LIVERMORE – Six-year-old Miki Holt’s was concentrating carefully as she drove her snowmobile around the trails in her yard. The engine could be heard, even though the driver couldn’t be seen at times while she practiced her racing skills.
Her mostly red, Polaris XCR 120 mini-sled engine raced faster on the straightaways and slower on the hills.
It idled each time she stopped to look before entering the driveway.
Miki, short for Mikala, is familiar with these trails and with her machine.
“I know where the trails are around the house,” she said.
She was riding with her parents, Mark and Lisa Holt, when she was 8 months old. By 3, she was driving her own sled. Now she’s in her second year of racing. She’s even picked up a sponsor, Schott Enterprises of Lewiston, whose name will soon adorn her sled.
Dressed in a shiny black helmet with some lighter stripes, and a chest protector that includes shoulder pads and arm guards, the first-grader was all smiles as she held her most recent trophies. She won two first-place trophies on Feb. 5 and 6 at the Northeast Snowmobile Jamboree at Hunnewell Valley in Embden.
There she raced on a drag strip and on a circular snow-cross track, which had moguls and jumps.
She has more races ahead in Skowhegan in the coming weeks.
“I like to try and race Daddy,” Miki said. But her father doesn’t just let her win.
“I make her earn it,” he said.
Miki said sometimes it’s difficult for her to steer the sled, but she manages.
“I try to make it go as fast as it goes,” she said. “I practice every time I can, until Mommy tells me to come in or I get cold.”
She and her parents travel the trails to visit friends and family with Miki riding her sled in the middle between her parents’ sleds.
Her father and Jason Gibbs of Livermore act as her pit crew to set her sled up at the races.
“It’s really exciting to go fast,” said Miki, who has her machine’s “kill switch” strapped to her wrist, in case she falls off.
“She knows when she’s racing it’s important to go fast, but more important is to drive within her ability and that’s what we practice,” her father said.
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