Snocross Worldwide Championship Schedule Finalized

(Maple Grove, MN) – The World Snowmobile Association (WSA) has announced the final schedule for it’s premiere series, the Snocross Worldwide Championship (SWC) international tour.

For the 2002-2003 season, the schedule will feature 10 events, and will include six of the circuit’s highly successful existing venues, one site shift within a venue, and two brand new events. All of the events SWC events will be included in the ESPN Networks’ superb coverage of the series, featuring full one-hour programs from each venue.

The SWC opener will once again see the world’s finest snocross pilots attacking the Spirit Mountain course Thanksgiving weekend in Duluth, Minnesota for the Ski-Doo Duluth National November 29-December 1, 2002. The talk stops and the action starts here, including a crucial ESPN Winter X Games Qualifier, and as always, racing will continue under the lights on Friday and Saturday nights, with the major finals run on Sunday at one of winter’s biggest events. The first of the brand new venues will host round two, as Winnipeg, Manitoba’s superb Assiniboia Downs horse racing facility joins the SWC tour for the Canadian Open Snocross, to be held December 14-15, 2002. This event will feature the final ESPN Winter X Games Qualifier, the last opportunity for hopefuls to secure a spot at the 2003 Winter X Games.

“This venue compares very closely with Canterbury Park in Shakopee, Minnesota, which has become one of our biggest events,” according to WSA CEO Scott O’Malley, “and we think this event has the potential to be just as spectacular. With the ability to host 15,000 spectators, including superb reserved seats, their closed-circuit TV system, and their location in a large metropolitan area and close to a major airport, we are extremely excited about not only this debut
event, but the future.”

South Dakota’s Black Hills have been the site of many a legendary shootout over the years, and another such legend makes a big move in the history rich town of Deadwood, South Dakota. The
SWC gunslingers will again do battle at the Arctic Cat Deadwood Shootout, but this season they’ll be coming out a-blazin’ at the phenomenal Terry Peak Ski Area on January 4-5, 2003 to bring in the New Year with round three. Terry Peak is the highest U.S. ski area east of the Rockies, and will feature on-site parking for spectators, larger and better pit parking and an exceptional track layout, and will also offer superb viewing for spectators, enhanced by the Stewart Day Lodge and its 3,000 square foot sun deck. Round four will see the battle occur in a far different corral as the circuit returns to the hugely popular and exceptional Canterbury Park horse racing facility in Shakopee, Minnesota. One of the all-time-classic snowbelt events, the prestigious Polaris Canterbury Snocross will see racers launch out of the gate January 11-12.

There will be a late January break in the SWC schedule, for a WSA sanctioned and administered, non-points snocross in Eagle River, Wisconsin Jan. 18-19, and the phenomenal ESPN Winter X Games from Jan. 30 to February 2 in Aspen, Colorada, where WSA will again be the Snocross venue’s sport organizer. The fifth round kicks off the SWC’s traditional eastern swing with the Yamaha Eastern National. Racers will return to the popular Vernon Downs horseracing track in Vernon, New York February 8-9, in front of one of the sport’s most raucous, enthusiastic and massive crowds. Round six will complete the eastern swing, as the circuit returns to one of the most revered snowmobiling venues in the world, the Grand Prix de Valcourt in Valcourt, Quebec, Canada. The format for the February 15-16 joint event will again feature the unique mix of WSA style ‘cross and Grand Prix ice oval racing on the legendary Circuit Yvon Duhamel.

Round seven sees the superstars and supersleds of the SWC tour return to the magnificent Canterbury Park facility for the Castle Sales/HJC Manufacturer’s Cup February 22-23, for a full SWC program and the braggin’ rights Manufacturer Cup brawl. Round eight welcomes the second brand new venue to the SWC, a new midwestern event slated for the weekend of March 1-2. The Menominee Casino Superstars Of Snocross will be held March 1-2 at the Shawano County Fairgrounds in Shawano, Wisconsin, in between the sizeable markets of Wausau and Green Bay on the Wisconsin Highway 29 corridor.

The season wraps up with two rounds known for great action and crowds. The Ski-Doo Michigan Challenge, March 8-9 at the Otsego County Fairgrounds in Gaylord, Michigan, will host round nine with a return to the heart of the Michigan snowbelt, an area renown for its phenomenal community support. Finally, rhere is no venue that year-in and year-out works true magic in building both tracks and atmosphere quite like the Grand Geneva Resort and Spa in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. So, the SWC is once again incredibly fortunate to conclude the championship chase March 15-16 with the superb Nielsen Enterprises GRAND Finale at the glorious Grand Geneva Resort course. The track is one of the best, serving up some of the most daunting and high-flying ‘cross on the planet, and is the perfect locale to serve as the final test of a potential champion’s true mettle.

Following the last checkered flag for the season, on that same Sunday night, the champions will be crowned and awards presented at the season awards banquet held at the resort. “We stated our goals for our schedule when we started the WSA and the Snocross Worldwide Championship, and we feel we have achieved them once again with this schedule,” according to WSA CEO Joe Duncan. “We work full-time with our partners, namely the promoters, sponsors, manufacturers and broadcasters, to make sure the events evolve and improve, and we’re very confident that is the case and very excited about our new events. And, the travel required has a sensible pattern.

When you look at the schedule, the venues are grouped as much as possible into the same areas to make sure the travel costs are as minimal as possible.”

See the AMSOIL Scheuring Speed Sports Snocross Team

For additional information on all of WSA’s series, as well as the ESPN television airdate schedule for the SWC, please log on to WSA’s web page, at www.WSAracing.com.

News Contact:
Jeremy Meyer
Racing Coordinator
(715) 392-7101 ext. 220

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