January 12th, 2008 - The Sled Jam riders put it all together and put on an awesome show in front of a great crowd. About 1500 people filled the stands of the Gogebic County Fairgrounds to watch some of the top freestyle snowmobilers in North America go head to head for a chance to compete at the Winter X Games in 2 weeks and to see who would take home the bulk of the $10,000 purse.

Quebec's Jeff Mullin had the first run of the day and attacked the course with a vengeance after working on his sled late into friday night just to make it rideable. Mullin nailed all of his tricks and did so with huge extension. Hungerford, Thacker, and Hoyer all had solid first runs, advancing them to the semifinal head to head round. Local rider Matt Tingstad rode the first round but an injury kept him from pulling all of the tricks he had planned, and he did not advance.

In the semi-final rounds Kourtney Hungerford barely edged out Jeff Mullin with his run which included a stretched out cliffhanger. Justin Hoyer also beat out Paul Thacker with his run full of huge Tsunami's, Hart Attacks, etc. This set up Hungerford and Hoyer to go head to head in the final round to battle for the win, and Mullin and Thacker to fight over 3rd and 4th.

Mullin pulled out a solid run and Thacker missed a couple tricks, putting the Canadian rider in 3rd and the Alaskan in 4th. Why change what works and Hoyer came out with the same run full of huge tricks as the previous round. Hungerford pulled threw down some of his signature tricks but didn't get full extension on a couple. That was all it took for the Hitman Justin Hoyer to score 8 points higher and win the first ever Sled Jam, a trip to X Games, and almost half of the purse.

Sled Jam was a huge success, next year will only be bigger and better. We'll see you there!!!

1st: Justin Hoyer 74
2nd: Kourtney Hungerford 66
3rd: Jeff Mullin 57
4th: Paul Thacker 40

Don't forget to check out the Sled Jam video gallery


Photos by Brian Pisani