How DL Racing Built a Winning Season One Weekend at a Time
By Kim Kisner, Contributing Writer
Photography by Bobbi Prueter
Winning a M.I.R.A. Pro Enduro championship isn’t about one great race.
It’s built long before the season begins through preparation, consistency and the ability to perform at a high level every time the sled unloads from the trailer. Every race matters. Every pit stop matters. Every decision made in the shop has a way of showing up somewhere during the season.
DL Racing understood that from the beginning of 2026.
The team didn’t spend the winter chasing a championship as much as it focused on building a better race program. Led by team owner Don LaBean, with Joey Burch and Nick Wickerham sharing driving duties and a veteran crew supporting them in the pits, the team steadily found its rhythm after an uneven start at Eagle River. By season’s end, DL Racing had won three of four races, led hundreds of laps and claimed the 2026 M.I.R.A. Pro Enduro championship.
Looking back, no one points to a single moment that made the difference.
Instead, everyone seems to return to the same themes: preparation, communication, consistency and the people behind the scenes who made each race weekend possible.
“We were just more consistent,” Bobbi Prueter said.
For Burch, consistency begins long before the first green flag.
“It’s the hours in the shop getting ready,” he said. “The main thing is being prepared for anything that can happen. Everybody has their part. If one spoke is loose in the wheel, things fall apart.”
Building a successful Enduro team takes more than putting fast drivers on competitive sleds.
LaBean launched DL Racing in 2010 before stepping away from the sport for a few seasons. When the team returned in 2023, he began putting the program back together one piece at a time. Joey Burch was the first driver he brought into the fold. Nick Wickerham joined him, giving DL Racing two drivers who already knew how to race well together from previous teams.
Around them, much of the core remained the same. Several longtime crew members stayed with DL Racing, along with LaBean’s three sons in the pits. Instead of starting from scratch, the team combined an established foundation with new pieces that quickly found their rhythm.
What impressed Wickerham most wasn’t just the equipment – it was the mindset.
“I’ve never been part of a team that can think more than two weeks ahead, let alone one or two years down the line,” he said. “We’re racing today, but we’re already talking about what we can do better for next year.”
Burch sees the same thing. Throughout the summer, LaBean is already discussing ideas, improvements and ways to make the sleds better before the next season even begins.
“He’s thinking about it all year,” Burch said. “He’s always trying to find something that gives us an edge.”
The season itself didn’t begin the way anyone hoped.
After deciding to open the season with two sleds instead of committing to one, DL Racing left Eagle River knowing the weekend hadn’t gone according to plan.
“I’ll take the blame for that one,” LaBean said. “Last year we got caught up early and didn’t get the points we should have, so I thought we’d try two sleds. Looking back, that wasn’t the right decision. This year we’ll race one sled — the No. 29.”
Looking back, everyone remembers leaving knowing there was work to do, but no one imagined what the season would eventually become.
“We definitely didn’t think it would end this way,” Burch said.
Rather than dwelling on the opening race, DL Racing settled into the season. Race after race, the team became more efficient. The sleds became more refined. Pit stops became faster. Confidence continued to build.
By the time the schedule reached Gaylord and Lincoln, the results reflected that progress.
DL Racing led 220 of 300 laps at Gaylord and another 245 of 300 laps at Lincoln, winning with the kind of consistency that left little doubt who had the strongest program.
For Prueter, that’s what made the season especially satisfying. “There are years where you win because somebody else has problems or things just work out your way,” she said. “This year we earned it.”
Every successful Enduro team depends on communication, and for DL Racing, Prueter has become a critical part of that process. Throughout each race, she’s responsible for keeping the drivers informed about pit strategy, traffic and changing situations around the track while serving as the steady voice in their headsets.
“I honestly never wanted to be on the radios,” she said. “It just kind of got thrown at me.”
Now, the team can’t imagine operating any other way. “If Nick or Joey get worked up, I try to stay calm,” she said. “I talk the way I want their energy to be.”
That communication extends well beyond the radios. Wickerham credits the team’s fast pit stops as one of its biggest competitive advantages, saying the crew consistently gained positions during stops while getting the sleds back on the track quickly.
“You can put us on video with a stopwatch,” he said. “We’ll come into the pits fourth and leave first.”
Just as important, everyone listens. Drivers communicate what the sled is doing. The mechanics make adjustments. The pit crew knows what’s coming before the sled reaches the box. Each part of the operation depends on the others, and over the course of the season, that trust continued to grow.
“Our pit crew trusted themselves a lot more this year,” Prueter said. “As the season went on, their confidence just kept building.”
The relationships within DL Racing extend well beyond race day. This is a race team, but it’s also a group that genuinely enjoys spending time together away from the track.
There are weekends riding motorcycles, dinners together, time at LaBean’s lake house and a group text that stays active throughout the year. Wickerham talks with LaBean’s sons almost every day, often about things that have nothing to do with racing.
“We’re a team, but we’re definitely a family,” he said.
LaBean agrees. Already the father of three sons who are part of the pit crew, he says Burch and Wickerham have become part of that family as well.
“I’ve got five boys now,” he said.
When asked what they’ll remember most about the 2026 season, the answers are surprisingly different.
Burch points to finally winning at Lincoln, a track where he’d always hoped to stand on top of the podium. Wickerham remembers the team’s first victory together and the dominant performances that followed.
Prueter’s answer has nothing to do with race results. “I’ll remember the great times that happened off the track,” she said.
It seems fitting for a team whose greatest strength may have been everything that happened before and after the racing itself.
The championship was the goal, but it was built through months of preparation, countless hours in the shop, fast pit stops, constant communication and a group of people committed to helping one another succeed every weekend they rolled into the pits.
As quick as LaBean is to credit his drivers, they’re equally quick to point to the pit crew. The pit crew points to the mechanics. Everyone points to the sponsors who made the season possible.
For DL Racing, that’s what made the 2026 championship special. It wasn’t the accomplishment of one driver or one race. It belonged to an entire team that continued getting better throughout the season and earned every bit of the success that followed.
DL Racing also extends its sincere gratitude to the sponsors whose support helped make the 2026 season possible, as well as the dedicated crew members, mechanics, family and volunteers whose countless hours behind the scenes often go unseen. •