Two years ago Tristan Low approached his father, Mike, and told him about his desire to race quads.
Despite barely being a teenager, Tristan had already been riding four wheelers for more than a decade. It was a popular recreational activity for him and his family to take their vehicles to the dunes for some weekend fun.
His experience racing, however, was much more minimal at the time – that’s to say he had none.
“We knew racing would be a lot different from what he had been doing,” Mike said. “He had raced BMX bikes for a couple years when he was younger, but he had never raced quads. He came to me one day and said, ‘Dad, I want to race.’ So, we started looking around for places for him to race.”
The search led them to Quadcross Northwest, an organization that coordinates a series of races throughout the Pacific Northwest in a variety of skill levels.
It was that last part that originally confused Mike. They now had a place to race, but where do you put someone who is completely comfortable on the machine, but had never competed before?
“We may have underestimated where to place him,” Mike said.
They did.
In a little more than two racing seasons, Tristan, now 15 and a ninth grader at Napavine Middle School, is one of the area’s most dominant riders in his classification.
During last year’s Quadcross Northwest season, he captured the 2015 Schoolboy Sr. championship, winning 11 out of the 12 races he appeared in with his lone non-victory being a second-place finish during the early stages of the year.
“The first race I competed in, I won,” Tristan said. “I knew it wasn’t going to be my last race. I knew this was for me.”
Scroll back to Tristan’s first race and you will find his father scrambling around, trying to figure out his son’s skill level.
“Before every race they let everyone practice over the course,” Mike said. “That was actually the first time he had ever raced against anyone. I started asking around what class we should start him in. Most told us he should be Schoolboy Juniors.”
The Schoolboy Jr. class features quads that are up to 150cc liquid cooled or 330cc air-cooled quads with a skill-based rider.
His quad during that first race was actually too small for Tristan. It wasn’t an ideal fit.
He went out and won anyways.
The next day, he duplicated the feat, placing first in his second career start.
“My confidence was through the roof after that,” Tristan said. “We really didn’t know what to expect.”
Tristan was hooked, and a bump in classification was called for.
With a full year under his belt and a better understating of the sport, Tristan flexed his racing muscles in 2015.
His victories were so decisive in his second season that on two separate occasions during a race he was forced to hop off his quad to reattach his chain which had fallen off, and still proceeded to cross the line first.
This happened twice.
“He was riding a quad that was quite a bit older,” Mike said. “It was frustrating to see. You don’t want the quad to be holding you back, but he had such a large enough lead in the race that he was able to get off, put the chain back on and still win.”
An upgrade to a newer quad was in the mix and soon Tristan had nothing to slow him down as he posted victory after victory en route to the seasonal championship.
This season, which began on April 16 in Richland and concludes September 12 in Washougal, he is competing in the Pro-Am classification, a division with a minimum age requirement of 15. He has also added mechanic to his resume, serving as his quad’s primary machinist.
“It’s amazing. He will take the engine apart and put it back together,” Mike said. “He’s made some mistakes. He’s made some expensive mistakes, but he’s learning.”
According to his father, Tristan has already looked into several schools with a focus on the mechanical side of the sport to attend following high school, but his main focus remains on racing.
“Obviously, the goal would be to ride professionally,” Tristan said, “but (the mechanical aspect) is something I would be interested in.”
Up next for him will be rounds 3 and 4 of his Quadcross season May 21-22 in Albany, Oregon. Tristan credits his sponsors, including Industrial Fabrication, Immortal ATV, ODI Grips, 100% Moto, Matrix Concepts, Atlas Brace, Fly Racing, Elite MX Graphix, Pit Traffic and AMSOIL, for their support.
“I just really love competing,” Tristan said. “I’ve played football, basketball and baseball, and there’s really nothing like racing.”
