Courtesy of Jamie Anseeuw of BMRT.com, Race Team Manager

The ninth round of the WPSA tour brought the team out to historic West Yellowstone Montana for an event with more than just snow cross racing for the fans.

The second annual Snow Blast was in town. An event originated my Arctic Cat last season with great success was held for a second year, ending with a great concert with Jo De Messina and Blake Shelton headlining the concert Saturday night.

Back to the races…. The BMR semi-pro’s have really been tearing it up of late and there was high hopes coming into this event. The start of the semi-pro stock race found Coonishish and Elam in the back row after they each had spills in one of their heats, forcing them to qualify through the LCQ, Turcotte fortunately had a front row opportunity. On green Brett (Turcotte) rounded the corner in 6th but quickly made his way to 3rd, perhaps a bit too quickly as the youngster came off passing for second while still on the first lap! His teammates on the other hand had terrible backrow starts and found themselves mired in snowdust in 14th and 15th positions. So with Bretts spill and Elam and Coonishish’s poor starts, BMRT was very well represented at the back of the pack. These are the most talented semi-pro’s on the tour however, and the three worked hard till the end, Coonishish went from 15th to 6th, Elam from 14th to 8th, and Turcotte recovered to 9th position at race end, all behind a surprise winner Jesse West on an Arctic Cat, who secured his first WPSA national semipro win.

Pro Stock was up next, and tough qualifying luck found only Allard in the front row. Morgan was back row and Taylor didn’t make the field. Allard got a good 3rd place start, and Morgan was back in the snow dust in 11th. On lap two Curtis Crapo worked his Arctic Cat into the lead and held it to the end for his first ever WPSA pro national win. Morgan worked hard from the back and with a couple laps remaining found himself in 5th behind his teammate Allard who was in a three way battle with Simons and Malinowski for 2nd , 3rd and 4th. Dave (Allard) while still having hopes of stealing a podium position from the two Olah Racing teammates, suddenly found himself under attack from Blair for 4th! On the last lap Morgan stole 4th from Dave pushing him back into the last top five spot in the race.

Semi-pro Open was up next, BMR riders Turcotte and Coonishish front row, Elam on the sidelines, a rare mechanical failure keeping him out of the program. Coonishish was hungry for a chance to close on points leader Jeff Snow before the final round in Lake Geneva next week, but it was his team mate Turcotte who got the better start of the two. They rounded the first corner in 4th and 6th, good enough positions to win from with the talent these two have. Coonishish’s luck ended early however when a competitor took him out before the end of the first lap. He would have to work from last place to salvage what he could of the day. Brett Turcotte in the meanwhile really picked up the pace, working through the leaders to wage a short battle with Danny Eberts’ Arctic Cat for the lead. Brett was too fast for Ebert this day, and cruised in for a well deserved victory, Katejun (Coonishish) recovered to 11th from his frustrating off.

Pro Open was the last race of the day, and all three BMR riders made the field, albeit Morgan was in the back row. At the start, Allard and Taylor rounded the first turn well in 4th and 5th respectively, their team leader (Morgan) was not so lucky getting collected in a 9 sled pile up in the first turn. Much discussion was had after the races about not restarting the race with so many competitors effectively having any chance to win the race taken away. Shaun Crapo on his factory Arctic Cat lead the lucky few that made it through the turn unscathed, and other than a couple of early laps of pressure from Levi Lavallee and Dave Allard, Crapo cruised around the course for 14 laps for a Crapo brothers sweep of the pro classes. Allard and Lavallee had an exciting back and forth battle for second, Taylor always right there but never able to get his nose in on the action. Lavallee ended up getting second in front of the stubborn Allard, Taylor securing 4th, Morgan worked his way up to 9th after the first turn melee sorted itself out.

Only one more WPSA national left for the BMRT crew with the 10th and final race being held at Lake Geneva, where all the points championships will be decided. All of the team semi-pro’s are in the top ten in points in both classes, Coonishish and Turcotte having a legitimate shot at a championship. All of the BMRT pro riders are in the top ten with the exception of Taylor’s ranking in the pro stock class, Dave sits in 3rd in both championships! And last but not least, BMRT pro vet rider Earl Reimer has already secured his championship before this race even starts! His complete domination of this class having won every race but one has been a joy to watch.

See you in Lake Geneva!