Nov 19, 2009

HUSQVARNA WIN’S the USDR ChampionShip for 2009.

Nick Burson’s Championship Winning RACE REPORT

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 This weekend was the final round of the US Desert Racing series.  I have been doing this series for the past two years now.  I had put myself in a really good position coming into this last race of the series.  I had won 3 of the previous rounds and finished 2nd at the other one.  So coming into this weekend I had a 90-point lead with the winner of a round only being able to score 100 points.  So mathematically I still didn’t have the championship locked up.  All I needed was a finish, which meant I had to complete half the race.  Whereas this weekend would be 3-laps of the 5-lap race.  My game plan coming in was to try and hang around the leaders for 3 laps but ride conservative and make a push in the final two laps after I had already clinched the championship. 

 

My plan was working for the first lap but everything started to fall apart at the end of lap number 1.  When we were coming into the pits the 2nd place rider, Morgan Crawford had bike problems and wasn’t able to continue.  Now I knew I had to finish because if I didn’t Kudla would automatically win and beat me in the championship by 10 points.  So now I really went into conservative mode.  I just tried to make sure the bike finished.  Husqvarna_logoThen my worst nightmare struck.  About 4 miles from the end of lap two my bike came to a stop.  It had just died.  The only lucky thing for me on the day was that I was prepared for this.  I usually never wear a fanny pack just because if your bike breaks your out of the race anyway.  But I knew I needed a finish today.  So I turned my gas off and laid the bike over and went to work.  The only thing I could think of was that my stator had gone bad.  I had an extra one with me in my tool pack.  I started the process of replacing the stator that isn’t easy and especially difficult when I am in a hurry and out in the middle of the desert.  Some friends saw me off the trail and rode over to see what had happened.  They calmed me down a little bit and told me I had plenty of time.  I just started working away.  I would say 5 to 8 minutes later I was picking up my bike and putting my helmet on.  I turned my gas back on and two kicks later I was off.  Boy was I relieved.  Now I just had one more lap to complete and the championship I set out for in the beginning of the year was mine.  I just cruised around for another lap and then waited for this finish. 

All in all it was a good day I guess.  I came and did what I set out to do, which was win the 2009 USDR championship.  This makes it a 3-peat for me.  Lets hope the 4th title comes like Jimmy Johnson’s NASCAR title this year and doesn’t leave me looking for 4 in a row like Phil Jackson (NBA head coach)!!  I would really like to thank my Mom and Dad for supporting me in everything.  Zip Ty racing and Husqvarna for the awesome opportunity they gave me this year.  I will be back next year as strong as ever looking to defend my title!!

CHECK OUT NICK’S WEBSITE


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