DESERT SPORTS: Outracing the boys

Local woman is tops in Nevada ATV competition

Testosterone is not a necessity for racing success.

In just her second year of quad racing, Henderson resident Wendy Robinson finds herself holding the No. 1 plate in the Nevada Desert Racing Association's ATV Expert Class and comfortably on top of the points standings heading into the second half of the racing season.

Robinson, 28, who races a Yamaha Raptor 660, took up the sport last year after watching her father, Jim, race for years. Many racers referred to the two as "The Old Man and The Girl."

"My dad used to race the dune buggies back in the day, but it got really expensive for him," Robinson said. "So he got out of it and then wanted to get back into it (racing) again and started looking into some of these ATV races and then became hooked. And then, of course, he got me hooked."

Robinson seemed to be a natural according to NDRA director and owner Brett Marshall.

"I was introduced to her father first," Marshall said. "After seeing her ride I told her she needed to come out and race. Now, a year later, I just tell the guys to watch her ride by."

And ride by the guys she has. In her first year in NDRA in 2003, Robinson won the points title in the Amateur ATV Class despite protests from others that her quad might be too much bike for her.

"My first race was in April of 2003 and the drama that my dad and I had was that we didn't know what class I should start in," Robinson said. "He said that I was way too fast for novice class, but he didn't think my bike was ready for the expert class. He threw me in the amateur class last year and I ended up being first overall (in) amateur throughout the year. I pretty much won every race year except for one when my quad broke down."

So after dominating in a brand new sport -- one ruled by members of the opposite sex -- Robinson next set her sights on the Open ATV Expert Class. On her team, dubbed A Family Affair Racing, Wendy, along with her father, teammate Tim Murray and his daughter, Kristyn, and Ben Walker welcomed in the new racing season.

And it has been a very memorable season for Robinson. At the WFO Hare Scrambles on Feb. 21, Robinson won the Open ATV Expert Class with a time of 3:02:34 in a solo race, taking the No. 1 plate she has yet to relinquish.

In her second race of the season, Robinson teamed up with her father and Tim Murray to take first in the ATV Expert Class at the Cattle Rancher 150 with a time of 3:25:35 on April 17.

The teammates followed with a third-place finish (5:34:43) a week later on April 24 in The Terrible's Town 250. But there was a casualty of sorts.

"My dad wrecked in those two races so he decided to quit," Robinson said. "So he's my pit crew now."

But the decision by her father solved a problem that Robinson had while debating her future in this new sport she loved so much.

"My dad and Tim (Murray) were racing partners," Robinson said. "I was going to have to figure out how I was going to get a teammate because my dad and Tim were teaming up and I had to find a new partner. When my dad wrecked, it made Tim and I partners for good."

The duo continued the team's roll in the next race at the Gone Wild 120+ as Robinson and Murray won again in the ATV Expert Class (3:38:16) and finished less than two minutes behind the race's overall winner, who rode a motorcycle.

In their last race to date, Robinson and Murray again tasted victory, winning the Super Mex Team night race with a time of 2:49:34 on July 17.

Robinson, who works for Southwest Gas as a service technician, attended Las Vegas High School, where she played softball and basketball.

Her older brother, Greg, has also gotten in the family act of racing, creating a bar code program to speed up the scoring process in his sister's sport.

Robinson's quick rise to success in the sport has not been overlooked by NDRA owner Marshall.

"Wendy is very competitive on the race track but she's also a courteous racer," he said. "She just flat outruns the boys. She's become my poster child.

"When you get to the expert level, the fun's over. You're expected to win. And with that comes the added pressure. Most guys don't have the composure Wendy has. She's always upbeat, always positive. And she gives 110 percent every race. She is absolutely incredible. The girl is the man to beat."

Handling that pressure and beating the boys has become something Robinson has learned to expect. And riding through the desert at speeds near 90 miles per hour without seatbelts or a rollbar against all the guys almost appears too easy for this newcomer to the sport.

"I plan on doing this as long as my body can handle it," she said.


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