Day 6

Day 6, we have a short road ride out to a motocross track and than a 7 lap Moto to finish the ISDE. I am in the third moto with half of the C2 riders. I get the hole shot!!! Lead the race for a bit and then drop to second. I am able to stay close and put pressure on the leader. On lap 2 the leader goes down and I take the lead. From there I was able to put my head down and check out. Winning my final moto in the Finland ISDE!!!!!!!! I finished with a silver medal, top American and14th in the C2 class and 43 overall for club riders. I can't complain about that at all for my first time. I want to thank everyone who has stepped up to help me complete this dream of mine. Thank you so much!!!!!

Day 5

Day 5, the exact same as day 4. The tests were still in very good shape for all of the traffic they have had. In test 1 of the day I was having a flawless run catching up with riders who had started before me and setting my best time in the test. As I near the finish I had caught another rider and was trying to get around him, we dropped back into a sand section with a sand hill to climb back out. I take an outside line to make a clean pass, I hit a kicker going into the hill, swopping out I lost all momentum for the hill. I tried to make the hill and the back end of the bike just gets buried in the sand, costing me a minute and a half to get it out. Test 2 went as good as it has gone for me. Having trouble with the deep sand whoops and not having the confidence I need for that big of whoops. In my transfer to the half way point of the day, I noticed my 350excf was starting to have a bad bog in the top end. I made it to the gas stop, checked a few things and found nothing wrong. Started out to our emergency gas. At this time the bike is hardly even running. I am starting to think of what it could be, I am thinking the fuel injector is clogged and I don't have anymore with me. I pull into the emergency gas and the USA crew looks at me with a worried look and said it doesn't sound good !!!! We drain the gas hoping I got bad gas. Fill it with new and we still have the same problem. An Australian woman comes over and tells us we need a new fuel filter. And that they have changed several on their fuel injected KTMs. The pit crew scramble to find one! Luckily a KTM support truck was there and a mechanic came over and showed me where it went. We get it changed and the bike fires up and runs awesome!!! I leave the stop 26 minutes late but do not have a time check for a while. I ride like a man possessed, get to my special test and set my fastest time through it and arriving to the time check 7 minutes late. From there I have the sand test which I also set my fastest time through and them back to the main pits and impound for the end of Day 5. After today I finished 28th in the C2 and am in 49th overall in all the club riders.

Day 4

Day 4, with the rain we have had this week they had to take out the first and last test of day 4 and 5. The ski slope test, it had become a water park as a lot of us were starting to call it. So days 4 and 5 we only were going to have 2 tests but we would do 2 laps to make up 4 tests each day. One of the tests was the best test of the week. It was out by the Finland-Russian boarder and where the WINTER WAR was fought between them. It was full of bunkers and man made rock barricades. This test held up the best and i had my best results for the day in. The other test was a sand quarry to explain it the easiest. It become very whooped out and the sandy hills became soft and hard to control through. I crashed every time through this test. I finished today in 8th in the C2 class and 41st overall in club riders.

Day 3

Today, Day 3 was supposed to be our easy relaxing day. Not so much!!! It was cold and rained 80% of the day. All of the transfer sections were very fast and with it raining it was like riding in sleet. Our new test section we were saying would be so awesome ended up being very slick and rutted up. Bike were buried to the seat. The had to throw out our first test of the day at a ski slope because one of the hills was just a line of bikes waiting at the bottom for riders who didn't make it to come back down. Today I felt a lot better on the bike railing through the tests, the bad thing is being a little on the edge caused me to have a tip over in all 4 tests today. Just small little mistakes need to I improve on for day four. I pulled into a gas and go before our last test of the day and I decided to lube my chain. Good thing because I had bent my rear sprocket some time during the day. The gas crew was on top of it and was able to have me a new rear sprocket at the pits for me at the end of the day. I pull into my final time check before my work period, I start to get the bike cleaned off and bolts lose for my work. I get checked in, started with my rear sprocket than the back tire, I had 5 mins left after that and decided to tackle the front tire. I am hurrying to try and get it all done and still checked into impound on time. I get it done and head in, pulling into impound 22 seconds into my minute. Few!! The day is done, new tires for tomorrow and ready to go. After today I am in 12th in C2 and 46overall in all CLUB riders..

