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

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