As the 2022-2023 snocross season approached things were starting to unravel for the cheeky Canadian. Kenny had just come off of a season ending Knee injury at the first round (first heat race of his Pro Lite career) last season in which he had just recovered from a broken sternum at the last round of the season before. He was in a hot battle for the Sport championship at that time. His satellite spot on Hentges Racing (gear, graphics and parts) had disappeared as Hentges scaled back that effort for 2023. A contract, with another team, was pulled out from under him at the last minute. This left him with only 2 options for 2023; Privateer effort on a Polaris or take a full ride with Zandstra Motorsports. Kenny announced this summer that he would be riding for Zandstra Motorsports, which would see him aboard a Arctic Cat ZR 600RSX in the Pro-Lite class. All was looking great for Kenny until some pre-season team troubles derailed the whole operation. On Dec 12th Kenny posted that he had walked away from the Zandstra deal and that he did not know what the future held for him. A lot of people were not surprised as the team had lost riders in the past in awkward fashions., but I did not have the partnership ending before the first race on my 2023 Snocross Bingo card.
Crystal Wallem Photography
As the Series geared up for the opening round Kenny was left wondering if he would race or have to retire. Kenny got a call from OneThree Motorsports the night before Round 1 to fill in for their injured Pro-Lite rider. Kenny jumped on the opportunity and grabbed his FXR Racing gear and rushed to the track Friday morning to get familiar with the team and machine. Kenny had never rode a current generation Ski-Doo 600RS before hitting the track for afternoon practice. He instantly felt comfortable and could not believe how amazing the Ski-Doo rode on a snocross track. Kenny put in (2) 9th place finishes in his Pro-Lite debut. He would also have some solid heat races with a couple top 3 finishes. That is a massive success for both Kenny and OneThree on such short notice. Kenny was able to get this great opportunity to show what he had and OneThree was able to bring on a talent that was sitting on the sideline waiting for his big shot. Unfortunately for Kenny this was just a 1 weekend deal as the original rider was slated to return to racing action next race in Shakopee. What this did though was get the whole pits talking and things started to come together for Kenny in the background.
Monday morning following the Fargo race Kenny got a phone call. It would be a call that would change his season. It was from Bill Pflipsen, Pflipsen Racing, who wanted to know what the deal was with OneThree and if he would be available to pilot a sled for him as his Sport rider had gotten injured pre-season. Kenny was honest with him and told him that he was still on the bench with OneThree if Jeremy would not be able to return to action for any reason. Bill understood and told him to keep him in the loop. A few days later OneThree called Kenny and told him that Jeremy would in fact return to racing. Kenny called Bill back and told him that he was IN and from there all of the plans started to fall into place.
"The program looks GREAT at Pflipsen. They are just as determined as I am. I have a place to stay, full time mechanic, tuner, practice truck/trailer, and Caiden Pflipsen (son) and I get along great so it should be an amazing season. I am very excited to get on a Ski-Doo full time" - Kenny Mandryk #61
Kenny would like to send a HUGE thank you to all of the sponsors that are making this opportunity happen: