POTTER, Neb. — The Panhandle town of Potter celebrated the holiday weekend while also finding a fun way to support the local fire department.

The Potter Nebraska Off-Road Racing or PNCC event began with kids races on Saturday and had multiple different classes of races leading up to a professional race Sunday afternoon.

The racing course is located on 200 hundred acres of land. A lap for the kids is about a mile, but the older professional races go 7.3 miles a lap.

This is the third year that Event Director Alisha Juelfs has put on the event with her husband, BJ Juelfs. Both directors are on the Potter Volunteer Fire Department.

“All of the proceeds from this event go to our local Potter Volunteer Fire Department,” Juelfs said.

The Fire Department helps the event by prepping the track and watering the track throughout Saturday and Sunday. They also always have EMTS and medical staff on site.

“They do a lot for this community and it’s just one way for us to show our appreciation,” Juelfs said.

This year PNCC was picked up by Colorado Off-Road Championship Series (CORCS), a company based out of Colorado Springs. CORCS has been a company for 14 years and Juelfs said they are a big reason for the increase in riders.

“With CORCS, we got their riders and even they are amazed at how many people made the trip out here,” Juelfs said.

Juelfs said this year there were 200 more entries than last year.

“This year we had over 300 riders. We only had about 117 last year,” Juelfs said.

PNCC accommodates all ages and skill levels.

“Throughout the course we have different obstacles. We have a log section, a pond jump, and a rock climb,” Juelfs said. “All of these are the faster but more skills obstacles on our course, we also have a safe line or a slower line to go around them, we try to have that added challenge.”

The younger kids race for about 30 minutes, but the pro division on Saturday is a two-hour race.

“Depending on their skill level it could be anywhere from a 13-minute lap to a 25-minute lap,” Juelfs said.

The winner of the race is dependent on who completes the most laps during their timeframe.

“Not many races do a podium ceremony, but we just try to make it super special in Potter specifically,” Juelfs said. “We do the top three finishers of every class.”

Juelfs is excited about giving back to the Volunteer Fire Department and thankful for the helpful community.

“This event would not be possible without all of our volunteers. We are so blessed to have so many friends and family members, community members who helped us do this,” Juelfs said. “I have 45 staff shirts, but we know for sure there is probably closer to 60 people who have really pulled this event off for us.”