Summary of 2023-2024 Polaris Snowmobile Racing Season

We sat down with Tom Rager, Polaris Snowmobile Racing Manager, to recap last season and chat a bit on what is to come this year. We hope to see you at a race near you!

Give us a summary of last year, Tom:

“Best way to put it is that we had immense success in all disciplines of snowmobile racing!  We are typically very strong in ice oval, but last year was not a great year.  It was very competitive, but not a lot of wins.  But we did extremely well everywhere else. Another key point to last year was very little snow created a lot of races being cancelled or dates moved so everyone had to adapt to that.”

Race-Tested Tidbit: The Matryx platform winning at the various races: Iron Dog, Hill Climbs, XC races, etc. demonstrates its performance and durability.

What about Snocross (ISOC)?

“The highlight for sure was Emil Harr winning the ISOC Pro Championship. We haven’t won that since Kody Kamm did it in 2017.”

How did the RMSHA circuit go?

“We won ten of the thirteen Pro class Championships in RMSHA. Jackson Hole was another big year for us winning all three King Titles and King of Kings with Justin Thomas.”

Race-Tested Tidbit: The Patriot Boost and Patriot 9R engines are very similar to what customers can get in their SnowCheck sleds.

Anything when it comes to ice oval?

“The main highlights were Tom Olson winning the F-III class in Valcourt and Blaine Stephenson winning the Champ 440 Friday night at Eagle River.”

What about engineering innovations from last season?

“The 2024 600 Cross Country came with what we are calling long tail torsion springs on the rear suspension. This makes the Cross Country rear suspension different from XCR or VR1.”

Let’s switch to the Iron Dog Win, give us your thoughts on that:

“We didn’t just win it. We had the top seven spots! These were all on the 2024 600 Cross Country using the new “long tail” torsion springs which made the rear suspension work better and part of the reason for our success.”

Let’s call out Bunke’s Soo win too, right?

“Incredible win coming from three laps down. Add’s to that team’s legacy at the Soo as I think it was their seventh win there as a team since 2012.”

Any other notable wins you want to mention?

“Zach Dewald and James Hicks won the MIRA Pro Championship. MIRA is the enduro circuit that runs in MI. The Soo 500 is the crown jewel of their circuit.”

What are your expectations for this season?

“My expectations are that it is going to be hard to duplicate the success we had last year. That doesn’t mean that I lack confidence, but racing is a tough game. I am confident that we are giving our racers the very best equipment that we can to give them the best chance of winning races. 

The ISOC championship will be very competitive again so that will be very interesting to see how that plays out.  We have the new engine package in the 2025 Polaris 600 Indy Cross Country that will help our XC and Iron Dog racers stay on top. We have the best sleds and best team in RMSHA so I’m confident that we can maintain our position there.”

Race-Tested Tidbit: As Tom noted, check it out for more details the new 600 Patriot engine in the Cross Country sled.

Final question – if you had to give a theme or motto for this year, what would it be?

“As your seeing by now, I’m a man of few words! I guess my motto for this year would be don’t let off the gas. Don’t let our success last year prevent us from doing all the same work that it took to get last year’s results. Keep the same drive and commitment internally and with our racers.”