You may be familiar with the FIM—or the International Motorcycling Federation—as the governing body when it comes to all things motorcycle racing. But did you know that the FIM is more than just about motorcycles?
For those of you living in colder regions that snow for the majority of the year, chances are you’re familiar with, or perhaps you’ve even tried, snowmobile racing. The FIM recognizes snowmobile racing and has been holding the Snowcross World Championship since 2004.
Now, in 2024, the FIM Snowcross World Championship is back, with its first round in Turkey held on March 11, 2024. In case you missed the action, the event saw a 10,000-strong crowd watching eagerly as American racer Jesse Kirchmeyer and his Polaris 600 took the top spot in the first round of the action.
Kirchmeyer was followed by Norwegian Magnus Reiten aboard a Lynx 600 in second place, and Ole-Herman Sjorgen from Austria with his Lynx 600 RS taking third place.
Upcoming rounds of the FIM Snowcross World Championship will see the action fly over to Finland, in the Joensuun Ravirata racing course, on April 14, 2024. A week after, the racing series will head to Norway, with challengers slugging it out in the VM Arena Kirkenes race track.
Seeing skilled snowmobile racers at the top of their game slice through the snow at high speeds is nothing short of mesmerizing. These machines can easily weigh in close to 500 pounds, and seeing these racers flog these snowmobiles around like lightweight dirtbikes is surely exhilarating.
You might be surprised to learn that snowmobiles actually share a lot of technology with motorcycles, despite them seeming to be worlds apart. Indeed, the motorcycling world could pick up a thing or two from the snowmobile world, and vice versa.
Executive editor Jonathon Klein recently got to run a Ski-Doo Summit X 850 E-TEC Turbo R through its paces, and after reading it, let’s just say that I really wish it snowed here in the Philippines.
