(From Yamaha Motor Corp. USA)
Pleasant Prairie, WI— Four-stroke FX Nytro racers took a pair of wins and three additional podium finishes in cross-country and hill-climb competition in three states over the Feb. 18-19 and Feb. 25-26 weekends. On Saturday, Feb. 18, Erik Frigon won the Semi-Pro class in the Madawaska 100 cross-country race in Madawaska, Maine. The same day at the RMSHA Bear Lake Hillclimb in Montpelier, Idaho, Kody Malmborg took second in New Rider Open Mod and also finished second in the Team Race with cousin Kolton. Then on Saturday, Feb. 25, Ben Lindbom won the Semi-Pro class and Ross Erdman finished second in the Pro division in the Oslo 100 cross-country national in Oslo, Minn.
With one win already under his belt this year, Frigon went into the second of three eastern-region cross-country event focused on making it two in a row. The 5.1-mile course featured mostly fields, with a small section of woods and even a sliver of frozen pond for good measure. Starting far downfield in the time-trial event format, Frigon adopted a simple strategy – ride like the wind, and make sure he continually caught and passed competitors. The FX Nytro RTX certainly made it easy to do just that – and to take another win. “This sled sure has got some power,” he said later. “Other racers came up to me afterwards and said, ‘I had no chance of keeping up!’ I also have an onboard camera, and when you see how fast the FX Nytro leaves the other riders in the dust, it’s impressive.” Frigon now leads in points with just one round remaining.
Over in Idaho, the RMSHA hill-climb wasn’t for the faint of heart. While the hill only stretched a quarter mile or so, it was like a double black-diamond ski run – so vertical that losing control would guarantee a long, frightening tumble. And making it even harder, snowmobiles had to zigzag through a series of slalom gates on the way up. In all, the course required massive acceleration from the sleds and lightning reflexes from the drivers. Yamaha’s first official hill-climb competition in over a decade brought great results despite thin snow conditions that exposed dirt, rock and ragged stutter-bumps in some places. “We didn’t quite win this one but we were competitive,” said Yamaha’s Eric Josephsen. “We also learned a lot and proved that the four-stroke Nytro MTX can do anything that a two-stroke can.”
The Oslo 100 national proved the best terrain race of the year so far, thanks to a snowy 25.8-mile course featuring plenty of road ditches packed deep with welcoming snow. But the weather – a brutal 10 degrees below zero at the 9 AM start – gave even the hardiest snowmobile racers painfully cold hands and cheeks. Pro racers started first at 15-second intervals, followed by Semi-Pro drivers. Erdman drew the sixth grid position for his Pro race, and had a single lap to demolish the competition. He nearly did it too, posting a sizzling 23 min. 25.8 sec. lap time – just 6.4 sec. behind the eventual winner. Next up, Lindbom destroyed the Semi-Pro field with a winning time of 23 min. 42.3 sec. – a pro-caliber performance. Both FX Nytro RTX drivers are now second in the standings. “We are definitely in this series for the championships,” Josephsen added. “The guys are hungry, and we’ll play it right down to the end.”
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