Saturday, December 15, 2007

Freestyle Qualifier: Billings, MT

"Going BIG in Billings" was the motto for the weekend. Billings, Montana was host to the first of two Snowmobile Freestyle qualifiers for this years X GAMES 12. With over a month long break in his snocross schedule, and already practicing tricks for Speed & Style, Launchin Levi LaVallee thought he should give it a try. Levi took advantage of the practices and it showed during his first run where he threw down an impressive run leaving him with a score of 95 out of 100. Levi was pretty shocked after finding out that he was in 1st place with a 9 point lead over second, mostly because he isn't a freestyler; he is a professional snocross racer, who was competing against some of the top guys in the sport. Levi blitzed through the 3 kicker ramps set at 70ft and the comp ramp set at 90ft successfully landing a backflip, rock solid, cliff hanger and many more. Levi's goal was to make it into the top four and get into the Freestyle event at X Games, since that goal was accomplished after the 2 rounds, he decided to take his run down a notch in the head-to-head comp. Even without the flip in his run he was able to win the comp. Yup, a snocross racer, competed in his first freestyle competition and ran away with a win.

With qualifying for Freestyle out in Billings, Levi is now the first athlete to compete in all 3 snowmobile events at Winter X Games. Mark that into the history books. Levi has his work cut out for him with Speed & Style, SnoCross, and now Freestyle - But he wouldn't have it any other way. Congratulations Levi for making Winter X Games History.