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By Leeann Herheim



Teammates Brandon Herheim, Hackensack and Nick Patterson, Shakopee competed in the District 23 four-wheel race in Mezzepa MN last weekend. This is Nick Patterson's rookie year racing a quad, which has turned out to be quite successful for him. Nick is racing a 450 Suzuki, and is competing in Class C. He is sponsored by Waconia Motor Sports.

Brandon is competing for a second season in District 23, using a 450 Honda in Class B and is sponsored by Ron's Hardware, Leech Lake Chiropractic, Affordable Choice, Fast Lane Graphics and others.

Quad racing was hosted at Hurricane Hills near Mezzepa, which is located north of Rochester. Most of the competitors arrive at the tracks Saturday morning in anticipation of practice the entire day. Saturday proved to be a beautiful day for the racing families to be outside watching the racers practice. The racers were able to spend the entire day on the track, learning each and every jump and curve. Many families grilled meals, socialized, and snapped lots of pictures.

By evening the weather turned nasty, causing families to take precautions from the high winds and heavy rain. The temporary camp of canopy's, lawn chairs, coolers, bins, quads, a razer, clotheslines, grills, tool boxes and everything else was taken down and placed in the racing trailer for safekeeping. By night the skies turned dark, not only from the setting sun, but also the black clouds that rolled in, high winds and the pouring rain.

At dawn the families emerged from their campers and trailers examining damage and the mud filled track. The track staff used heavy equipment on the track turning over the mud and trying to drain the water. The announcers encouraged the racers to take hot laps, which would displace water and work up the track to a more typical consistency. Quad racetracks should not be dry, but also should not have standing water on them. Given normal conditions, racers would be waiting in line to have their turn at hot laps, but on this Sunday morning, only a handful of brave riders ventured out.

By 10 o'clock a.m. racing started. The first few competitors completed their races caked in mud. As the day passed by, the track shaped up and less mud slinging took place. When the racing was complete, not only did the quads need to be pressure washed, so did the racers, clothes, boots, helmets, gloves, and safety gear. At the end of the day, Nick was holding the 1st place trophy for Class C and Brandon was holding the 1st place trophy for Class B. Nick and Brandon are also teammates during the SnoX season, traveling and competing with one another.

The next District 23 four-wheel competition is scheduled in Lincoln MN, south of Motley the last weekend in July. The full schedule can be found on www.armca.org.



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