Brett Turcotte borrows Matechuk’s sled, tops X Games Snowmobile Speed & Style seeding

January 24, 2026

Brett Turcotte was still riding the high from winning the gold medal in Friday’s X Games Snowmobile Freestyle event. His Polaris, on the other hand, was not.

Before Saturday’s seeding session for Snowmobile Speed & Style, Turcotte found some mechanical issues on his sled that kept it from running. He tried to get it fixed while waiting for the other riders to complete their runs but couldn’t. Fortunately for him, Cody Matechuk was happy to lend his Polaris to his teammate.

Turcotte was the sixth and final rider to set a time. Unlike the trick-based Freestyle, Speed & Style—held on the same course—combines setting the fastest time with performing the best tricks off the ramps. With the “backup”, he quickly got to work with a Rock Solid off the first jump before setting a screamer of a time that earned him maximum points for speed, capping things off with a whip. His original style score of 38 was second best behind Matechuk before being adjusted, placing him atop the leaderboard.

As the top seed, Turcotte earned a first-round bye for Sunday’s racing.

Like on Friday, Kyle Saxton was the first rider on course. After completing a backflip, the rookie struggled through the softer snow sections and ultimately set the lowest score.

He and some riders like Matechuk found themselves particularly struggling on the final hairpin, a right-hand turn leading into the jump at the start/finish line, as they either slowed down gretly or even came to a complete stop to navigate. Matechuk, the fourth rider on deck and Freestyle silver medalist, finished third.

Friday bronze winner Willie Elam was sandwiched between the Polarises on his Arctic Cat. He opted to go aggressive on his first lap, which yielded good results speed-wise as he got a top score there.

Rasmus Johansson was fourth ahead of Chris Coosemans. Johansson had a slow run as his sled was still optimized for freestyle.

Daniel Shaffer opted not to qualify.

Competition for Snowmobile Speed & Style will be on Sunday at 4 PM Mountain Time. The format consists of three-lap, head-to-head races in a bracket format. Beating the other rider will earn speed points that is determined by the margin of victory, but one must also impress the judges for style points to ensure they can advance to the next round.