Friday morning, pops and I load everything up, and were off to the races by 10:00. We chewed the fat the hole drive, and never even turned on the radio. We talked about dirt bikes for the first 3 and 1/2 hours, and the the Motovan for the remainder of the drive. We rolled in just in time to get signed up, and get changed out for the KTM experience. The KTM experience was awesome, we got to practice the EX track and have Mike Brown and Taddy Blazusiak critique our riding...bitchin. The next day was race day, and I was feeling confident because of the practice I had the day before, the bike felt good, I felt good, I was ready. In practice I set the fastest time in my group, giving me first gate pick for the qualifier. The course was fairly fast and flawy, and the start headed you straight into a huge log. In my qualifier, I got the jump, wheelied, and hammered the log as hard as I could. I pulled a sweet holeshot, and held the lead for the entire race. Now it was time to get ready for the amateur main event. We made a few adjustments to the bike, ate some burritos, and went to the hotel for a couple hours to relax. I watched some of the helmet cam footage I took from my qualifier, and looked for spots to pick up speed. For the main event, they added water to the water pit, and pretty much wet everything down. The rocks were now twice as hard as before, and the matrix was now too slippery to even stand on. I got a second place start, and held it for about two laps, when the third place guy, Matt Crouch, snuck by me due to a mistake on my behalf. I tailed him the whole last lap, and I was just behind him coming into the final obstacle, the matrix. I nailed the matrix, and he bobbled, but he was able to stay in front of me. We crossed the finish line less than half a second apart! I was happy with a third, as it was my first podium in EX. I proudly thanked my sponsors on the podium, MotoCity, Klim, Rekluse, Eks Brand, Hammer Nutrition, Stillwell Performance, and Topar. It was awesome, but next time I am looking to go for the win. Beraaaaaap!
"Main Jet" Max
