Midwest Performance Podiums at Heartland Challenge
Zac Zakowski, Bryan Buckhannon, and Jason Smith

Midwest Perfomance's Zac Zakowski & Bryan Buckhannon Take 2nd in the Pro 4x4 Class at the Heartland Challenge

Midwest Performance is a premiere Honda, Yamaha and Can-Am dealer, located three hours southeast of the Heartland Challenge racing facility. Buckhannon and Zakowski competed in the both the UTV and ATV portions of the unique endurance event, held just outside of Des Moines. Both events featured special courses with “Challenge Sections” that allowed racers to shortcut the course through special obstacles, including logs, rocks and tires.

“We’ve always tried to bring a team to the Heartland Challenge,” said Midwest Performance owner Jason Smith. “We’ve always had a really good relationship with the Kyner Family, and I like to support the local racers.”

Midwest Perfomance's Zac Zakowski had some difficulty early on adapting to Bryan Buckhannon's race setup on the Can-Am Renegade

Zakowski and Buckhannon finished second in the rain-shortened ATV Pro 4x4 race. The race was originally scheduled for 10 hours, but was shortened to around six hours after thunderstorms enveloped the race track shortly after sunset, but with storm clouds rolling in early, the team was thankful for their Lazerstar Lights, which made a huge difference in the woods and the limited racing time after dark at the Heartland Challenge.

Buckhannon and Zakowski worked hard to adapt to the setup in each other’s ATVs: “I was really struggling on Bryan’s quad at the beginning,” said Zakowski. “He runs a completely different setup than I do. Too bad it started raining; we didn’t get a chance to challenge for the win. This event is great. It’s like a big family get together. Whether you win or lose, it’s fun to see everybody, and you still go home happy.”

Midwest Perfomance's Bryan Buckhannon taking on the GBC Challenge section to save some time at the GBC Heartland Challenge

Buckhannon agreed that the team’s victory charge was cut short by the weather: “If it hadn’t have rained, we could have won this one, but it was definitely the right thing to call the race,” said Buckhannon. “Midwest Performance really stepped up this weekend. We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for them.”

“I’m pumped about the ATV race,” said Smith. “Any time you can race for six hours, it’s impressive. This event was as tough as it gets and they should be very proud of how they finished.”

In the four-hour UTV race, the Midwest Performance team got a great start, but was set back after a collision with another side-by-side. After rebounded from the back of the field to fourth, a belt failure and a broken tie rod sidelined their efforts.

“I tried to go around him, and it flipped right over,” said Buckhannon of the crash at the start. “We set a strong pace from there. We ran really well. This was one of my favorite tracks of all time and that’s why I came to race. It really was a great run. We hadn’t raced a side by side since April, and it was a blast getting back into one.”

“We had a really good race going, but had a lot of bad luck today,” said Zakowski. “Overall it was a really good race. The team really worked hard today. We never gave up and kept pushing.”

Midwest Perfomance's Zac Zakowski

While the UTV race didn’t turn out as good as hoped in the Heartland Challenge, the Midwest Performance Team couldn’t be happier to finish out the weekend of racing with a second place finish in the highly competitive 4x4 Pro class, and they look forward to coming back next year and go for the win.