Submitted Photo Walker Fowler, a 2011 Columbiana High School graduate, has won five straight Grand National Cross Country Racing ATV titles and was well on his way to six before the pandemic stopped his sport’s season.

The only thing that has been able to slow down professional quad racer Walker Fowler in six years has been the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2011 Columbiana High School graduate recently won the first three races of the Grand National Cross Country Racing ATV slate as he began his hunt for his sixth straight series title. After winning at Anoia Pass in Washington, Georgia on March 14, the schedule came to a halt due to the pandemic. Walker then retreated to his training facility in Lake Placid, Florida to wait for further instructions as to when racing would resume.

On Wednesday the circuit decided it would resume on May 16 back at Anoia Pass. Fowler, 27, was already headed back to his Rogers home just before the announcement was made. He had been in Florida since Dec. 28.

“I’m on the fence (about going back to racing),” Fowler said. “I want to go back but I would hate to jump the gun and have another resurgence or spike in the numbers of COVID infections.”

During a race on March 7 in Florida, Fowler said the possibility of a shutdown loomed as he could tell things were getting worse in the news. It became increasingly unlikely racing would go ahead the next week in Georgia as local officials debated canceling the event.

“(Local officials) had a meeting with our race promoter and said ‘We realize there are 8,000 people here, we’re just going to turn a blind eye for the weekend and Monday morning we’re going to announce no gatherings. Do your race and go on your merry way,'” Fowler said.

He said the impact from the virus was already being felt right after the race as the lack of dining options on the way home became apparent. Grand National Cross Country Racing called off the April 4 (Morganton, North Carolina), April 18 (Society Hills, South Carolina) and May 2 (Somerset, Pennsylvania) races shortly thereafter.

Fowler said the popularity of four-wheel racing had been moving in the right direction up until the pandemic started. He said the sport took a big hit following the fallout of the Great Recession and was just now beginning to recover.

“The recession really affected us and a lot of the manufacturers stopped building sport ATVs because people were not buying them,” Fowler said.

Yamaha is the last manufacturer left making a sport quad. Fowler rides a Yamaha 450, the last true sport quad you can buy at a dealership. Other competitors may use older models but parts for those models are still widely available.

For right now Fowler is on stable ground financially since he’s at the top. It’s not like when he started in 2011.

“When I first turned pro and started winning races a lot of my money was performance based,” Fowler said. “If you didn’t win or get top three, you did not get paid. I had a lot of incentive to do really well.”

Now his pay structure reflects that of an elite performer.

“In the last two or three years a lot of my companies have switched to salary,” Fowler said. “Right now it’s great, except for a clause that says I have to race 10 races.”

In a normal season Fowler rides in 20 national events with 13 being on the championship circuit. He also does a few one-off appearances at smaller events.

The companies who do pay him are experiencing financial distress of their own due to being shutdown in some places. He said some notices have been sent out saying to expect 50 percent payment or nothing at all until pandemic restrictions clear.

Fowler’s team has five main sponsors that keep the team going and 36 team sponsors that provide free product or small bonuses.

“For now I’m being careful with my money,” Fowler said.

Fowler thinks that most of his usual competitors are in the essential employee camp and do have the finances to continue racing.

“They still have money and they still want to go ride,” Fowler said. “This is the amateurs and the families that chase the same dream. I really hope it doesn’t force people to get out of their recreational hobbies.”

Up until the stoppage, Fowler and his team were happy the way things were going. Last season he won nine of 13 races to claim his fifth straight title and this year looked better than that.

“Staying healthy is key,” Fowler said. “It also takes a lot of good people around you to keep you motivated. Having the full-time mechanic allows you to not stress about the machine. He’s honestly the best mechanic there has been in decades. He takes a huge workload off me so I can focus on training and doing the riding side of things.”

The crew chief is Hubbard High School graduate Mark Notman. He’s been on board since 2003 and helped Fowler to 55 of his 57 career victories.

Notman tears down the entire machine to its bare frame after every race and goes through all components to make sure everything is “perfect” according to Fowler.

“We make sure it’s perfect every time we go out because it’s cheaper to pay him to make it perfect than it is to guess,” Fowler said.

Fowler and his team know where they want to go next. His biggest career goal is to top the record of nine-straight Grand National Cross Country ATV championships set by Bill Ballance (2000-2008). Ballance, from Smiths Grove, Kentucky, was Fowler’s boss when he first rode professionally out of high school.

Ballance stopped racing at 36 and Fowler hopes he has enough to continue to around that age. He says that championship riders usually stop in the 32 to 36-year-old range.

“It depends on how you take care of yourself and what injuries you’ve had,” Fowler said. “Also your drive and sponsorship play into it. A lot of it is definitely in your head but you listen to your body too.”

Notes

¯ Lake Placid, Florida was founded by the same man as Lake Placid, New York. Dr. Melvil Dewey, inventor of the Dewey Decimal System, is responsible for establishing both communities.

¯ Fowler owns 58 private acres in Florida where he has his own practice course. In Ohio he has two private tracks as well.

¯ Fowler has nearly 38,000 followers on Instagram.

¯ Fowler’s physical training includes running 4 to 8 miles three to five times a week. He said he used to do road cycling for training purposes but he saw too many friends get hit by cars so he stopped. Mountain biking is on the menu for training but he says he also has to be careful there. He does body weight exercises to maintain a trim and agile physique and has dipped his toes into CrossFit.

¯ Fowler said he gets plenty of autograph requests at events.

¯ One of the first things he has to do in Ohio is take care of all the fallen trees on his practice tracks. He’ll also head back into the shop with Notman to fix all of his machines which have went through five months of abuse.

¯ Four-wheel practice is anywhere from five to seven days a week.

“There is no better training than being on the machine,” Fowler said.