Kaleb De Keyrel, an 18-year-old MotoAmerica Supersport racer from White Bear Lake, Minnesota, is staying busy this winter by taking up a new form of motorsport – snocross snowmobile racing.

“My whole plan for the winter was to go out to California and train and ride,” De Keyrel told Roadracingworld.com in a telephone interview Wednesday, “and two weeks before I was going to leave I got a call from the Team Manager of McGuire Racing [a professional team competing in the Amsoil Championship Snocross series]. They wanted me to ride their [Arctic Cat] sled and try it out.

“I’ve ridden a snowmobile probably three times before, but haven’t raced or ridden on a track, just around someone’s yard. So I had no experience, but I just kind of jumped in.

“I’ve got some motocross experience. I grew up riding motocross, so I figured it would be similar to that except that the machine is bigger.

“I started doing practices at a local track in Elk River, Minnesota. It’s called ERX [Elk River Extreme Motorpark]. It’s just a practice track for snocross. We went up there probably six times, and I just raced in my first regional event this past weekend.”

Racing in the Sport Lite class at ERX Motorpark, De Keyrel won a heat race and placed third in a final on January 2 and finished fifth in the final on January 3.

So what’s it like to ride a snowmobile on a snow-covered motocross track?

“It’s kind of like motocross but on a way bigger machine that weighs about 400 pounds. You can’t really throw it around and it doesn’t want to turn and the brakes are terrible. There are two-inch studs screwed into the track to give you traction and there are sharp metal strips on the skis to help it turn, but it still doesn’t turn very well.

“The suspension travel is not that much and you’re hitting jumps, so it beats you up pretty good. And the worst part about it is in motocross you have roost [of dirt], but in snocross you have chunks of ice flying at you. So if you don’t get a good start you’re pretty much screwed.”

Although the season is relatively short (running from the end of November 2015 to the end of March 2016), the Amsoil Championship Snocross series has eight rounds spread across seven states, is televised on CBS Sports Network and appears to be well-supported by series and event sponsors. And snocross is also an event in ESPN’s Winter X Games, which happens later this month in Aspen, Colorado.

So what does all of this mean for De Keyrel’s future?

“We’ll see what comes about,” said De Keyrel. “I’m going to keep racing the regionals. They’ve got races every Thursday at ERX that I’ve been doing, and that’s been going really good.

“Right now I’m just using it as something to fill the gap during the winter while we can’t road race up here in Minnesota. So I’m just using it for fun and as a training tool. It’s really physically demanding. So I’m kind of using it as a training tool and trying not get hurt doing it.”