Asian Adventures

I’m sitting in Kuala Lumpur at the airport right now waiting to fly back home tonight. I’m looking back on two crazy weeks, with a lot of travelling, adventures and fun. It started with my trip top Thailand which was one of the best trips I’ve ever been on. I arrived in Bangkok on a wednesday to attend an autoshow for my sponsor Top 1 oil. I got to meet the Thai Top 1 staff which was cool because they where all fun to hang out with. Top 1 set me up with a killer hotel for the first two nights which was pretty awesome. On friday we had the press conference for the event in Bangkok before a bus took all us riders to the track in Sukothai were we stayed for the weekend. Saturday was practice which went well. Yamaha provided me with a fast 250 and I brought some parts to make me feel more comfortable. On Sunday afternoon we raced the main event. I had some bad luck early in the race and didn’t finish where I wanted to but I couldn’t be too bumped the whole thing was just so much fun and the promotor took really good care of us so overall it was an awesome trip. Monday night I flew back home for a day for my birthday breakfast before I went back to the airport on wednesday to fly to Malaysia to race the Lake Kenyir Monsoon Challenge. When I was invited to the event I didn’t really think much about the “monsoon challenge” and expected a typical hard pack asian track. Well when I got here it had rained for the last 7 days straight and it never stopped for the 5 days I was there so now the word “monsoon challenge” made a lot of sense to me. The track was in the middle of the jungle and because of all the rain completely under water. After practice on saturday it was time to go race on sunday. The first moto I got a good start led the whole race until I crashed with 2 laps to go. It took me some time to get going and I finnished 2nd. To my own surprise I had a lot of fun in the first moto and my CBK Kawasaki team put a new clutch in my bike for the second moto so I was ready to go. I had a good start again but made a stupid mistake and went down. I picked my bike up and just did my thing and tried not to crash. I passed a lot of people but I didn’t know where I was. Riders were stuck everywhere so I just tried to make it arround every lap. On the last lap the team was on the track showing me number one and they were all really excited so I realised that I was actually winning the race. After I crossed the finish line I was pumped, I won the second moto and the overall in the muddiest race of my life. The team was really happy and so where all the people that came out to watch the race.

The Monsoon Challenge was also my last race for 2011. I’ve never travelled as much as this year. I raced in Asia 4 different times, I raced in the States for 6 months and I raced in Europe. Overall I travelled for 8 months out of 2011. Even through travelling is not always easy and there are a lot of challenges when you go to countries that have a different culture and where most people don’t speak english I’m still glad I get to do what I do. It’s crazy that because my parents bought me a bike when I was a little kid I have now been to all these different countries and met all the great people I’ve met. I know I won’t be doing this for ever so I will enjoy it while it lasts. I have some cool trips planned for next year and I can’t wait to discover more places and make more friends all arround the world.

I would like to thank Yamaha Thailand and the CBK Kawasaki team for their support on this trip. Also a big thanks to Top 1 oil for all their support. Now that the season is over I’d also like to thank all my other sponsors and all the people that helped me out this year to make sure I have a great time.

I wish everyone a wonderful Christmas time and a Happy New Year.

See you in 2012

Dan  #530

Travelling time

After I came back from america I flew straight to Indonesia to race for Husqvarna in the Cargloss MX Series which was an adventure. After I returned from Indonesia I raced the Monster Energy Supercross in Lahti Finland. Lahti is allways a really good time and I had a lot of fun through out the weekend. I struggeled with my bike set up on friday and decided not to race the night show. On saturday things went a lot better and I had some good rides in the heat races.

After Lahti I had some time off. A couple races I was supposed to race got canceled so I just stayed home and worked on my fitness and enjoyed some down time.

But now it’s go time again. I will fly to Thailand tomorrow to race a Supercross near Bangkok on the 10th and 11th. I will race a 250 Yamaha in the Pro Lites class.  A week later I will fly to Malaysia race the Lake Keniyr Pro Challenge.

I’m pretty excited to get back on the track to do some racing to wrap up a really good 2011 season.

I will put some updates online after Thailand and Malaysia.

Dan #530

Championship

Last weekend I raced my last race in the USA this year. Treaty City hosted the 6th round of the Buckeye Series. I had a good day. I won the Collegboy class which was good enough to win the title! I also have a good lead in the 450 Pro class but I can’t race the last round in 2 weeks so it will depend on how everybody else finishes.

I’m sitting in New York right now on a 8 hour layover on my way back home. It was another great year in america. The last two years were awesome and I learned a lot. Especially this year I fell like I’ve grown up a lot. I made some big decisions las week and I have some exciting plans for the near future.

I’d like to thank everyone that supported me the last two years all my sponsors, friends and my family. I’d also like to thank everybody that raced with me this year in the Buckeye Series. It was so much fun to go to the races and it was just an all arround good time.  Coming from Germany I wasn’t used to people being so cool about racing. It’s sad to say but most guys that race dirtbikes in Germany are dicks.  It was so much fun to go to the races with out all the bullshit and just ride  and than hang out and kick it afterwards.

