Being among the first FIM World Championship to start, the FIM Snowcross World Championship is the highest expression of snow motorsport in the world.
The best riders in the world will gather together at the Snowcross GP campaign, that will last until the end of March, and they will battle their hardest for the World Title during all the seven rounds of the calendar.
FIM Snowcross World Championship calendar
26 Jan (Fri) SWITZERLAND Veysonnaz
27 Jan (Sat) SWITZERLAND Veysonnaz
10 Feb (Sat) FINLAND Lahti
3 Mar (Sat) NORWAY Oppdal
31 Mar (Sat) SWEDEN Falun
TBA GERMANY Sayda
TBA GERMANY Sayda
40 riders will enter each round, but only the fastest 20 of them will enter the two 12 lap Races, that pay Snowcross World Championship points.
The 2006 Snowcross World Champion is Swedish Peter Ericsson. He will defend his Title from fellow Lynx rider Janne Tapio, who finished second in last year’s Championship, but won the Title in 2004 and 2005.
Third last year, with Janne Tapio’s same score, Polaris mounted Johan Eriksson aims at the number one in 2007. The same goes for Finnish Tomi Ahmasalo, who was fourth at the end of the 2006 series, and Ski-doo racer Viktor Herten, fifth in 2006.
But there are other top riders with Title ambitions in the 2007 FIM Snowcross World Championship, including a few top riders from North America.
Another extremely battled season is ready to leave the crowd breathless.
Snowcross is 100% a motorsport, but snowmobiles are not the conventional machines that people see in motorsports. They can be seen as a combination between a motorbike and a jet ski, but they have their own amazing character.
With an average length of three metres and an average weight of about 230 kilos, the snowmobiles taking part in the FIM Snowcross World Championship are grouped in the Pro-Racer class. This class only includes snowmobiles of the Category II, Group E, with two stroke engines up to 600cc maximum, and four stroke engines up to 1000cc maximum. Snowmobiles can reach huge amounts of power, up to 180 bhps, pushing the machine to speeds up to 160 kph. So much power is delivered to a central track, moving the machine, and the steering is based on skates.
The manufacturers involved in the Championship are Lynx, Arctic Cat, Polaris, Ski-doo and Yamaha.
The Snowcross meetings are organized as follows:
2 X Free Practice/2 Groups 10 minutes 20 riders per Group
1 X Qualifying Race/2 Groups 7 laps 20 riders per Group
1 X Last Chance Qualifying Practice 15 minutes All remaining non-qualified riders
2x Races 12 laps 20 riders
Group 1 will race the Qualifying Race 1, while Group 2 will race the Qualifying Race 2.
In each Qualifying Race, the first eight riders will directly qualify for the two Races, while the remaining riders will go to the Last Chance Qualifying Practice.
The first four riders in the Last Chance Qualifying Practice will qualify for the Races, while the fifth and the sixth rider will be appointed reserve riders for possible participation in the Races.
Each Race pays Snowcross World Championship points, which are distributed as in the scale below:
1st. 25 points
2nd. 22 points
3rd. 20 points
4th. 18 points
5th. 16 points
6th. 15 points
7th. 14 points
8th. 13 points
9th. 12 points
10th. 11 points
11th. 10 points
12th. 9 points
13th. 8 points
14th. 7 points
15th. 6 points
16th. 5 points
17th. 4 points
18th. 3 points
19th. 2 points
20th. 1 points
Snowcross facts:
The riders’ minimum age is 16
The track length is between 500 and 1600 metres
The track average width is about 7 metres
The average speed during a Snowcross World Championship race is 60 kph
Most of the Snowcross World Championship riders practice Motocross as training
There is an autograph session in each round of the Championship
In each round there is a Press Conference with the top three riders of the Races
Youthstream is the company that manages the exclusive television, marketing and promotional world wide rights of the FIM Motocross World Championship, the FIM Motocross of Nations, the FIM SuperMoto World Championship, the FIM SuperMoto of Nations, the FIM Snowcross World Championship, the UEM Motocross European Championship and the UEM SuperMoto European Championship.
www.MotocrossMX1.com
- Daniele RIZZI -