Days 1 and 2

The race begins!!!!! Day one starts with beautiful weather, we got some rain sunday night which helped a lot for the special tests. The bad thing about the rain is that it made the transfer sections very difficult. I had somewhat good tests all day but trying to get use to the different bike and suspension. The 350excf is a very good bike, a little slower than my 350sxf I ride at home. In one of my transfer sections I made a stupid mistake, lost track of my time and ended up 2 minutes late to my next check. Very disappointed in myself for that. But it happens and day 2 is a new day. I am sitting 21st in the C2 class after day 1.

Day 2 starts out with more RAIN! We are riding the same track as day 1, transfers and tests. Luckily they re routed us around the worst transfers but there was still plenty of difficult trail left to go. All of murders went very smooth still a little hesitant with myself and the bike. I have never seen sand whoops so big in my life!!! It is hard for me to get my suspension set to work good in the slow gnarly and the fast sand whoops. It's just gas, point and hold on!!! They put us on times schedule B which gave everyone more time at all the checks. I pull into the pits for my 15min work period, I surprised myself being able to change my front and rear tires and bike put in impound with 3 mins to spare. What a day, tomorrow is our shortest day of the week so looking forward to a little break. After day 3 I am 18th in the C2 and 56th overall of all the club teams.

Day of tech and impound

So finally last night I slept very good. Slept in till 9:30!!! I had a quick breakfast and than down to the USA pits for a last time check over the bike before technical inspection and impound. As TEAM USA we all went and registered together, got our numbers and transponder tags issued to us. Some quick paperwork and than off to tech. The first part of tech was sound test, and what do you know my FMF exhaust came in at 114.5 and it's supposed to be 113. They tell me it's too loud you don't pass! Which I wasn't the only one on the team. It seamed like all of the four strokes with aftermarket exhaust were too loud. The second time after some modification it's louder!!!! I am starting to worry now. Than thankfully Cory buttrick had the same bike and exhaust, had a smaller insert I could switch out and than passed now problem. As of right now there are four US bikes that are still too loud. Tech is only open until 3:00 tomorrow so everyone is going to help and and get all 28 USA bike into impound before it closes tomorrow.

Day 4

Another long day. Starting out with more oatmeal at 5:30 and than back out to start walking special tests. We had planned on walking two of them but a bad map and a lack of street signs it took us two hours to find the first one. The test was a combination of some gnarly rocky wood sections to an awesome gnarly (southwick) motocross track. It would be better if we got a little bit if rain before Monday, some of the tests will be dusty if not. I think for days 1&2 we are riding 195miles each day. I am not sure exactly what days 3-5 will be. But the special tests are very short and there is a lot of transfer sections on either gravel or paved roads.
Tomorrow I am hoping to get in some more test walking in the morning, and then in the evening we have our team sign up, technical inspection, and impound. Once all that is done we are done with bikes till the race starts on Monday. I am very excited for the race to start. All of this time before to think about it is just dragging on.

Day 3

Today was the longest day ever!!! Started out at 5:00am, met up with Greg (another club rider) to go out and walk some of the special tests. Can you say AWESOME!!!!!!!! This one that we walked was on a sky slope, flowing grass track up and down with off camber corners and then a short wood section tying into the finish. I can't wait to be able to ride it after getting a better look at what the Finlanders have to offer. After finishing the walk headed back to the hotel for some oatmeal at around 7:30am. I will say the oatmeal actually was pretty good. Then back down to the USA pit area for some more wrenching on the bikes, install new graphix, go buy tires and change tires to install some foam inserts, wonder around like a little lost puppy a little more. Around 2:00pm I was able to ride out to a local motocross track with team mates Destry Abbott, Greg, and Cody. The bike is a little different than mine at home, being an EXC instead of an SX the motor is a little slower and transmission gapped a little more and a 6th gear added which will be good for all of the paved roads we will be riding during transfer sections.
Tomorrow will be another busy day. Meeting back up with Greg at 6:00am to go out for probably most of the day of walking more test sections

Crate arrives and rental is picked up!!

