Photos: Roger Strandberg
Adam Renheim wasn’t even planning on racing the Arctic Cat Cup but with a two week break in the AMSOIL Championship Snocross schedule and fresh off his first North American Pro class win he said to himself why not. The decision was a good one as the five-time World Champion further cemented his legacy in Sweden by winning his third Cup.
The Arctic Cat Cup is the largest snocross race in Europe and perhaps the longest-running in the world, dating back to it’s start in 1973 when it was called the Sno-Tric Cup. Sno-Tric was a Swedish snowmobile manufacturer, later called Aktiv and after that version of company stopped producing snowmobiles in 1990, the race was renamed for the new sponsor Arctic Cat.
The race is held in Ostersund, Sweden and is a big source of national pride. Except for Janne Tapio, Aki Pihlaja, Viktor Hertén (Finland) and Elias Ishoel (Norway) only Swedish drivers have won the Arctic Cat Cup. With his latest victory, Renheim joined Petter Nårsa on the list of three time winners, earning the right to keep the traveling trophy.
The Arctic Cat Cup is one of, if not the only race of its kind where any rider can enter the Pro Open class and compete against the World’s best.
The Swedish Motorcycle and Snowmobile Federation are members of the Swedish Athletes Federation which have special rules about kids racing. The rules says that sport is play for kids up to the age of 10, so there has never been much real racing in the 120cc and 200cc categories. This year was the first year a large snocross race in Europe actually had a competition by it’s own standards for 120cc and 200cc.
