Poised to Dominate in 2025
The 2024 racing season across all disciplines mirrored one consistent trend… Mother Nature was being cruel. She posed challenges for race directors, organizers, and racers alike. As a second year team we feared this could greatly impact us with limited test time and not a long history of previous learnings to go by… but the Mickey’s Factory Race team tightened the boot straps, spent countless hours in the shop, chased test tracks when there was a hope of even testing a few laps, and pulled off a very successful race season. Ultimately being undefeated in the 2024 MIRA Pro Enduro races, and winning the 2024 MIRA Championship and Eagle River World Championship.
Mickey’s Factory Racing had two drivers this season, Rookie Zach Dewald and Veteran James Hicks. For those of you that aren’t familiar with these two, you might be missing out. They are humble, hardworking, young gentleman who are great both on and off the track. Their season started off at Eagle River for the World Championships. The team qualified in P2 for the Pro Enduro. But first up was the World Championship F3 race. Zach piloted his F3 Polaris powered machine to a 4th place finish. Immediately after that it was back to the Pro Enduro for 130 fast laps. It was a sweet first taste of victory for 2024 as Zach and James won their first World Championship! Zach also dominated much of the Sportmans 600 class throughout the weekend, and winning the Friday night thunder class.
After the WC, the team burned the midnight oil in the shop and got all sleds ready for the big dance, The Soo I-500. In the first round of qualifying, Zach set the #1 pole position on the #57 sled and it would stand for the duration of qualifying. For the Meijers Pro Shout Out, MFR entered 2 sleds into the race. James qualified 2nd on the 57x and Zach qualified 9th on the 57 Enduro sled. They were in separate heat battles, in which both advanced to the final. Following a very intense race, James sat top of the podium in First place, with Zach literally right behind him in Second. When it came time for the big 500 mile race on Saturday, the team was hyped to have Zach start P1 for such a prestigious event. One that every team dreams of winning. Zach maintained the top 3 position shuffle until the sled had a component failure. This caused his steering to lock up and sent him into the hay bales. After some extensive repairs they got back on the track, and overcame many laps down, but the motor finally decided it was done mid race. The remainder was spent cheering for other teams atop our trailer.
It was back to the MIRA events following the Soo. Traverse City and Kinross remained on the schedule after Mother Nature did some more shuffling of events. Both races had their hiccups for the team with some electrical gremlins. It led to some late night and early mornings of grinding through the challenges, but you couldn’t see it when it came race time. Through both events the drivers remained in the top positions (minus a small track roll and departure from Zach) and raced hard to the checkered flags! It was a clean sweep of MIRA Pro Enduro races for James, Zach, and Mickey’s Factory Racing. First place at each secured the 2024 MIRA Season Points Championship.
It can be seen that these gentleman had a very successful year by sweeping the MIRA season, setting the pole at the Soo, and taking the top two positions on Thursday night Meijer Shootout. But it’s also the off track stuff that makes these guys the complete package. At the drivers meeting on Sunday morning of Kinross, Jamie Vincent and Bill Cryderman asked for one favor….all teams to send a member after the race to help stack hay. All teams agreed it could happen, no problem. At the end of the race when victory lane photos and celebrating was done, Zach and James immediately headed to the nearest wagon to lend a hand. Victory lane to stacking hay!!
These fellas surely don’t do it alone. Mickey Maier, team owner and man behind the curtain pulls out all stops to support the team. Getting ready to compete at the MIRA, WC, and Soo levels takes year round support. A whole other article could be written on the struggle and challenges that have faced the crew. They continually sacrifice their own personal time, vacation time, and time away from family to put in the effort that is needed to race on this calibur. Without the backing of pit crew and sponsors, no laps would be spun. Mickey’s Factory racing is honored to be involved in this sport and recently visited the Polaris factory for the 70th anniversary celebration. It was a great way to meet the other teams, fans, factory supporters, and get ready for the grind ahead in 2025. •
James Hicks is a perfect role model for all racers polite and very smooth on a sled I watched for years when he raced sno cross way to go team mickeys