The Hermes Scrapbook

This story reprinted with permission. Forest Lake Times 2/02

X Marks the Sport for Racers:
Four locals take part in Winter X-Games
by Berk Brown, Sports Editor

What started out as a perceived vacation to watch the ESPN Winter X-Games VI turned into a moment of glory for Preston and Spencer Cowing.

Spencer, 7 and a second-grader at Wyoming Elementary, won the gold medal for snowmobile racing ages 6-9, while Preston, 6 and in kindergarten at the same school, won the silver medal in Aspen, CO. Not bad for a couple kids who didn't even know they were competing until the morning of the race.

Spencer and Preston's parents, Steve and Stephanie, say they couldn't tell their two children they were actually competing until the day of the race." Otherwise," Stephanie said," we wouldn't have been able to put-up with them. They were just in heaven."

Spencer, who began racing at the age of 3, and Preston, who began at the age of 4, are snowmobile racing enthusiasts and have the sport in their blood.

Their father, Steve, is the Race Marketing and Communications Manager for Ski-Doo. Stephanie's parents were both snowmobile racers. As part of Steve's job, he had to be in Aspen for the X-Games, so he decided to bring the whole family and Spencer and Preston were actually signed-up to compete well in advance.

The news that they were there to compete rather than watch was broke to them at breakfast on Friday, Jan. 18, the day of the race. The two then promptly went out and dominated the competition. There were a total of 16 competitors in their division, with preliminaries consisting of two heats of eight. The top three from each heat reached the finals.

Once in the finals, Spencer and Preston easily pulled away from the competition and finished first and second by a large margin. In typical youthful excitement, gold-medal winner Spencer said his favorite part of the experience was when Pro SnoCross champion Blair Morgan gave him his goggles. That, he said, ranked well above winning the gold.

When both Spencer and Preston were asked what it was like to compete in the X-Games and to win the medals, they both answered, one after the other, "cool."

Despite their success, Spencer and Preston may not even be the best snowmobile racers in their neighborhood.

You see, close family friend Curt Peterson, who lives about two miles away and often baby-sits the duo with his fiance, placed eighth in the X-Games Pro SnoCross race and will turn pro next year.

The Petersons and Cowings are good friends, and Curt even credits Steve Cowing for helping his career along, once Spencer and Preston convinced him to change over from Polaris to Ski-Doo.

Peterson, 21, is a semi-pro, so his eighth-place finish in the Pro class was impressive, but could have been better if a fallen washer hadn't messed with his steering during the finals.

"(Placing eighth) was a pretty big accomplishment. Just to be out there racing with them was good," Peterson said. "My first goal was to make the finals and then once I was there, my goal was to place in the top five. I was running fifth and then the washer got into my steering."

Besides Ski-Doo, Peterson's other major sponsor is Energy 180, a product of Anheiser-Busch.

Not only were the three all able to compete in the same games, they will all have the opportunity to get together this weekend and watch themselves when the games are broadcast on ABC, ESPN and ESPN2. "I'll probably end up watching the games with those two," Peterson said. "They kind of look up to me, and I'm happy with that. They are two excellent boys. It will be fun to watch together, because I didn't get to see their race in the finals."

Another local racer will also have the opportunity to watch himself this weekend.

Justin Tate of Forest Lake also is one of the nation's top snowmobile racers.

At the X-games, Tate placed ninth in the Pro HillCross race and also placed 12th in the Pro SnowCross competition. He, like the Cowings and Peterson, races a Ski-Doo.