San Clemente,CA 9/17/2015
Over 50,000 people take over this magnificent extravaganza known as Haydays in Minneapolis. Hundreds of racers from across the country, Canada and even Europe, travel to HayDays for the grand daddy of snowmobile grass drag racing. Dead center in over 100+ acres of power sports enthusiast was the Terracross Championship.
The track it self brought tons of spectators; however, once the engines started roaring the stands were completely full and the crowd surrounded the fences.
As always in Terracross, the women must have a co-driver and I was lucky enough to have Mike Johnson from Bad Endorsement ride with me.
Saturday began with two heats; placement determined starting position for Sundays race. The first heat was qualifying for round 3. I knew I needed a good start to get ahead of all the door banging because it’s was key to drive smart and keep the car together. Apparently the other drivers didn’t have that in mind, right from the start I got slammed from the back and on each side. Luckily, I was able to make it out in 3rd right before the huge freestyle jump that goes straight into two huge straight up and down jumps. I was able to pull off a 2nd place. finish for round 3. The second heat was qualifying for round 4. I pushed to be in the front of the pack but luck wasn’t on my side getting a 5th place finish.
On Sunday, CBS Sports placed cameras all throughout the track, the Polaris mechanics had the RZR 1000s on point and it was show time. Women’s round 3 kicked off the start of the show and boy were the fans in for a treat. We should of called it bumper cars instead of a race. I had a great start fighting for the first position throughout the first half of the race. On the third lap my power steering stopped working and it was extremely difficult to hold on through the rough terrain. With only three laps to go, my clutch continued to disengage pulling be back a spot; but luckily, I was able to make a block pass on the last lap giving me a 3rd place finish for round 3.
Round 4 didn’t go as well. I started in the back and made it into second by the first turn. I got hit on the inside forcing me to tip on two wheel and I saved it putting me in third. Going into turn two on the inside is a steep jump which we had to slow down for so you don’t nose dive straight into the hill. 1st, 2nd, and myself were bumper to bumper slowing down and the girl behind me decides to hit me hard in the back not once, but twice, breaking both of my rear axles. I didn’t know I was broke so I continued to race. After just two turns and flying off the over under jump sideways I knew my race was over.
Terracross in North Branch Minnesota at HayDays was a weekend I will never forget. I met tons of people, made great friends, made more awesome relationships in the industry and to top it off, I got to do what I love; race!
Thank you SuperATV and K&N Filters for making this possible.
Thank you to Bell Racing for sending me product to my hotel for the race 🙂
Photos by Joe Wiegele at No Style Productions
