Photos: iFLY Photography
Motocross aces Nolan Heppner, Kody Kamm and Josh Hill were the first of 12 riders to earn Winter X Games Snow Bike invites topping the first main event in the Timbersled Dual qualifier at ERX Motor Park in Elk RIver, Minnesota.
Darrin Mees and Keaton Ward completed the top 5, all riding Timbersled-kitted bikes, which advanced them directly to Aspen and prevented them from having to compete in dual number two.
The second final was won by Seth Fischer on a Camso setup, with Yeti’s Yanick Boucher and TImbersled’s William Van Hook III also on the podium. Mick Wilson and Nathan Bles earned the final automatic advancements in the later dual.
Dean Hunt and Jimmy Jarret were awarded the 11th and 12th tickets to the Winter X Games by virtue of their combined finishes in the two finals.
Heppner has quality snow bike experience finishing fourth at last year’s X Games, while Kamm, the 2017 national snocross champion has been putting in considerable lap time at ERX in between rounds of AMSOIL Championship Snocross tour.
For Josh Hill, it was a bit of a different story. The 450 class Supercross main event winner and Summer X Games medalist was making his first start on a snow bike. In fact, the two days prior to Saturday’s qualifier were his only days ever on a snow bike, which he spent considerable time assembling himself outside in the snow in Elk River.
Four at large invitees have yet to be announced and should be forthcoming soon now that the first 12 players are known.
