On February 19th 2011 Chris Brown and Geoff Kyle headed into the Whistler Backcountry for the first of two days of scheduled filming with cameramen from 2 Stroke Cold Smoke and Slednecks. The conditions were perfect, it’s was a bluebird day and there had been about ten feet of new snow in the last week. Chris and Geoff had a bunch of spots picked out and planned to get the majority of footage shot for their movie segments.

The day started well with Geoff hitting a nice pillow line and Chris landing a 120’ drop perfectly, the year before on the same drop Chris had gone a little long so he was stoked to get it right this time. Chris found a big double cliff drop and spent some time at the top throwing snowballs down the cliff and mapping out a line. The drops were sketchy as Chris would have to land the first drop perfectly or it would throw him off line for the second cliff. Chris came back to the bottom and talked with Geoff and camera guys, Geoff expressed his concern and warned Chris about not going to too long of the first cliff. Chris didn’t feel one hundred percent about the drop but knew the footage would be incredible so he went for. Chris came of the first cliff slow and on the brakes but landed about 15’ shorter than he had planned in an off-camber section of terrain. This pitched Chris to the right and instead of coming of the second cliff in the clear area Chris headed straight for the trees. Heading for a huge Douglas Fir tree Chris bailed off his sled to the left at the last second. Chris pummeled into the tree and fell through branches all the way to the ground 50’ feet below, his sled landing about two feet from him. Chris landed face down in the tree well and knew immediately that his pelvis and foot were badly hurt. Lying face down with his helmet filled with snow Chris could hardly breathe but managed to remove his goggles and clear some snow from his helmet. The snow was so deep that it took the rest of the crew about 6-8 minutes to get to the tree well where Chris was lying in pain.

Calls were made to the emergency services but a helicopter took about an hour and a half to arrive as it was on another call. Luckily a member of the local Search and Rescue team was snowmobiling in the area and came to the scene to help out. With no pain medicine and enduring an enormous amount of pain they waited on the helicopter to arrive “it felt like an eternity and knew I was bleeding internally as I could feel a warm sensation inside” Chris said. Once the helicopter arrived Chris was transported to hospital in Vancouver, immediately hospital staff gave Chris blood and began prepping him for a surgery.

Chris injuries were extensive, his pelvis was broken in half a dozen places, his T12 and L5 vertebrae were broke and from the L3 down was twisted 180 degrees, his heel foot and ankle were shattered and his abdomen and bladder were lacerated. The first surgery lasted 14 hours as the doctors tried to piece Chris’s battered body back together. His girlfriend Liz stayed with him the whole time and everyday friends and fans would visit. The positive support and encouragement from fans kept Chris sane through the incredible amount of pain he was going through. “At times just wanted to die…I had never experience pain like it, it was awful”. Chris spent about a month in hospital and went through numerous surgeries but finally got so sick of being in hospital that he checked himself out and went home. “I shared a hospital room and had different roommate’s all the time, some were very sick and were throwing up or coughing all the time, after a while I just couldn’t handle being around all the stress and craziness of the hospital anymore”. Back at home Chris was confined to a wheelchair and his house with stairs was no longer suitable so a friend of a friend helped out moving them into a small apartment that was just big enough to get the wheelchair inside.

The first weeks at home was really hard for Chris as he was in bed about 20 hours a day and unable to do anything on his own. He had lost 30 lbs and was when not in bed was confined to a wheelchair. Chris’s girlfriend Liz was his nursed and cared for him around the clock. The accident had caused a lot of nerve damage that made some bodily functions a painful and long process.