I will only be home for 4 days before I fly to Bali to race for Husqvarna Indonesia in the Indonesian MX Championship so it will be a busy week.

I’m also pumped to announce my new gear sponsor Tiger Racing. I will start wearing their gear next week at round one in Indonesia and I signed a deal to wear their gear in my 2012 season which is really cool.

I will keep everybody updated on whats going on in Indonesia and I can hopefully announce my 2012 plans shortly after that trip.

Thanks for reading

Dan #530

 

September Update

Lots of racing went down the last couple of weeks. I’m 5 rounds in to the Buckeye Series and I’m still leading the Series in the 450 Pro class and in the Collegeboy class. I was riding really good the the last two rounds and only finished off the podiumn twice in 8 motos. This weekend I will race the 6th round of the Series which will also be my last race in America this year. I signed a deal to race the Indonesian Motocross Championship this winter. I will race a 250 Husqvarna down there. I’m flying back to Germany next week to organize some stuff and than I will fly to Bali 4 days later. I will stay down there for the first 3 rounds and than I will fly back to Europe for some Supercross races before I return to Indonesia in November to finish out the series. I’m really excited about the oportunity to race down there. I was able to improve my riding and my fitness a lot this year and I’m looking forward to some good races this winter. I’m working on some cool things for this winter season. Last year I almost took 4 months off and it really hurt my speed when I got back on the bike so this year I won’t take time off at all and just keep racing all winter. I also picked up some new sponsors lately. Etnies is supporting me with shoes and casual wear. I’m really pumped on that because I allways wanted Etnies as a sponsor and it’s cool that it finally worked out. Also Fuel clothing hooked me up with some really cool stuff. Check out there website www.fuelclothing.com and support the people that support the sport!

So it’s my final week in the States and I’m going to be busy with the races on sunday, training and getting everything ready to leave next week. I will get an update out next week after the race and than I will update the blog during my time in Indonesia. Sorry I didn’t write too many updates this summer but it will get better from here on out.

Thanks a lot for the support

Dan#530

Buckeye Series round 2

Last weekend I raced the second round of the Buckeye MX Series at AMS. It was a weird day all arround with crazy stuff happening all day. It started with a big crash in the second practice. I bent my bike up pretty bad and just made the line for my first moto. I had a bad first moto in the 450 Pro class and only finished 6th. Unfortunatly the second moto was cancelled because of a storm so I ended up 6th overall. In the Collegeboy class we raced our second moto just before the storm moved in and I won the overall with a good second moto. I’m leading the Buckeye Series in the 450 Pro class and the Collegboy class now which is good. Next weekend I will race round 3 and I’m looking forward to race 4 strong motos.

Dan #530

Finally a win

Last weekend I raced the first round of the Buckeye Motocross Series in Blanchester/OH. I raced in 16-24 and in the Open Pro class. In 16-24 I got the holeshot in both motos and ended up winning the overall for the day and the lead in the Buckeye Series. In the Open Pro class I had really good starts as well and battled for a Top 3 overall position all day. I was in second place for most of the second moto and with one lap to go it looked like I´ve secured second overall when I made a little mistake and went back to third to go 3-3 and third overall on the day.

I was really happy with my riding in all four motos. I had great starts and my speed was good. After all the training I´ve done in the last three months it was good to finally go racing and be fast and strong. I´m looking forward to the races the next couple weeks and the plan is to be up front at all of them.

Dan #530

John Penton GNCC

Last weekend I teamed up with Offcamber Racing Yamaha to race a 250 Yamaha in the XC2 class at the John Penton GNCC. I was really excited about the oportunity and looked forward to the weekend. On saturday I rode the bike in the paddock a little bit to see how it feels and than just went ahead and got ready for the 3 hour race on sunday. I got up sunday morning and it was allready crazy hot. Even through it´s my second year over here I still struggle when it gets really really hot like it did on sunday. At 1 o´clock it was time to go racing. It was the first time in my life that I started a race with a dead engine start and I lost a little bit of time right away.After a couple corners we went back in the woods and it was the first  time that I saw the 11 mile long track. I was really suprised how rough the track was on the first lap. Lots of deep roughts and bumps and a lot of trees. I tried hard to stay with the Top guys in the XC 2 class but made a lot of mistakes and went into the trees twice. I realised that I won´t be fast enough to run with them and that it´s more important to finish my first GNCC and get some experience. After 30 minutes I finished my first lap. The second lap had a little different layout. After 2 miles we turned into the famous John Penton section which consists of a single trails, rock sections, creek crossings and steep uphills. I´ve never been on tight trails like that and I bounced of the trees left and right. A little bit into the trail I got smoother and found my rythm. I was feeling good until I came up to a steep hill climb. A couple riders crashed and got stuck on the hill. I tried a new line on the side of the hill hit some roughts crashed and stalled the bike. My bike was really hot from riding for an hour and I couldn´t get it started which made me run really hot. I decided to let the bike cool down a little bit so I could fire it up but I couldn´t get it done and had to DNF the race after 1 hour and 20 minutes. I wasn´t too happy about my DNF but it was just a tough day with the heat and having no woods experience didn´t help either. I will probably do another round of the GNCC series with Offcamber Racing later this year.

