morgan claims stock and mod titles hibbert announces retirement

 At the World Snowmobile Association (WSA) Snocross Worldwide Championship (SWC) presented by Ford Trucks season awards banquet on Sunday night, Tucker Hibbert stunned all in attendance with a surprise announcement that he was retiring from snowmobile racing and going to focus solely on motocross. This after another phenomenal win in Pro Stock, and then leading but breaking in the Pro Open final at the season's final race, the Nielsen Enterprises' GRAND Finale here at the renown Grand Geneva Resort and Spa.

Yet, while Blair Morgan finished second to Hibbert in a Ford Trucks Pro Stock classic, he had already clinched the class point's title with a win in his final qualifying heat. He then went on to regain the Bud Light Pro Open title with a huge win in the Pro Open final.

Saturday temps in the low 60s with brilliant blue skies drew a great crowd, and word that previous conditions had allowed for the creation of one of the best tracks ever at Geneva, and certainly one of the greatest tracks of the last few years, clearly spread. A hazy sun and temps reaching 70 resulted in a monstrous Sunday congregation, one that actually ran the ticket booth out of tickets! And wicked challenges, the world's best snowmobile racers, points battles to settle and points to prove resulted in the fans being treated to snocross at its absolute finest.

In Pro Stock, Hibbert (Chevy Trucks/Speedwerx Cat) could only make up one point in his deficit to Morgan (Coldwave/Oakley Ski-Doo) with his undefeated run through qualifying, and so Morgan started the final as champ, and both literally had nothing to lose. The result was likely THE race of the season.

Rookie Shaun Crapo (Team Industries Polaris) nailed yet another Sportech Holeshot Award, chased by a battling group comprised of Justin Tate (Amsoil Polaris), Carl Schubitzke (Dodge/Walker Evans Shocks Polaris), Yuji Nakazawa (Mlaskoch Excavating Ski-Doo) and Carl Kuster (Woody's/VP Fuels Ski-Doo).

Hibbert and Morgan followed this group, and while Morgan seemed to struggle to get through, Hibbert knifed through quickly, passed Crapo for the lead, and started to open up a decent margin. Finally, Morgan found his stride, and he started carving through the pack as well, and eventually moved into second. In short order, Schubitzke pulled off course, and Tate had a brief off, moving Kuster up to fourth behind Crapo.

Morgan then started closing fairly rapidly on Hibbert, caught him and made a decisive pass, and started to open up a margin of his own, and it looked like that was that, but within a couple laps, Hibbert had upped the ante and fought back onto Morgan's tail. He took a couple looks, and Morgan covered, but then, heading into the final corner leading to the white flag, he doubled a couple monster canyons that Morgan didn't, landed inside Morgan as they entered the corner, and powered his way past on the exit.
 
Morgan stayed close, looked inside going into both huge drop-off runs down the mountainside but to no avail, and heading into the last corner again, Hibbert slipped by some traffic quickly, and Morgan tried to follow through. His window of opportunity closed entering the corner, but he was committed to the move, and suddenly pieces of Kent Ipsen's (Olah Racing/Famous Dave's BBQ Cat) taillight exploded into the air. Hibbert took the checker, and then a very enthusiastic victory lap. Morgan was second, and the champ, with Kuster third, Crapo fourth, and Tomi Ahmasalo (Formula XPS Ski-Doo) rounded out the top five. Truly a race, a battle, for the history books!
 
The Pro Open final looked to be even better, with a much closer points battle on the line. Hibbert again took one point back from Morgan's lead, and did it by beating Morgan in a close fought heat. That never sits well with Morgan, so not just winning the championship was on the line in the final, but HOW it would be won and who would be remembered as winner of the season's last race were also at stake.

To have even the slightest hope to defend his Pro Open title, Hibbert HAD to win, and then still needed Morgan to have some sort of problem. It all looked to go wrong at the start, as Morgan grabbed the lead with Hibbert only third. But, halfway through the lap, Levi LaVallee (Red Bull/Team Industries Polaris) landed on Nakazawa, and Nakazawa was stunned and not moving, and laying right in the middle of the track. So, a red flag flew and, after Nakazawa was moved off track and discovered to be only shaken up, a brand new race was flagged away.

This time, Schubitzke nailed the Sportech Holeshot Award, but Hibbert was a close second, with Michael Island (Bud Light Ski-Doo) third, Noel Kohanski (180 Energy Drink Ski-Doo) fourth, and Morgan only fifth. Hibbert quickly moved to the front, while Morgan again struggled a bit to move up. But then, at the top of the second climb, Hibbert suddenly slowed, hand in the air, and coasted down to the bottom of the track, sled broken. Morgan again hit his stride, moved to second, and then laid a breathtaking pass on Schubitzke in the massive downhill flyaway for the lead. Island also eventually moved by Schubitzke and closed briefly on Morgan, but Morgan responded by pulling away to a sizeable winning margin and his second championship of the day. Tate and Crapo both moved up through the pack smartly as well to claim third and fourth respectively, with Kohanski fifth.

Blair Morgan Racing's Parts Unlimited Pro Women racer, double defending champ Amanda Johnson (EPI/Tekvest Ski-Doo), didn't get the perfect season she was on track for as former champ Julie Thul (Maxima Oils/Technicopy Polaris) got her first win of the season. Johnson was caught up in an opening lap incident and could only salvage sixth, but her third title was still amazingly dominant as she claimed sixth of seven finals victories. Paul Engelstad got the win in the U.S. Air Force Pro Vet final, but legendary Kirk Hibbert's (Speedwerx Cat) sixth was also good enough for yet another title.

In the Semi-Pro ranks, Bobby Barycki (StickerDude Cat) had established a huge points lead in the Reima Motorsports Fan class early in the season with a dominant streak of wins. But, he then suffered an injury and watched that margin shrink as ever present and quick Chris Wagner (D & R Arctic Cat) pulled of acouple wins. But Barycki fought back, and on Saturday his three straight qualifying heat wins handed him the title even though Wagner got yet another finals win. Also on Saturday, the top two in points in both the Semi-Pro Stock and Open classes both came up big. Matt Judnick (Spy Optics Polaris) won Saturday's Fox Shox Open feature, but Steve Martin's (Formula XPS Ski-Doo) third was enough for the title. On Sunday in the Amsoil Stock final, the roles were simply reversed as Martin won the race but Judnick finished just high enough to lay claim to the championship.

Sunday evening the competitors, crews, sponsors and officials moved into the banquet hall at Grand Geneva for the season awards banquet. The talk at evening's end was of Hibbert's retirement. "I've had a great time and a lot of success in snocross, but I really want to also pursue that level of success in motocross and supercross, and that means full time" he said. "This is just something I've always wanted to do, and now's the time. But, I'll sure miss everyone." And, he was thanked for his amazing performances, and wished good luck, by all in attendance.

The attendees were also treated to most entertaining presentations by the ESPN TV crew, photographer Jason Gilmour, and Rick Dobson Productions, special awards were presented, and of course, the champions were honored. At the end, the tentative schedule for next season was displayed, but one thing was certain. It will all begin again next Thanksgiving weekend at Spirit Mountain in Duluth, Minnesota. No doubt for many the prospect of time off appears welcome respite now, but in a very brief time the start of next season will seem very far away…….too far.