Aleksander Nordgaard has discovered one sure way to minimize track wear on his Polaris snowmobile: Spend more time in the air than on the ground.
Nordgaard is one of the world’s leading snowmobile freestyle riders and he is one of three Polaris riders who are favorites to win medals in the first-ever Snowmobile Freestyle Competition at ESPN’s Winter X Games in late January near Aspen, Colorado.
“Aleksander was doing back flips like there was nothing to it. It was unbelievable,” said Joe Duncan, longtime snowmobile racing promoter who is managing the X Games freestyle competition for ESPN.
Joining Nordgaard at the X Games will be Polaris freestyle pilots Sam Carver and Ryan Britt. Carver finished second at the X Games qualifying event, less than a point behind Nordgaard, while Britt finished fourth. The first alternate for the X Games freestyle contest is Polaris rider Daniel Bodine of Sweden. In the qualifying competition at Park X, 19 competitors battled for five available spots in the X Games.
