On July 9 the privateer jumped to the points lead in the new World Powersports Assocation SuperQuad Pro 450 Class and confirmed that his long-term plan to ride professionally is on course.

“I just got the hole shot and took off with it. No one really had too much on me,” he said. Two weeks later Doug Gust took back the lead, but Wimmer is still in a strong position and is just one point behind.

On the track the racing is fast and rewarding, but running two separate series has taken a toll. “It’s been rough,” he said. “Just a lot of traveling and a lot of extra money to spend. I’ve had a race every weekend in July. We’ve been going ever since five weeks ago. Between races you just go to different tracks that let you ride. Ride and train and get in shape for the next race. Clean everything up.”

He travels alone or with his mother and spends a lot of time camping. In July he was with two other racers who were also hopping between series. One might think that unmarried professional racers spend their nights partying and their days having fun, but Wimmer said that other than an occasional game of golf or a jet-ski ride, all his time is spent training.

The commitment has paid off with wins and with the winner’s purse. “I wasn’t really expecting that. My first pro win was the last WPSA. I’ve always wanted that, it’s just all coming really fast.”

He hasn’t done as well in the GNC series. “Last race I moved back to 7 th. My engine blew up in the first moto. I didn’t finish,” he said, adding that the demanding schedule will lead him to choose between the two series next year. “I’m 90 percent sure I’m going to go with WPSA. These guys treat you a lot better. Bigger payout. Bigger sponsors are coming in. It’s just overall better. Better publicity and stuff.”

The one drawback he’s seen with WPSA is the tracks, but he expects improvements once the series wraps up its inaugural year. “Some of the tracks we go onto for the WPSA are a little back yard-ish. They’re not really national caliber tracks, but this is their first year into it so you’ve got to expect something like this.”

A lot of racers also expect that when they crash they could get injured, but Wimmer lucked out at the July 9 race in Taylorsville, Ill. “I just clipped the jump and I went flying over the handlebars and the bike ran me over,” he explained. Why wasn’t he crushed? “I don’t know. I got pretty damn lucky.” So far he’s been injury-free all year.

The machine that nearly crushed him was one of four Honda 450s. “You can’t get through the year with one quad,” he explained. They’re new machines and his sponsorship from East Coast ATVs and his parents’ boat sales and repair business keeps them working.

The few times that he does get home to Center Valley, Penn. he lends a hand with the family business, preparing new boats for sale. “I haven’t been home for a month so there’s no way I’d keep a job there,” he added.

Wimmer just graduated from high school last year, an achievement he said was complicated by his racing. “That was rough. Just getting away from school. Luckily I went to a private school and they let me go. I missed 65 days of school last year.

I had a lot of late nights where I went and saw my teachers after school. I had to catch up.”

His teachers understood, since he’d been riding since his father first put him on a quad when he was four years old. “Then I skipped around the woods. After a while, when I was about 8 or 9 years old a guy at my parent’s work told me I should go race, so I raced a hare scramble,” Wimmer explained. He soon switched to motocross tracks and “It just took off from there.”

In the amateur classes of the GNC he was the 2001 air-cooled champion and Open B champion. In 2002 he took first in Open A and second in 4-stroke A and third in 250A. The next year he was 250 Pro Am Champion and 250A champion. “I went pro in 2004 and got sixth,” he said. In 2005 he took ninth.

His long-term plan of racing as a job is on track now that he’s leading the pack. “Definitely. I’m going to keep on racing until I get tired of it, I guess. Actually, probably until I stop enjoying it,” he said.

It’s a life he’s long dreamed of. “Absolutely. Oh, yeah. It can’t get any better than this.”