Pat Mach was my friend. That doesn’t say much though, because if you were into snowmobiling, especially snowmobile racing, it was pretty much a given you were going to get along with Pat. At this year’s I-500 I slipped into the conference room where USCC was getting ready to take registrations for the first-ever USCC vintage I-500 class. I wanted to get photos of some of the legends registering for the race. Pat’s wife Lisa was in there setting up the computers and getting ready to take everyone’s name down. Pat came in the room. I knew right away it wasn’t the best time to ask the one small question I had for him, even though he would have taken the time to answer it. He was busy, saddled with the 1,001 things he had to do at that given moment on the race weekend. He said something to Lisa about having to go back to the room to get something. Lisa said, “Pat, you’ll never make it back in time.” Pat said he was just going to the room and he’d be right back. Lisa said, “You know you’re going to get stopped and get in a million conversations on the way there.” Pat left and said he’d be right back. I looked at Lisa and she looked and me and I said, “Why does he do it?” It was a lighthearted question that we were able to laugh about, but deep down it was a question we both knew the real answer to. He did it because he loved it.
It would be an injustice to everyone who helped the USCC out over the years to say that Pat single-handedly brought back cross-country snowmobile racing. He didn’t. He had lots of help. It would be more accurate to say that Pat was the single-minded driving force behind its return to prominence. In addition to being Pat’s friend, I worked for him at the USCC for the past few years. I saw firsthand how he steered the USCC with a focus that I’ve rarely seen in anyone within the snowmobile industry. When you take the sum total of Pat’s knowledge it would be safe to say that he knew more about cross-country snowmobile racing than anyone else in the world. We talked almost every day for the past few years, via e-mail, text, phone or in person. I learned a lot from him and for that I’m grateful. I also miss him a lot right now and I really don’t understand what happened or why. I can’t believe he’s gone.
Incredibly, Pat didn’t pour all of himself into the USCC. In fact, he went after everything in life like he ran the USCC. If he was coming down to a function in the Minneapolis area he’d always piggyback a Twins game or Vikings game onto the trip. At this year’s Grand Forks race he wasn’t shy about letting the crew know the awards would be done early because the Sioux were playing the Gophers that night. He would use Haydays as an excuse to stay at the family’s lake cabin for a few days because it was “on the way.” Heck, the USCC wasn’t even his only job – he had a full-time job “on the side.” Pat loved life and just being around him was enough to make you look at your life in a different way.
Like so many others on the USCC crew I helped out because of Pat. He was a guy who you couldn’t help but respect. I think we both loved cross-country equally and that was one of the many things we shared. And no matter what happened with the USCC Pat never talked about giving up or even slowing down. He was always looking forward, and if 
there was a setback (and there were a few!) he simply found a way around it. I can’t help but wonder what the fate of cross-country will be now that Pat’s gone. Having said that, as much as I love cross-country, or even snowmobiles for that matter, I would gladly trade it all to have Pat back. Pat might not like to hear me say that, but whatever.
They say everything happens for a reason. If there is a reason for Pat’s passing I’m not seeing it right now. If everything does happen for a reason, the reason for Pat’s passing better be a pretty damn good one. I do know one thing, and that’s that Pat wouldn’t like to see anyone stop riding or racing because of what happened to him. Right now he’s probably looking down and, being the racer he is, wanting those few seconds back before his accident so he could maybe tap the brake in a different spot or hit the gas so he could have avoided the off. I also know that someday we’ll meet again, and I look forward to that day.