Today was a good day in Finland. A super early morning starting out with a some what good American breakfast. We hung out for a bit at the hotel before we headed out to walk a little bit of one of the special tests. The dirt look primo!!! Very soft sandy like soil with some boulders thrown in here and there. At noon today the container showed up and the big unload started. WOW!!! I never thought there would be so much stuff in one container. Once container was empty it was time to go to the KTM truck and pick up the rental 350EXC. I will say it looks awesome, almost too awesome, don't even want to get it dirty. We work on switching some of the parts out for some after market stuff, hand guards, FMF exhaust and some other little things. I am putting the new ISDE American shroud graphics on in the hotel tonight. Thanks to Dan at bike graphix it will look awesome!!!!
Tonight we have our first team meeting and not sure what all will be talked about. I have just kind of wondered around with a confused look on my face all day. Not knowing what to do or where to go.

This is a museum right on the edge of the dock, it is where the impound and all the teams are set up.

First look at Finland

We arrived today in Finland at 11:30 local time, 8 hrs ahead of home. The flights weren't bad but the food has been nothing I would normally eat!!!! Going to be a long two weeks!!! But the fruit tastes the same so I should be good. The country side is beautiful, very green full of trees and right on the ocean.

The containers are supposed to be here and we start unloading them tomorrow. Can't wait to see what the impound looks like all set up. Pics will come for sure.

Starting the trip!!

Here we go, at the airport ready to take the big leap over the pond as they say. First trip out of the US and hopefully all goes well. We arrive in Finland at 11:00 AM and can't wait. The forecast is showing rain the last couple of days this week and hopefully it make the dirt perfect, but that could be to good to be true!!! Our schedule is 160-180 miles each day. Not sure what the terrane is like, I hear sandy but we shall see. Thanks to everyone who has help out with this dream.
Check back in as the weeks go on I will try and keep everyone as updated as possible.

Thank You

I want to start off with saying thank you to everyone who has supported me and a big thank you to " KTM OF ST LOUIS " for all the work they put into my 350SX after PARK HILLS rd of the MHSC series. It has been a rough last few weeks with injuries and trying to get my stuff together for the ISDE. I am trying to get some fun back into racing and some of the stress off my mind to try and get in the best rides I can before I leave in a couple of months. With the last two MHSC rounds not going well for me at all, I am looking forward to round 2 of the MORE series this weekend.
T-shirts are still available and will have then at all the races for a while till I move all of them. Hope to see you all this weekend out having fun!!!!

T-shirts

The ISDE theme shirts are in and ready to be sold. I am willing to ship them to you or you can get them from me at the track. Slowly things for the ISDE are starting to fall into place. Thank you to all who have and who will help. Thank you

FMHSC RACE

Warrenburg race location has always been like home field advantage for me. Winning my first ever MHSC overall there and many other overall wins.
I rode practice and thought the trail couldn't get any better. It got way worse. 30 mins before the start of the race the rain started to fall making the open areas very slippery. Some how I ended up 2nd off the start and moved quickly into the lead. Kole Henlsee got around me in a grass track after I had gone down in a corner. Quickly remounting and and putting my head down to catch back up I cought a rut with my left foot, it twisted and I heard a loud pop. I could put weight on my heal but couldn't move my ankle any way without a lot of pain. I struggle through three laps and than with the rain coming down and trail getting vey slippery I decided to stop before I damaged my ankle any more.
I decided to go to urgent care just to make sure nothing was broken. End result is just a very bad sprain. Time to rest the ankle but get the rest of me in shape and ready for the first MORE race May 15.

Qualifying for the ISDE

This year there were two ISDE qualifiers, rd 3 and rd 4 of the National Enduro series. Texas was the first one (fast and very dusty), had an awesome ride finishing 3rd in the Open A and 16th overall. Thought I was in for sure. I ended up 7th in the E2 class with Cory Butrick ( junior team) and Russel Bobbit (trophy team) taking the two qualifying spots. 
Tennessee was the second qualifier (more like home very tight technical but no rocks), had a very solid ride finishing 2nd by just 20seconds in the Open A and 15th overall. With the only E2 riders beating me already hand picked for the Trophy and Junior Trophy Teams I was in with the top spot for a club team. 
The next couple months is going to be a lot of hard work preparing myself and making all of the deadlines for shipping and sign up and all the other things that are involved.
I will not have shirts done for Warrensburg this weekend but will hopefully be done by May 15  at the first MORE race. I can take orders and make sure they get to the right people if you want. Thanks again.