Madeline Wedeking Claims 1st in her Second Desert Race

Going into the Pure 125 after getting 4th place in the pure 150 I defiantly had more confidence. In my last desert race, I was racing a RZRXP 900 in a 1000 sportsman class. Now for the Pure 125 I was in a 900 sportsman class. The day before the race we pre-ran and studied the course multiple times. On race day, I had my family and friends there to support me at the start line.

On the first lap, I popped a tire on mile .5 and drove on it for 6 miles until my Dad/co-driver changed it. For the rest of that lap we had no issues. When I got to the pits, our pit crew had a difficult time with our spare tire mount. Because every minute is precious in off-road racing instead of wasting time, the pit crew decided to tie it down with a tie strap instead of using our mount. On my second lap and popped the same front passenger tire on mile 1.5. Frustrated and disappointed that I popped another tire, I tried to drive on it for as long as I possibly could. I made it to mile 10 before my co-driver had to change another tire. As I’m sitting in the race car seeing multiple racers pass us, I thought that I was in dead last and there was no chance of us getting a good position. However, as I was entering the pits to get another spare tire incase I pop a tire again, the pit crew informs me that I am 15 minutes behind the first place car.

The first 4 miles of the lap is very rocky, so I decide to cruise and not go too fast through the tuff stuff. Not popping a tire, we made up 7 minutes meaning that I am now only 3 minutes behind first place. Not needed to going into the pits, I’m determined to catch up to the 1st place driver who started 3 minutes ahead of me. Towards mile 18 on lap 4 I eventually caught up with him.

On the 5th lap I was on his tail, and most of the time I was eating his dust for miles. On one of the straight a ways, my Dad was pressing the siren and honking the horn and he wouldn’t move. So, I went with Plan B… I’m going to give him a little bump and maybe he will get the hint. As I’m about 4 feet away from hitting his bumper he finally decides to move over and I leave him in our dust. Now, I’m focused on keeping the race car in one piece. The RZR that I just passed decided to kick it up a couple gears, probably because he got passed by a teenage girl.

Knowing I am only 9 miles from the finish line, I tried to go fast but at the same time be conservative. On mile 17, we started to run out of gas, the gage only read one dot. Since I had a pretty good lead I tried to take it easy and tried not to run out of gas that close to the finish. As I passed the finish line my family and friends were there to congratulate me. It was such a great feeling to win on only my second race!! Thank you to my parents, grandparents, cousins and friends from coming out to support me. I also want to thank SXS Performance for putting this car together for me.