Why Sheer Determination Racing?

To show a couple of things:

First of all, that people with disabilities can do things. To quote the Courage Center: "Abilities and Disabilities become Possibilities." The Army taught me to never quit! With these beliefs and the strength in our Lord, I knew I had to prove to myself and others, that people with disabilities can succeed.

Secondly, to show our support for the men and women who serve this wonderful nation. For without their selfless devotion to duty and country, we would not have the freedoms to do the things we do and enjoy on a daily basis. We take these freedoms for granted and we wanted to show that we think and pray for these men and women daily. So, it is with great honor that we display the logos that we do on our sleds.

The Wulff family has a strong military and police history. My father, Robert M. Wulff, was stationed in China while serving in the Army at the end of WWII. His brother, my uncle, Warren “Uncle Jim” Wulff, was assigned to 1st Marine Division during WWII and spend several years in the Pacific involved in several major battle campaigns. My older brother, Tim, is a COL in the Army and has many deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is now stationed at Redstone Arsinal. My younger brother, Ty, is a CPT in the Air Force stationed in Virginia and has been deployed several times as well. My oldest son, Robert M. Wulff II, aka. Spud, currently serving in Afghanistan, and my middle son, Ted, is in training to become an Army Bomb Technician.

Two of the team members have children with Autism and these boys are an integral part of our team.

The team was formed when my friend Kevin and I decided to pursue our dream. As a children we had grown up dreaming about racing at the famous Eagle River Derby Track. We would sit in school reading snowmobile magazines and dreaming about what it would be like to be a race team driver. This was in the late 70's, so the magazines were full of photographs of the Midnight Blue Express, Team Arctic, Team Decker, and so on. We would often ponder and day dream what it would be like to have a family race team like the Decker's. The irony would be that over 30 years later, we would become friends with the Decker family and this friendship also inspired the desire to compete.

Mike Decker, the MIKE DECKER, answered one of my e-mails back in summer of 2006. I couldn't imagine that I would ever talk to him or meet him. Since that time we have become close friends. He has come to my shop to "hang out" and help me with any and all questions. I'm sure there has been times that I have asked him the same question over and over, but he is patient and goes along with me. He introduced me to the rest of his family when Kevin and I went to the track for the first time ever in January of 2007. His family was just like any other and they welcomed us with open arms. We were there to watch the Vintage Races and brought along our youngest sons. We enjoyed it so much that we were determined to build and race a sled of our own. We raced for the first time ever in January 2008 at the Vintage Races at the Derby Track! We were old ice drag racers and we jumped in head first when we tried oval racing. It was interesting to say the least, but it was awesome!

Where the name came from: (By Wendy) The brain injury rehab program at Courage Center in the Twin Cities taught Dan to understand his deficiencies, work around them, and learn to compensate. He had to realize that the blast injury meant that his brain would never be the same. He could no longer multi-task, navigate, remember certain things, and most of all, when his brain was tired, it turned off. He couldn't fight his way through the injury, but rather had to work with it. After a couple hours of trying to solve a problem on the shop, his brain would pretty much shut down. He would be awake, but couldn't solve a simple arithmetic problem or even remember to eat. So how was he going to build a race sled?

As Dan sat in the shop working feverishly on the Sonic, I walked in and stood quietly by the door, observing as he tore into the sled like a hyena on a carcass. I said, "You will win on sheer determination alone." He looked up and said, "That's it, that's the perfect name for the race team!"

Read more about Dan >>