“Racer X Motorsports’ Sponsored Athlete Katie Vernola Leaves Minneapolis With a 3rd Place Podium Finish in the Terracross Championship Round 3!”
El Cajon, CA September 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 granddaddy of snowmobile grass drag racing. Dead center in over 100+ acres of power sports enthusiast was the Terracross Championship.
The track itself 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 Katie was lucky enough to have Mike Johnson from Bad Endorsement ride with her.
Saturday began with two heats; placement determined starting position for Sunday’s race. The first heat was qualifying for round 3. Katie knew she needed a good start to get ahead of all the door banging because it was key to drive smart and keep the car together. Apparently the other drivers didn’t have that in mind; right from the start Katie got slammed from the back and on each side. Luckily, she 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. Katie was able to pull off a 2nd place finish for round 3. The second heat was qualifying for round 4. Katie pushed to be in the front of the pack but luck wasn’t on her 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. It should have been called bumper cars instead of a race. Katie had a great start fighting for the first position throughout the first half of the race. On the third lap her power steering stopped working and it was extremely difficult to hold on through the rough terrain. With only three laps to go, the clutch continued to disengage pulling her back a spot; but luckily, she was able to make a block pass on the last lap giving her a 3rd place podium finish for round 3.
Round 4 didn’t go as well. Katie started in the back and made it into 2nd by the first turn. She got hit on the inside forcing her to tip on two wheels but saved it putting her in 3rd. Going into turn two on the inside is a steep jump which racers had to slow down for so they don’t nose dive straight into the hill. The top three were bumper to bumper slowing down when the RZR behind Katie decides to hit her hard in the back not once, but twice; breaking both rear axles. Not realizing the damage Katie continued to race. After just two turns and flying off the over under jump sideways she knew her 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!” Katie said.
“Thank you SuperATV and K&N Filters for making this possible, Racer X Motorsports and Bell Racing for sending me product to my hotel for the race.”
Photo by Joe Wiegele at No Style Productions
