The snow dust has settled and the tracks are melting now, but powder was exploding across the track at the last races of the season. On a spectacular course in Lake Geneva , Wis. , Steven Martin stayed just ahead of competition to win the last race and he jumped over everyone to emerge as the undisputed winner of the last weekend of racing and the national points race.

Effort was in no short supply in that last Pro Open race. Everyone wanted a spot on the podium before the break, and they were pushing hard to win it. On the chops coming down one of the two hills, Robbie Malinoski fell back from his sled and watched it roll 50 feet beneath him. D.J. Eckstrom finished second in the points race but 14 th in the last race. Right in front of the spectators he missed a landing and his machine spun off the track and into flames.

Throttles were open full as racers shot up one hill, doubled back down it, then up a sharper hill before avoiding tumbling back down it. The track on "The Mountaintop" at Grand Geneva Resort, then turned into a traditional straightaway before heading back up the first hill.

The track was wide and flat with plenty of opportunity to pass. Spectators lined the tallest hillside, standing on platforms chiseled into the snow and stacking on top of one another. Those fans had the closest view at the race's end when Mike Island nearly cut off Martin at the top corner for the first place position. Martin pulled away and fans bit their nails as Island chose between safety and one burst of speed that would have dropped him to the bottom of the hill. Martin was swift and Island couldn't catch him.

"The first three laps didn't go very good for me," said Island . "I was falling back and Steevo was running away with it. I found a couple of good lines." An announcer had speculated whether Island was easing back as a team tactic, since both ride Ski-Doos for Warnert Racing. "Once I got into second and Steevo was in my sights, there was no team tactic," Island said. "I wanted that one bad. I haven't won one all year. Steve's won a bunch of times, so it was my turn, but he was just riding too good and I couldn't catch him. I did the best I could. He filled me up with a ton of snow." Island said he'd recovered well from a beating he took four weeks earlier in Buffalo . "Lots of rest and elevation," he said. "I was in the gym every day, swimming, seeing a physical therapist. I'm still limping but it's still good."

"Battling with my friend Mike Island has been really fun," Martin said. The two embraced as soon as they left their sleds. Martin had a small limp at day's end, too. "I bottomed out on one of the jumps out there. I landed on the ice. It's just my heel. It'll be gone by tonight," he said. What he preferred to focus on is his big championship and the team that helped him win it. "The team's been behind me 100%. They really are just like family. I've known Mark (Warnert) for about six years now, and Ron has been really great. And I live with Paul and Mark and it's just like family," he said. His original family drove there from Wyoming to see the win, and he said he'd soon be on the trails with them. "I'll be riding sleds until June with my dad and my little sister," he said. "I'm just looking forward to being back on the sled already. I've got Hillclimb to do. It's been a great year, and I just can't wait to get back on the snowmobile."

Third place in that race went to Carl Kuster of Westlok , Alberta , a veteran racer who's been an advocate for trail access. "A place to ride is the most important thing," he said. "Yeah, I think actually I'm going to be spending some time in the mountains. That's where I like to ride after the season. That's a cleansing for me. I like to ride in really neat areas and break in a lot of new areas, too. Areas that have never been rode before."

When he's done with that cleansing he said he'll be glad to be with family, though he's been able to see them often through the season. "My family, my folks, and my girlfriend, we're pretty serious now. It's not like the old days where we used to be five months on the road and two days at home for Christmas and that's it. It's a little more forgiving now. I'm pretty fortunate that way."

Travelling may be easier but the racing only gets tougher. Martin had a healthy lead going to the starting line in that last race, but only two points separated Custer and Melanoski, who was just ten points behind Eckstrom. After the eight laps, Custer came out in second place for points. "I ended up second in the open points, which is extremely good," Custer said. "We're happy about that."

The point race would have been different had not a broken bone taken Blair Morgan of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan out of the running in February. "I'm sure that Blair will be back on his game," Custer said of the coming season. "Everybody always picks it up a level every year." Morgan was at Lake Geneva and he tucked aside his crutches as he was swarmed for autographs after the races. He'd been the leader in points before his accident. Illness took his voice this weekend and he was unable to comment.

Injury brought another racer down a notch in the last half of the season. Tomi Ahmasalo of Finland , the only racer not from North America , finished fifth in points, behind Melanoski, and he said that a fall from his sled at the X Games did not merely hyperextend his knee like he thought.

"Actually, it's broken-broken, so it won't heal up by itself. It showed up in the MRI that it's bad," he said. Surgery is lined up and he should be 100 percent by next year, he said. After four years, though, next year will be all or mostly European races for him, and he'll even have some this year. "I will get home Thursday and I have a race Friday in Norway ." Being away from his family has been too hard, he said, and he's leaving the states for good.

The WSA gave him a special sendoff. Before the awards ceremony the announcer handed Ahmasalo the checkered flag and thanked him for being a trailblazer between the two continents. "On behalf of the World Snowmobile Association ? Kitos. Thank you. An unbelievable career. You are an unbelievable individual, Tomi.?" Ahmasalo then drove the last lap of the season, holding the flag high.

"That was cool," he said. "It's great to see that a lot of guys will miss me. It was a great moment for me."

It'll be something he remembers when he's old, he said, and when he's 50 years old he'll look back and wonder if he could have won first place had he stayed one more year. It'll be hard to forget, he said, since his knee will still feel the pain. "Yeah, I'm quite sure."

Ahmasalo tied Martin for fourth place in points in the Pro Stock category.

TJ Gulla of So Hero, Vermont took first in that division's points race, with Eckstrom and Malinoski at second and third.

There's few lessons to learn before next year, said Willie Elam of Buhl, Idaho , who finished fifth in the Semi Pro Stock and seventh in the Semi Pro Open. It's just a matter of following through on what's already known, he said.

"I'm going to ride my motorcycle quite a bit, maybe race a few times," he said. Most snowmobile racers ride bikes in the summer to stay sharp. Skills transfer between the two, and Elam said he needs to sharpen up. "Yesterday I wasn't doing too good. I got up to fourth and then wrecked, and I got up to sixth again and wrecked again."

He walked away from The Mountaintop thinking of next year, and so did thousands of fans. They walked off of the machine-made snow and onto the muddy grass of a golf course. Already other sports were on their minds.