Cordell Barnard: RMSHA Racing Q & A
How did you get into racing snowmobiles?
It all started when I was about 5 years old. I had a bad addiction to snowmobiles! After watching Dennis Durmas, Rick Ward, and Darin Gould race in Jackson, I told my dad that someday I was going to do that! So one day my dad and I got talking about it and agreed that we needed to give it a shot. I called my friend Logan Halford and he helped me get signed up. Once we raced the first race I was hooked! There’s just something about racing snowmobiles – you can’t get it out of your system!
What do you enjoy most about racing?
What I enjoy most about racing is I get to race with the best of the best and rub shoulders with some of the most talented athletes in the world! Racing snowmobiles is more than just a guy running up a hill in between gates; there are so many people behind the scenes supporting and helping. It’s truly one of the most mental sports I’ve ever done. You have to be in great physical and mental shape. Another great thing about racing is I get to work with some of the greatest companies in the industry and chase my dreams all at the same time!
Where/how would someone who has never raced get started with RMSHA?
For someone who’s never raced or is interested in racing, I would say start out by signing up as a temporary member. Just go to RMSHA.net and sign up as a temporary member and give it a shot. If you fall in love like I’m sure you will then you can sign up as a full member. The cool thing about this sport is that everyone is willing to help so don’t be afraid to just ask questions. All the board members are awesome and will help you out, as will the racers. Just gotta ask!
Have you always ridden/raced on Polaris and why?
Well, I started on a Yamaha Phazer, jumped to a Mountain Max, then right on to the cream-of-the-crop, Polaris! Since 2009 I’ve been on Polaris. I choose Polaris because it fits my riding style. All the people at Polaris have done and continue to do an excellent job of building just a solid snowmobile! In racing, you have to have confidence in both yourself and the machine. Every time I pull that rope I’m confident in the sled and I know how it’s going to react in specific situations.
How do you train for RMSHA?
Just like any other sport, you have to be physically in shape, so I run (when I’m not broken). I’ve never been one to go to a gym, so I use “seat time” as my gym. Like I said earlier, you don’t just need to be in good physical condition, you need to you need to be in good mental condition as well. So how I do that is just put everything going on around me out of my head. I kinda have a one-on-one with myself and kneel down and get the “eye of the tiger” mentality. I give my crew chief (dad) a high five, he says, “Get it Cort!” and we let ‘er buck!