This weekend I will be back on my Kawasaki for round 1 of the Buckeye State MX Series. I´m really looking forward to racing this sunday and get some good results to kick the series off.

AMA National High Point

Last weekend it was finally time to go to High Point and do my first National. After all the training and preparation the last couple weeks I was really looking forward to go there and do good. Unfortunately it turned out to be one of my worst weekends on a motorcycle ever. I got up saturday morning and felt under the weather. I went out in my first practice and felt horrible. I just wasn´t able to go fast. For the second practice we made some changes to my forks but it didn´t change much. I wasn´t feeling good at all and rode way under my abilitys. It was a really dissapointing weekend. I was riding good in practice the last couple weeks and my lap times were good and I was feeling good but saturday at High Point my wheels came completly off. I was really down on myself for underperforming the way I did. It´s my job to do good at the races because you don´t get paid to ride fast on a local practice track on wednesday afternoon.  Well after a couple days I made my mind up. There are only two options I can wether pack my bags and fly back home and quit or I just continue to train hard and try to turn things arround this summer. I decided to go ahead and turn things arround. Theres only one way right now and thats forward. I will try to keep a positive attitude towards racing for the rest of the year and I´m sure good things will happen.

I won´t do the National in Red Bud in 2 weeks. I would like to do the Southwick National in August because it´s a sand race and I allways do good in the sand so I will try to get a budget to go there. I got a deal with Offcamber Yamaha racing to do the John Penton GNCC in 3 weeks. I´m really excited about that. I will race a 250 Yamaha in the XC2 class. I have never done a GNCC but I would like to do more Offroad racing in the future so it´s a good step in to the Offroad scene. It´s going to be tough to do a 3 hour race in the summer heat but I will be prepared and ready come July 10th.

I also want to thank my buddy Julian. He´s flying back to the motherland tomorrow. He helped me out a lot the last 8 weeks and we had some good races and a lot of fun together. He´s taking his new KTM home and will go for NMX glory this summer so I´m looking forward to see him doing work out there.

Thanks everyone for the support

Dan# 530

US update

Long time since I posted something on here so I thought it´s time to give everyone an update on what happened the last couple weeks. The second week in April my brother and I flew down to Manila on the Phillipines to race an International Invitational race down there. It was a great trip and we had a lot of fun. The racing went well and I was able to do some good promotion work for my new sponsor Top 1 oil which was cool. After my Phillipine trip I went back home for one day and than flew over to america to finally start my season over here. The first couple days I got all my stuff organized. I picked up my new Kawasaki KXF 450 the second day I was here and I´m super pumped on the bike. After a couple days my buddy Julian came over. He´s gonna help me out with my training the first couple weeks. Unfortunatly Ohio has had a super wet spring this year and it rained 24/7 so we decided to head down south and spent 3 weeks in North Carolina. We went down and had an awesome time. We rode 5 days a week on great tracks and in great weather. It was the perfect way to get ready for a long summer of racing. After 3 weeks we headed back up North to Ohio to race the first round of the Valero Championship in Chillicothe. I had a allright weekend and finished 2nd in Collegeboy and 4th in the 450 Pro class. Last weekend was a busy weekend with 2 races. On saturday I race round 2 of the Integrity COCR series. I won the Collegeboy class and finished 2nd in the 450 Pro class. On sunday I raced a PAMX Spring Series race in Crow Canyon. It was a stacked field with a couple fast National riders. I finished 2nd in the fourstroke class and 7th in the 450 Pro class. After the first couple races I know what I need to improve on. We were able to find a really good bike set up with the help of Jay Downhour from FCR suspension and I´m sure the results will only get better from here on out. I will race my first AMA National in 2 weeks in High Point and I´m really looking forward to that.

I´d like to thank all the people that helped us out whith food and a place to sleep while we went down south. Paul Sachak, the Shonyo family, the Willard family and everybody else that let us ride their track. Thanks guys we really apreciate it!!!

Thanks for reading

Dan#530

Getting the season started

My long off season is finally coming to an end. On April 6th I will fly down to the Philippines to race round 1 of the Philippines World MX Series. I´m excited to get things started and have a good and interresting trip down there. A week later I will fly to america to start my season over there.

I´m more than excited to get back to america I´ve done my training in the gym and can´t wait to get back on the bike and have some fun. I´m really happy with all the support I´m getting from my sponsors this year. I will continue to race with support fromHarry, JS Racing, DZ Graphics, Motovan.com, Xtreme, Dirt Tricks and Rekluse. New on board for 2011 are Top 1 Oils, MTX Helmets, HZ goggles, Delta Braking, IXS, Torc 1 Racing, Tommaselli, Mishimoto, Outlaw products, Marchald Filters, Integrity Racing, Pirate.biz and Jardine exhausts.

The AMA gave me a new number for this year and I will race with number 530 this year.

I´m looking forward to represent my sponsors this year and have a good and succesful season. Once I´m back in the States I will post more updates and pictures.

Dan#530