gilbert

   Sunday morning was mild again, and as I drove along Interstate 35 and looked up the hill, I noticed a bit of fog engulfing the top of Spirit Mountain. I didn’t think much of it, because it wasn’t foggy downtown, or out the North Shore. As I entered the area, I was happy to have obtained a hard-to-locate press pass, and a harder-to-find press parking pass, and I was directed to one of those circular roadways north of the Chalet. At least I had avoided the cluttered jam of all normal parking areas. After parking in a muddy parking lot, I climbed out, grabbed my camera, and headed down the road, a couple of blocks or so.
I could hear snowmobile engines revving in the background, but I also knew there were several other preliminary races. Still, I hurried, and cut through my favorite shortcut, through the Chalet and out on the track side, by the grandstand, which I knew would be jammed full of people.

   Except, nobody was there. I glanced out at the fog, then at a fellow who seemed to be guiding wayward souls. “Nope, they couldn’t run in this,” he said. “They talked it over, but with the snow and all, the fog made it too hard to see. So they called it off.”

   Incredible, because a block down the freeway toward the quite-obscured city of Duluth, the fog was nonexistent. But they didn’t race halfway down the hill.

   “By 9:30 this morning, I knew we were in trouble,” said Jeremy Meyer, AMSOIL’s race director. “It was a safety thing. From the top of the hill, you could barely see the finish line, and it would be almost impossible to see the safety crew or any flagmen.


   “We have eight sites, and 17 races, with the next one December 16 in Denver, then it’s back to Minnesota, at Canterbury Park in Shakopee. They’ll probably decide to add it on at Canterbury.”

   Still, it’s just another lesson learned in 25 annual Snocross openers at Spirit Mountain. You don’t know what will happen Sunday, but pay close attention starting Friday night, because you never know when the preliminary event might wind up being the weekend’s feature attraction.