When I quit football and decided I was going to race snowmobiles, my family was hesitant. I was still in college, had very little money and no idea where racing would eventually take me.
Once it became clear I was going to do it anyway, Curt made a decision of his own: he was coming with me. We would meet in Dillon late at night, hook onto a trailer borrowed from my buddy Richard and drive through the night. Sometimes we would not reach our $55 motel room until two or three in the morning. A few hours later we were back up to park the trailer and prepare for qualifying.
Curt encouraged me, but he also kept me grounded. When the first real success came in 2013, his approach did not change. From 2011 through 2025 he missed only a handful of races.
The next step took time. My first Pro wins did not come until the 2017 season. Then, just as the program was beginning to prove it could win at that level, 2018 became a year of ACL reconstruction instead of building on that momentum. Curt was still there. The work did not stop just because the results had.
In 2022, eleven years after those first borrowed-trailer trips, we won our first Pro points championship in 600 Modified. It was more than a season title. It was proof that the slow climb—from Semi-Pro, through the first Pro wins, through surgery and the years of work after it—had built something that could last.
Bear Valley • 2024“I could quit and go home now, and not care.”
“Well, that’s when you do your best. So go win Mod.”
I left the line with a carefree, go-win attitude and came home with the Bear Valley Modified King and Improved Stock King titles that day. People see the wins and trophies. I remember Dillon after midnight, Richard’s borrowed trailer, the cheap motel rooms and Curt being there before there was any reason to believe success was guaranteed.
He did not join the team after we started winning. He helped build the team that eventually could.
