Elias Ishoel opens the season right where he left off in 2022, at the top of the Pro Snocross Power Rankings. Behind the scenes, there were many, ourselves included, who wondered how effective Ishoel would be out of the gate, coming into the season barely starting to rehab a serious knee and hamstring injury. Ishoel showed signs of fatigue after Saturday’s round 1 main event but then came back invigorated on Sunday afternoon when he chased down Kody Kamm for the win.
Speaking of Kamm, the former Pro Champion and Dominator winner, collected another unique trophy and $10,000 check from AMSOIL on Friday night, edging out Hunter Patenaude for the win. Kamm stayed on a roll throughout the weekend winning the round 1 final and then pacing the field for all but one lap in Sunday’s feature where he came up just short to Ishoel. Polaris teams looked stronger across the board than they have in a while and Kamm’s Hentges Racing machine was pulling holeshots throughout the weekend on the edge of the prairie. It will be fun to see if he can continue to take the fight to Ishoel and Ski-Doo, setting up a heavyweight title contest we haven’t witnesses in a while.
One anomaly in our rankings compared to the current points standings is Petter Narsa at number five. Narsa hasn’t looked great in qualifying but he has two top five main event finishes to start the year. It’s sort of like that drive for show, put for dough line golfers use. Heat race finishes will eventually catch up to Narsa if he doesn’t improve on them but for now, the main event scores will buy him some time to re-acclimate to the pace of North American snocross and maybe prove he really belongs in the top five.
The final wildcard scenarios leaving Fargo center on Cole Cottew and Hunter Patenaude. Cottew had a win and a second in heat races but couldn’t parlay those into night show results. On Saturday he was running in third and gassed out when he didn’t allow himself to breathe during the opening lap chaos. Sunday saw him wack his face on his windshield and struggle to keep pace. If Cottew can get a handle on some of the little things that top riders don’t even think about, he could be the next guy to make a big move.
As for Patenaude, he open the weekend with very solid rides in the Dominator and was close to winning the whole enchilada. He then started Saturday with a heat race win before the wheels fell off in a first turn main event pileup and his momentum disappeared into a North Dakota snow drift. Not typical for Patenaude or the Scheuring Speed Sports team but it’s a big hole to dig on week one when there will be no more Mulligans to go around as the season gets to crunch time in March.
Come to think of it, the same can be said for Francis Pelletier. One of our top picks to challenge Ishoel coming into the season, Frank was also involved in the same first turn melee as Patenaude on Saturday and was never 100% for the rest of the weekend.
Week 1 Rank
1. Elias Ishoel – Doo
2. Kody Kamm – Pol
3. Emil Harr – Pol
tie Daniel Benham – Cat
5. Petter Narsa – Pol
6. Logan Christian – Doo
7. Adam Peterson – Pol
8. Cole Cottew – Pol
9. Travis Kern – Pol
10. Hunter Patenaude – Doo
Current Points