Now just four months since the horrific accident Chris’s healing continues and he is making huge steps towards recovery. “Im going to recover and I’m working my butt off to get there” said Chris. Doctors said it would be years till I walk again; I have already walked a bit, I’m riding my bicycle everyday and I’m going to ride my dirtbike and snowmobile before the end of the summer. Chris is also working hard on a new business venture; shortly before the accident Chris had watched “The Social Network” and was motivated to start a technology business, so while in hospital he began reading books on developing iPhone and iPad Applications. Chris recently launched Coalition Apps and is in the process of building several different apps. “The cool thing about apps is that the sky is limit…the potential to make to money is there”. Suffering through a major accident definitely hasn’t changed Chris’s positive outlook on life and he is very grateful to all the support he has had from his friends and fans. We look forward to seeing Chris back on the snow this winter and he plans on hosting more backcountry trips with his business ridewithchrisbrown.com and filming some movie segments. “I won’t be hucking myself off any stupid cliffs anymore” but Chris will still be pushing the limits on his sled just maybe in some different terrain.

Thief River Falls, Minn. (April 27th, 2011) – Arctic Cat will celebrate the brand’s 50th Anniversary as thousands of loyal Arctic Cat enthusiasts converge upon Thief River Falls, Mn on July 29th and 30th. The celebration will be open to the public and all events are free.

Arctic Cat’s 50th marks a major milestone which began in 1961 when Edgar Hetteen founded Polar Manufacturing in Thief River Falls. There he began producing snowmobiles that reflected his dreams. One year later he changed the company name to Arctic Cat, and began a series of innovations that transformed hulking snow “machines” into small, playful snowmobiles.

Arctic Cat has two days of non-stop activities planned with the central location sharing space between the Pennington County Fairgrounds and the Ralph Engelstad Arenas. Highlights will include factory tours on Friday and Saturday, the world’s largest Arctic Cat product display called “Years of the Cat” which will be open to all Arctic Cat – related products regardless of model or year, an Arctic Cat-only swap meet, ATV and UTV demo tracks, special 50th Anniversary clothing and memorabilia will be sold, autograph sessions with Team Arctic heroes, race truck displays and several events for kids, plus music, food and much more.

Hotels are already filling up quickly so make your reservation now. For a listing of local lodging and camping opportunities in Thief River Falls, please log on to www.visittrf.com. For other nearby areas: www.visitcrookston.com, www.visitgrandforks.com and www.shootingstar.com.

If you are interested in the swap meet or showcasing product in the “Years of the Cat” display, please contact Joel Hallstrom at jhallstrom@arcticcatinc.com.

This just in from Keith Curtis
Just wanted to touch base with everyone about the Jackson Hole Hillclimb Results. I feel it went very well and I am happy with the results that I was able to put down during the event. The weekend started out great qualifying in all four of my classes. There was more snow than average in Jackson so it was an absolute riot! Five foot holes, headwalls, and ruts that made the ride super technical. And of course, can’t forget about the bottom portion of the hill packed full of old ruts from qualifying the day before. There was a good blend of fast pace to super technical racing. Jackson Hole only allows racers to enter four classes compared to the five classes allowed by RMSHA. The four classes I entered were Stock 800, Stock 100, Modified 800 & Modified 1000.

Sunday Finals

My first class up was Stock 800 and there were 8 finalists. I was in the middle of the heat and made what I felt a great run. I felt fairly confident but I ended up getting beat out by Luke Rainey. I should have executed a few different lines to make up some time. My next class was Modified 800. This class had the most entries with around 32 people. There were 12 finalists and I had my lines picked out from the previous run and also rode the lift to make sure I knew exactly where to go. I made a blazing run with a time of 1:16. Fastest time of the day and ended up taking a 1st!

Next class was 1000 stock. By this time the hill was getting worse and worse and I had a decent run going until I hit the rock garden and things got a little wild. Still managed to pull off a 4th so it wasn’t to bad. My time actually earned me a 2nd but unfortunately they marked me right at the timing lights because my sled didn’t go completely through. Open Mod was my next class and hill help officials moved a gate where problems were occurring. I had my line picked out in my head and executed it perfectly resulting in another 1st!

King Runs

Winning Mod 8 & Open Mod gave me 2 chances for Modified King of the Hill, There was only one person to make it up and over for stock king and that was Luke Rainey. Erin Beukelman was the only racer to make it over for Improved King and for Mod King no one made it to the top. It was a high mark competition and I knew after my first run up the hill there was only 20 feet that needed to be gained for the title. My second attempt I avoided the rut and made the high mark but did not make it to the top!

