Hello

My father, my mechanic and I landed in Dallas (TX) Fort Worth Wednesday at 5 PM and with the expected hot weather I started to drink Fairing Nutrition drink right away. After we got our rental car we drove 5 hours to Lubbock with a short break at McDonalds. When we got to Lubbock around midnight and Billy Innis helped us to get a place to stay. It was the Guesthouse Inn which was really good and cheap. On Thursday we just looked around in Lubbock and went shopping for a few things. In the afternoon Billy guided us around in the city which was real nice and showed us the practice tracks. I must say that the tracks looked really nice, but a bit different from what I used to! Mark Berg and Steve Berkner from Gofasters got there in the evening and we went all together to a steakhouse to eat a good meal. Friday morning at 8 am we started to put the new Gas Gas 300 together and after a couple of hours the bike was ready and it looked real nice. We went out to the test tracks and started to test the bike. After I got use to the bike we started to test the suspension and we did some adjustments to the shock and putted the fork up a bit which then felt really good. Must say that the standard suspension setting was really good! Billy had really good training tracks; you could train whatever you wanted! After the testing we went to Hooters to eat something for lunch. Mark and Steve thought that we Swedish guys must have a photo with some girls so they took a few shot of us and some good looking woman. After some good food and nice girls, Mark and Steve went to the race area and we went shopping some more. Billy brought us to a fine restaurant and we got a good dinner. We went to bed early because we were planning to get to the race site early on Saturday.          

 After breakfast we went to the race site and which it took us around 1, 5 hours. Well there we saw the amazing blue Gas Gas I was going to race! Mark had put on the graphics it looked really good, and the blue rims and hubs was awesome.  We went to the finish line to take some photos on the bike and some pictures of me and all the guys. I think some of the pictures came out really good. After some problems with sign up, I finally put the bike thru the technical inspection. Off course all without problems! I looked some on the track before we went back to Lubbock to eat, DRINK and sleep. I think I never have drunk so much in my live!

 The clock rang 5 am and we ate the good breakfast at the hotel before we went to the race area again. I was not really nervous because I should start at the same minute as my friend Dylan Debel so he could help me with the times and all that. It was not really hot in the morning so I thought it should be good weather for me. The first test went pretty good, it was very, very fast! Real fun. I missed a few corners because the signs/arrows were a bit different from Europe. After that test I thought this should be a real fast race. The second one started pretty good, but at the end I didn’t really see the track because of the dust so I missed a corner and went over the bars. Lost some time but not much! I still thought it was be a really fast race. The third test started and it was really tight in the beginning and after the half test my pants pulled of and I had to race the rest of the stage with the pants down my knees, that was really difficult, and this test was long! After that we had done the half race and now it started to become real warm. I mean real warm! About 33-34 degrees with high humidity. I got some gas, food and something to drink (Fairing).

 Then it was time for the fourth test and this was the longest one. It had it all, fast parts and really slow parts. This went pretty good but I started to feel the heat, despite all fluids I had drunk. I felt good to have a gas stop after that long section so that I could fill my body with more water and food. My father, mechanic and Mark said that there were only 2 short tests left. They change my rear brake pads before we went to the fifth test. I didn’t really know in which place I was so I just keep pushing. The fifth test was really hard one, with many up and downs hills with the heat starting to get to me. On paper (miles) the section did not seem very long but it was in minutes due to the slow speeds. Finally I reached the finish and with one more test to. I just keep talking to myself that I had to keep pushing in the last test despite of my headache that I had. The last test was short in miles to but went pretty slow so it was quite long in minutes. I really had to fight for every inch I rode. My headache got worse and I felt weak. This test wasn’t my fastest. It was so nice to see the finish on this one. After that it was just a big hill that we had to ride thru. Many guys had problems but I didn’t have any problems. I think I had some advantage of the though up hills I have done in the WEC and Six Days.

 I finished my first National US Enduro and it was a real fun race. After a while the results were posted I got on the 14th place in the PRO class and 20th in the overall. My teammate Jim Senecal finished 13th in PRO class and 19th in the overall. I was quite happy, but set my goals higher and I felt I didn’t race so well. Had some problems with the heat and it was quite different with the long test. The GasGas, the Klim gear, Michelin tires were great. The service went very well and I have to thank everyone for that! Now that I know how the race works and the bike handles, I can go home and train for it. Hopefully we get warmer weather in Sweden so that I can get use to that too. I hope to do better at the next race that will be in Michigan on June 15th.

 After the race we said bye to everybody and went to eat at a nice restaurant in Lubbock, We now started to learn where to go in the city. The travel home went good except from being pulled over by a police man for speeding. Luckily he let us go with a warning. Now I will try to get some sponsors for the next rounds that I’m intending to race. I have to say thanks to Erik Nijkamp (Offroadchampions.com), Mark and Steve  (Gofasters.com), Gas Gas, Klim, my father, my mechanic, Billy Innis, my sponsors and all other that helped me at the race! I must say that all people are very nice and everybody talked to everybody. I felt very welcomed to the race! Hope to do some more races because I really enjoyed this event.

 I hope to see everybody in Michigan on June 15!

 Best Regards, Tobias Burman

photo 5, 7, 8, 9 and 10 by gofasters.com