I went to the Nekimi ATV races today!

[Yamahammer490]

The Nekimi, Wisconsin Volunteer Fire Department holds an annual ATV "mud run" for 2, 3, and 4 wheeled ATVs. I went for the first time today and it was great.

They break the ATVs into classes, with the 3-wheeler class having about a dozen racers. There were several 350X trikes, one first generation ATC 250R, a 200X, several Big Reds, a couple of home brew combinations that looked like 250SX machines, a really nice 250SX, and a Tri-Moto 125.

The race course is a 300 foot U-shaped track with mud holes that get progressively longer and deeper. Most of the trikes made it around the track, with two of the 350X machines turning in pretty competitive lap times. The guy on the 250R had knobby tires so he spent a lot of time slipping and sliding all over the place. One of the 350Xs had paddle tires and really flew.

The Tri-Moto 125 had the slowest time of any of the 3 wheelers but everybody cheered because he just kept on going. All of the trike riders, for that matter, got a nice hand when they went by. The 200X was ridden by a huge man (probably in the 6'4" 300+ lbs range) who kept wheeleying over backwards and made his run sort of comical. That poor little 200X looked like an ATC 70 under a regular sized guy.

I was standing with my son in the front row along with several other guys about my age. We all had a great time talking about trikes and sharing a few "cold ones" on a hot summer day. I shot 2 rolls of film and will be dropping them off tomorrow so pictures will show up later this week - stay tuned!

[TimSr]

Those small events are great, and a lot of them do allow trikes. Im surprised they got that big of a trike turnout, though! Its great when peope get out and support these events when they do.

[Yamahammer490]

Here are some of the action shots. Check out the rear of the Big Red - he's got a snorkel air intake and a high-rise muffler. It didn't help him though because the Red seemed to float too much. He was all over the track and finished in about 50 seconds.

The 350X here was the fastest of the trikes. He finished the course in about 32 seconds as I recall.

I will scan some more when I get the chance.

[TrikeKid]

must have been fun for the guys on dirtbikes.

[Yamahammer490]

The dirtbikes didn't have any faster times but the crashes were much more spectacular

For what it's worth, the overall fastest time was by a guy on one of the new Yamaha YFZ 450 quads with paddle tires. I can't believe how fast he went! He even made the Banshees look bad. I think his time was something like 21 seconds while everybody else was just flirting with the 30 second mark.

Now if I can only talk my wife into letting me enter next year.

[BigGreenMachine]

You have to enter the OldSchool 490 next year with some paddles and give all the quads a wake-up call.

[trikerider2oo7]

looks like a lot of fun...i wish we could have one of them around here

[edog]

Looks dirty! I'm there

[BigGreenMachine]

yeah edog your bike would prollay do well there with the mudlites u run