King of Kings Run

I ran against Luke Rainey (Stock King Winner) and Erin Beukelman (Improved King Winner) for the prestigious King of Kings honor. I was the last person to run and both Luke and Erin ended with a high mark. I wanted to put on a show and I told myself I was going to give it my all and not just win with a high mark but get to the top. I knew where they had got caught up and knew I was going to have to put the Mod to the test. This involved getting up and over a 5 foot headwall. Due to the fact that I had a turbo’d sled and an awesome chassis to work with, I was able to get enough speed before I came into the wall or I would have never made it. After I made it to the top of the wall it was a highway to the top!

Overall, I am very happy with the results of Jackson. I was happy to get my King of Kings traveling trophy back and take top honors of the event. The Jackson Hole Snow Devils put on a great show once again!

Results

Stock 800- 2nd place

Stock 1000- 4th place

Modified 800- 1st place

Open Modified- 1st place

Modified King of the Hill

KING OF KINGS 2011

The picture says it all! Ross Martin WON the Pro Open final this weekend in the Sliverdome, Pontiac, MI. Judnick Motorsports had a heck of a weekend! Ross took the WIN in Pro Open, 2nd in Pro Stock and Mike Bauer took 2nd
in Semi-Pro Super Stock.

The Silverdome is a tight oval track. The fans were incredible! It was a packed house of 17,000+ spectators screaming and cheering. You could not help but feed off the energy. It was phenomenal!

We want to say thanks to Scott Belanger from Champion Plugs for joining us in Michigan. We also want to say a special thanks to Wayne Davis of Wayne Davis Photography who without fail is out there every weekend getting these great shots for us and our sponsors.

We have about 30 seconds to take a breath and it is back to work to prepare for Hayward Powersports/Polaris Snocross National at the LCO Casino in Hayward, WI, March 5-6. Hope to see you there!

You can catch all the action on the Versus Channel. The Amsoil Eastern National from Farmington, NY airs March 6, 2PM Central Standard, 3PM Eastern Standard. Pontiac, MI – March 13, 2PM Central Standard, 3PM Eastern Standard.

Thank You To Our Outstanding Sponsors

DuPont, Jack Links Beef Jerky, Amsoil, Polaris, SSI, Fly, Fox, Factory Pipe, Stud Boy, Renton Coil Springs, C-Tech, Wayne Davis Photography, SM Hentges, 509, Jeff Foster Trucking, C&A Pro, HMK, EVS, TekVest,
Link Ford, Camoplast, Hayes Brakes, Champion, Mitsuboshi, Sportech

The 509 team was in full force this weekend at Winter X-Games in Aspen Colorado. Freestyle riders Joe Parsons and Jeff Mullin represented 509 in the freestyle events and racers Ross Martin and Brett Turcotte in the snocross races.

Joe Parsons narrowly missed out on a medal in the Freestyle competition with a fourth place on Thursday but got redemption in Speed & Style the next day. Parsons got through to the finals in Speed & Style and was matched against fellow Monster rider and friend Heath Frisby. Parson’s background as a racer helped as he was fast through the snocross section. His speed along with a few really cool freestyle ramp tricks was enough to earn him a Gold medal in Speed & Style.

Jeff Mullin had a great weekend also and finished third in his heat in the Freestyle behind Bodin and Caleb Moore. Jeff also did really well in Speed & Style and qualified for the finals. In his final Mullin was matched against freestyle Gold medalist Daniel Bodin. Both Bodin and Mullin came out of the gate hard and flipped simultaneously across the ramps. Mullin unfortunately didn’t get the sled all the way rotated and pounded into the ground. Mullin walked away from the wreck with nothing more than a bruises but his Arctic Cat took the brunt of the wreck and was out of action. It was the end of the weekend for Mullin and he spent the rest of the weekend snowboarding on the Aspen Mountain.

