Speed & Style

We’ve all seen Jeremy McGrath, Ricky Carmichael, Blair Morgan and countless other riders throw a trick off the finish line jump when they see the checkered flag flying, but have you ever seen any one throw a trick in the middle of the race? I remember freaking out when Travis Pastrana threw a nac nac a few years back in the middle of a heat race while he was battling with Kevin Windham but other then that I can’t think of to many other times seeing something like that. Well, throwing a trick in the middle of the race pretty much sums up Speed and Style. It is a combination of snocross racing and freestyle snowmobiling. SWEET right?? Absolutely!! Two riders, head to head, one rider hitting ramps while the other rider weaves between the ramps then the two riders meet up and race through a snocross portion of the track back to the beginning and then the riders switch lines and do the opposite they did the first lap. Riders will be judged on their tricks in the freestyle portion and judged on their race time. So basically you race head to head through a snocross course with some kicker ramps in it, throwing tricks off of them to better your score. X Games has invited me to compete in this new event pending me showing them a video of me throwing some tricks. Well I had some tricks, ok very few tricks so I needed to practice and learn some new stuff in a hurry. First, I needed to build a landing and get a ramp. I called Red Bull and like always they came through HUGE getting me a new freestyle ramp from SCS. Now I need a landing, so I hauled any and every pile of dirt that wasn’t already a jump or landing from my land and pushed it up. Being there isn’t any snow I needed to score some wood chips to cover the landing with. my neighbor Jeff Jebson (owner of Beaver Tree Service) is the guy that saves you from getting a unexpected sky light in your house from that Nasty tree that is leaning over your roof.

So after he cuts the nasty tree down and saves it from tipping over on your house he chips it up and hauls it away. I talked to Jeff about getting some chips and he was super cool and started having his guys dump their chips over at my place. Almost got everything dialed except the plastic glides for on the ramp so I called Mike from Caliber Products and he hooked me up with everything I needed to get my ramp up and running.

After finally getting my dialed and being able to jump at my house and visiting Justin Hoyer a couple times (Gnarly Freestyle Snowmobiler) and having him help me with some stuff I was able to get some tricks under my belt and send a video to the Xgames people. I was a bit nervous but they got back to me and said I was good to go!!! So I am officially in the new snowmobile event at X Games Speed and Style. I just want to thank Dane from Red Bull for the Ramp, Jeff from Beaver Tree Service for the chips, Mike from Caliber for the plastic and Justin Hoyer for letting me stay at his place and helping me out a ton with freestyle. Thanks Guys.