by: Jared Bolton
Tuesday, July 9, 2013 | 9:10 AM
GNCC Racing truly attracts racers from all across the world but a very unique story comes from that of 4x4 Senior racer, Don Higbee. Don joined GNCC Racing this season for the first time and travels all the way from Wyoming to each round. As if that’s not enough, Don also owns two powersport dealerships in Wyoming. We caught up with Don to talk about his 2013 season and much more!
GNCCRacing.com: How's everything going today?
Don Higbee: Going great Jared, we just got back from Snowshoe and are looking forward to the summer break.
So tell everyone about yourself.
I'm 45 years old and our family consists of my wife Karen and my daughter Stephanie. We’re from Casper Wyoming. I’ve been racing since 2004, mostly focusing on desert endurance racing, a little TT racing, and even endurance PWC racing. My family and I really like to recreate outdoors. Being from Wyoming we’re blessed with some of the most beautiful country that there is. In the winter we do a lot of backcountry snowmobiling.
What's it like racing GNCC coming from Wyoming?
It’s been very exciting for sure. When word got out to the local people in Casper
that we were going to go back east and race the entire GNCC series they couldn’t believe it. No one from Wyoming has ever gone back east to race the entire GNCC series on an ATV. The season has been great and I’ve learned something new each and every race. The terrain is very different than what I’m used to, so I’ve had to make a lot of adjustments.
Does all that driving ever get old?
I’ve actually been fortunate enough to fly to the races, but there’s still a ton of driving and travel time involved. My typical travel over the weekend consists of a Thursday 5 hour drive to Denver starting at 3:00 am, a 3 hour flight, usually with a couple of connections, then a 3-4 hour drive to the track. I repeat that on the way home on Sundays and usually get home around 11:00 pm. Living in a remote part of the US, in Casper, poses a lot of travel hassles. For instance, I almost missed the Georgia round because the mountain I live on got 82 inches of snow in one and a half days and I couldn’t get down the road for 2 days and almost missed my flight. Or for the John Penton I logged 45 hours of travel time from the time I left Casper until I got home Sunday evening due to getting bumped from flights, cancelled flights, and having to drive in from Chicago. It's all part of the challenge and you just need to take it in stride.
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That’s wild! What do you do for your day job?
I own two powersports dealerships in Wyoming. Driven Powersports is a Can-Am and Polaris dealership located in Casper, Wyoming and Destination X is a Polaris and KTM dealership located in Gillette, Wyoming.
Impressive! What's it like running a big operation like that?
It's great. There’s nothing better than waking up in the morning and going to a job that you really love. Me and my family have been longtime powersports enthusiasts so the purchasing of the dealerships was a perfect fit for us. The part I like the best is seeing a person or family leave with a new machine and see the smile that goes along with the purchase. We ride a lot with our customers which makes for some fun weekends as well. The biggest part of running a successful dealership is the staff. I’m fortunate to have the best staff in the state and they’re the ones that make it happen day in and day out.
So how has your 2013 season been going?
It’s going well. We’re sitting 2nd in points in the 4X4 Senior class. We’ve made it to all 9 rounds, got a couple of podiums, and have been real consistent, with no DNF's. The 4x4 Senior class has had the fullest row for 4X4's week in and week out so it has been real competitive. I race for Team UXC Racing, so I have the benefit of having my bike prepped by Michael Swift, and that has been a big reason for my ability to finish consistently each round.
What's it like adjusting to GNCC Racing coming from a west coast type
background?
It’s still a work in progress for sure. The racing is completely different from bike set up, pit strategy, and overall strategy. The guys that have been doing GNCC for so long are beyond fast in the tight sections in the trees. I think my biggest difficulty this year is running in the tight sections as well as making smart decisions at bottleneck points. Those are areas I continue to work on and look to improve on going into Unadilla. Out west in desert racing you might not see another racer for hours, in GNCC, there’s constant passing and traffic.
So I also understand you're doing the Baja 1000 solo. Tell us what brought
that along.
Last year I soloed the Best in the Desert Vegas to Reno race and it was a blast. I thought that this would be the next logical progression and be a big accomplishment when we finish it. It’s also great that Michael Swift will be putting in a solo effort in Baja this year as well. We’re both aiming to be the first riders to finish the race in solo fashion aboard Can-Am Utility ATV's.
What kind of preparations have you done so far?
I’m not going to use my GNCC bike. We’ve purchased a new Can-Am Outlander 1000 for the race. The process of turning it into a desert race machine has begun. I’ll use some of the same components that we use on our GNCC bike, for example our Maxxis tires, Custom Axis Shocks, Hiper Wheels, Evans Coolant, Ricochet skids, Fasst bars, and so on, will also be used on the Baja machione. Our logistics/chase truck teams are set and in place. The rest of the GNCC season will consume a lot of our time once we start back up so we are getting the Baja prep work done during the summer break.
So what do you hope to accomplish through the rest of 2013?
I’m currently sitting 2nd in points and I’m going to work hard to hang on to that position as well as achieve a solid national number ranking. We’ll be pulling out all the stops and making some changes to the bike and my training to run up front the rest of the season, while also maintaining our consistent finishes with no DNF's.
Alright before we wrap this up, who would you like to thank?
I would like to thank my wife Karen and daughter Stephanie for their support, Michael Swift, his family, Team UXC Racing, my staff at the shops, Can-Am BRP, Maxxis, ROX Speed FX, can-amtalk.com, Custom Axxis, SSI Decals, Evans Coolant, Fly, Hiper, Ricohette, Leatt, DP Brakes, Fasst, Carbo Rocket, HMF, MotoConcepts, Kal-Gard, Spider Grips, Outerwears, DirtWorks, Thermo Tec, Fourworks Carbon, Santor Design, Scott, Moto Pro, Twin Air, PIAA, Hi-Tec, America’s Motorsports, Driven Powersports, Destination X, Tire Blocks, R&B Components, Klim, WPS, and Walsh.