Following a recent battle in Eagle River between snocros racers Ross Martin and Brett Turcotte it looked like these two 509 athletes were going to have a strong showing in snocros. Turcotte had some good runs in practice but his race day was plagued by problems. He lost a motor in the morning but was back out again in his heat race. Unfortunately Brett had problems in his race and was forced to run in the Last Chance Qualifier. Turcotte had a good result in his LCQ and made the final. However in the final he had problems with his bars moving and was forced to retire. A brutal result.

Ross Martin ran really well finishing his heat race in second behind Tucker. In the final Martin got the holeshot and the led the first lap of the race with Tucker in hot pursuit. It looked like there was a battle brewing between Tucker and Martin but Martin got a black flag for jumping the start. He was forced to move to the back of the pack and his chances of a gold medal became very unlikely. However Martin fought his way back from last all the way up to second and was running similar laptimes to Tucker. Martin finished the race in second and earned a silver medal. His first lap performance proved that he does have the speed to challenge Tucker and hopefully we will see more of these battles in the remaining ISOC snocross races this season.

Our man Chris Burandt was also at X-Games with his mothership and spent the weekend commentating for ESPN. He was also seen sporting some cool new prototype 509 glasses around the pits.

Even with some bad luck the 509 team still represented very well at X-Games and came away with two medals in the premier snowmobile event in the world. Great job guys!

509 riders are heading to Aspen, Colorado this week to compete against the worlds finest at the Winter X Games. The 15th annual event runs from 27th-30th January and houses 200 snow sport athletes. Set to be an amazing event we at 509 are excited to see the events unfold and look forward to seeing our athletes perform.

Ross Martin (#837) of the Judnicks Polaris Team will be lining up in the Snocross races looking to get another X Games Medal. He has been in good form all season and is fired up following his string of ISOC podiums and a recent win in Eagle River.

Brett Turcotte (#16) of the BOSS Racing team will also up against the worlds best racers in the Snocross events and has been training hard over the past weeks. “This is the big show; the one all of us prepare for year-round” said Turcotte. Turcotte sat out the Utah ISOC race to let an injury heal and with his 2nd place finish in last weekends Eagle River race Brett is clearly back on his game. He has been in Colorado for the last week with his crew chief training for the event at Buttermilk Mountain.

Competition schedule for Snocross, Sunday 30th January:

Snowmobile Snocross Round One 11:30am -12pm MST
Snowmobile Snocross Last Chance 12.15am-12.30pm MST
Snowmobile Snocross Final 1:15pm-1:45pm MST

In the Freestyle event Joe Parsons, who has won Bronze, Silver and Gold medals in previous X Game years, will be doing his best to take home the Gold medal. One of the early events on the schedule, Freestyle is set to be an amazing display of tricks and big air.

Competition schedule for Freestyle, Thursday 27th January:

Snowmobile Freestyle Eliminations 11:30am-1pm
Snowmobile Freestyle Round One 7pm-8pm
Snowmobile Freestyle Final 8.30pm-9pm

Former X-Games gold medalist and 509 backcountry rider Chris Burandt will be taking a few days of from pounding the backcountry to commentate several snowmobile events for ESPN. If you can get there it will truly be an amazing event if not ESPN is putting on a full HD 24 showing on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN3. Check out the schedule at their website:
http://espn.go.com/action/xgames/winter/2011/news/story?page=2011-winter-x-games-tv-schedule-thurs

Good Luck to all the 509 team, we look forward to watching the events and uploading further blogs over the weekend.

For further information on X Games 15 check out the ESPN website:
http://espn.go.com/action/xgames/winter/2011/

Ross Martin WON the Pro Open Final earning “The Amsoil Eagle River Pro Snocross World Champion Title” this weekend – Martin WON both Pro Open and Pro Super Stock Finals.

It was crazy exciting, fans to their feet, racing action! The Eagle River track is a super tight course which meant major jammed up corners and alot of racer contact. It was survival of the fittest out there, fast & furious. Despite the slamfest Ross recorded the fastest lap times and best speed. He kept his head in the game and came out victorious in both Pro Finals.

