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

The WPSA 2006 – 2007 snow cross race season was upon us.

The BLAIR MORGAN RACE TEAM has been hard at work for months in preparation. The snow guns were pumping out tons of snow to form the teams test track, and our newly purchased Bombardier BR 275 groomer was busy churning the piles of snow into a gnarly test track.

BMRT arrived in Duluth with the goal of getting through the rough and tumble weekend with everyone healthy, making all the finals and getting riders qualified for ESPN’s winter X-Games in Aspen Colorado at the end of January.

The first team member up for a final was semi-pro #196 Brett Turcotte. Brett is the lone semi-pro on the BMR team this season. Brett qualified well and around the first turn found himself in a battle for the lead with his former team-mate #101 “Doo Talk Skidoo” rider Katejun Coonishish and #19 Polaris rider Brett Bender. The order quickly settled into Brett Bender leading and Brett Turcotte trying to wrestle away second place from Coonishish.  A miscue by Turcotte part way through the race found Brett on the ground seeing stars, and while he had no serious injuries, decided to not continue and was scored in 15th at race end. Bender continued out front unchallenged, Katejun finished second and Team Arctic race manager Russ Ebert’s son Danny, #602 finished third.

Semi-pro stock saw team member Brett Turcotte watching from the sidelines failing to transfer out of the LCQ. #19 Polaris rider Brett Bender again ran away with the final, #255 Polaris rider Andrew Johnstad placed second, and Danny Ebert got his second podium of the weekend with a third place finish.

Pro Stock found all three BMRT riders in the final, and off the start Blair Morgan, Ross Martin’s Polaris and Tucker Hibbert’s Arctic Cat came roaring up the hill. Tucker got sideways and fell slowing Morgan as he tried to avoid the mishap, allowing Martin to squirt away into the lead. Morgan cleared Tuckers sled and found himself just outside the top 5. Dave Allard #167 BMRT rider got collected in a separate incident off the start and found himself mired in the back of the pack. New BMRT rider #93 Iain Hayden somehow got a great start from the back row of the main, avoided all the first lap carnage and found himself on his teammate Morgan’s rear bumper early in the race.

Morgan started working his way quickly up the scoring sheet and was in third after a few laps, and hopes were rising that the star of the team would quickly gain second and maybe even challenge Ross Martin for the lead. It was not to be however, Blair’s throttle lever had been damaged in the first lap incidents and finally broke, slowing but not stopping him. Blair hung on for a 5th place finish. New team member Hayden passed his teammate and closed on Garth Kaufman’s Arctic Cat. Ross Martin cruised to an easy victory, Mike Shultz ran a great race for second, and Kaufman held off Hayden for the final podium position.

Pro Open qualifying was rough and tumble, and Morgan found himself having to qualify through the LCQ for a back row start. Allard transferred well, and Hayden suffering from an injury to his leg, didn’t make the program.

Off the start Ross Martin again holeshot and cruised to a sweep of the pro classes with only a brief challenge from Levi Levalee’s #108 Polaris. Levi finished in second, with Arctic Cat’s Garth Kaufman having easily the best weekend of his pro career getting his second podium of the day with a third place finish. BMRT’s Allard got collected off the start in a pileup, as did his teammate Morgan. The two riders got rolling and salvaged 8th and 9th place finishes respectively.

The last event was the ESPN Winter X-Games qualifiers. Blair Morgan having won gold at last years event was automatically qualified. After round robin qualifying the field was split into two finals of 15 riders each, the top 5 finishers in each final earning a position at winter X. With Brett Turcotte watching from the sidelines having not made the grade, Dave Allard found himself in the first final and Iain Hayden the second.

Dave rounded the first turn and flew up the hill with the lead of the first X games qualifier final.  Dave put the hammer down and drove a fast smart race, winning easily over Shaun Crapo, Ryan Simons, Ross Martin and TJ Gulla, all of whom get to go to winter x.

The second X games final was off, and around turn one and up the hill it was all #93, Iain Hayden! The BMRT rider mirrored his teammate Dave Allard’s performance and once putting some distance between himself and a pesky Danny Ebert, Iain cruised to the win. Ebert followed up in second, with Matthiew Morin, Brett Bender and Zach Pattyn getting the remaining X qualifier positions.

The weekend finished off well for the team with two strong wins, and a lot was learned from the main event finals in pro and semi-pro. The next few weeks will find the team working hard both in the shop and at the teams Winnipeg Manitoba test track dubbed “’PEG X” , [ playing off the names of WPSA’s “Park X” and Team Amsoil’s test track “Planet X”  ]

The teams next WPSA national event is December 16, and 17th  Gaylord MI…. see you there!