Our success did not stop there…

Semi-Pro Mike Bauer had an outstanding weekend as well – WINNING
Semi-Pro Super Stock 2 and recording the fastest lap time and best speed. Bauer finished 2nd in the Semi-Pro Super Stock 1 Final.

It was great to see the crew from Amsoil at the track. We would like to thank Amsoil for sponsoring this outstanding event and for their phenomenal support of our team.

Lots to celebrate but no time! We are off to prepare for EPSN Winter X Games. Hope to see you out there or tune in and catch Ross on ABC’s ESPN.
Winter X Snocross action – January 27-30, Aspen Colorado

Thank You To Our Outstanding Sponsors

DuPont, Jack Links Beef Jerky, Amsoil, Polaris, SSI, Fly, Fox, Factory Pipe,
Stud Boy, Renton Coil Springs, C-Tech, Wayne Davis Photography,
SM Hentges, 509, Jeff Foster Trucking, C&A Pro, HMK, EVS, TekVest,
Link Ford, Camoplast, Hayes Brakes, Champion, Mitsuboshi, Sportech

Another exciting day of racing at the AMSOIL Championship Snocross Series at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah. In the Pro Super Stock race Bobby Lepage took an early lead with Ross Martin close behind and by the midway stage Ross Martin had made his way past Lepage for the lead. However Tucker Hibbert closed the gap in the final laps and managed to take the lead from Ross. Ross Martin took a great second holding off Lepage.
In the Pro Open race, Ross unfortunately got tangled in an opening lap incident losing his position in the pack. Ross continued to ride hard to secure points for the race.

In Semi-Pro racing Mike Bauer took a 1st and a 3rd. Despite a red flag re-start in the first race Mike stayed focused and secured a well deserved start to finish 1st.

Brett Turcotte was still recovering from a thumb and hamstring injury but took his starts to secure points. He is focusing on returning in time for the XGames and said he would be riding more this week. His team mate Derek Ellis took 11th in the Semi Pro Super Stock.

Congratulations to all our riders.

Fargo, North Dakota-

BOSS Racing had another podium weekend despite a hard luck turn at the Dakota Magic Casino Nationals; the 2nd Round of the AMSOIL Championship Snocross Series.

Friday’s practice looked good for both Semi-Pros; Derek Ellis and Corey Watkinson, as well as Pro Brett Turcotte – yet, things quickly got off to a rough start for our #16. Turcotte was again rocket fast off the line in his first heat running 2nd for the first six laps of his 10 lap heat. In the 7th lap Brett hit a snow covered ice ridge which launched his machinery sideways. Turcotte wrestled to get control of his 450 lb. air-bound sled, then bailed in the final seconds to avoid a catastrophe. It ended nonetheless in an abrupt jolt to the frozen ground causing a laceration and dislocation of Turcotte’s throttle thumb; this ended Turcotte’s ambitions for the weekend. Doc says 4 weeks to recoup and he’ll get the green light to ride Round 3 @ Rio Tinto Jan 7th. Perfect timing as we have a 4 week break for the holidays!

Team owner, Garry Querel assembled a powerful one-two punch this season, which comes in useful in times like these. Derek Ellis showed stellar performance in his heat races and once again he the fastest qualifier for both Semi-Pro Rounds of a national event.

During Friday’s main event Ellis pulled the holeshot and then attempted to untangle himself from the traffic mayhem delivered by the first corner. He came out of the mess in 5th and finished there after a hard race.

Saturday’s Semi Pro Final saw both Ellis and Watkinson on the line. Ellis had a fast start, was the second rider to come through turn one, which he maintained for the full 16 lap race to finish 2nd, for his third podium already this season. Ellis maintains his 2nd place position in the national points standings.

The SKI-DOO/ BOSS Racing team is looking forward to the upcoming holiday to enjoy much needed downtime with family and friends…. and to hit the practice track in preparation for January’s Utah appearance and Winter X Games in Aspen.