Well currently I’m sitting in newark airport for the past 5 hours getting ready to fly to amsterdam. From there I’m headed to stockholm, then finally too sft. Arriving sometime tomorrow morning. I’m headed over there to represent america in a snocross race just like motocross de’nations… I pretty excited about the trip because its my first time over seas. And were going to spend the last night were there in Amsterdam.
okay soo my computer is being lame so pics will follow when im home wednesday. (it wont recognize my camera)
So i flew out wednesday at 10:00am went to newark to amsterdam to stockholm to shkellfta (something like that) getting in at noon thursday… it took forever but so far it has been worth it. they gave us two rental cars to use, mine was a pile… but it was standard which was cool but felt like you would hit the rev limiter whenever it wanted, which made no sense. We followed them to Mala which is where the race took place. So the guy who set the whole thing up owns a gas station/food store/snowmobile gear outlet/hair salon, all in side of that gas station. I thought it was a very weird mix… so we pull in the gas station and i see a new gt3 porsche, so im excited and jump out and go look at it… full roll cage etc, so im walking around it and i hear a bunch of cars on the lake. Well the owner had porsche sponsor the event and had three gt3’s and a few audi’s out on the lake… they plowed up a track for sponsors of the event to drive the cars. So like the tourist i am i ran right down there and was snapping a few pics of the cars drifting around the ice road course. so were watching for a bit then the owner takes us out farther on the lake where they had another track plowed up… they had a new neon orange porsche, not sure the model, cruising around the track. So i asked to go for a ride… full roll cage, studded tires(inch or bigger) and driving it was a famous swedish driver whos name escapes but he is 9 or 10 time world champ over here (which you would never guess by looking at him… about mid 50’s, pop bottle glasses) so they give me a helmet an jump in the passenger seat (because they said i wasn’t allowed to drive the 550hp porsche…lame). he pulls out on the track doing maybe 50kmpr and towards the first sweeper, then hammers the thing. We entered the corner around 150kmpr and throws it sidways (i grabbed the oh shit bar because i was slightly scared … ive rode in a few race cars but nothing like that) his hands were moving faster than stevie wonder around the track, backing the car into every corner, and barely every lifting… the best part was he was soo out of control, just missing snowbanks and laughing the whole time…
After that we had to do a bunch of press stuff for the national news, and they made me ride some pile of shit sled up threw the rhythm section at the track :picard: i was praying that wasn’t the sled they were going to make me race. We cant run our own sleds over here because it would cost way too much to get them here, so we have to borrow sleds to ride. Later that day we finally got to ride the stuff were going to be racing on and got a bit use to the sled… i brought my shox over so at least i would feel a little bit comfortable.
So yesterday was race day… the track is soooooo much different than what im use too. back home we have big wholes and whoops, where here it was very fast flat and corner speed was everything. Im not that fast on flat corners because im not use to them and my sled isn’t set up for that. So they run a dirtbike format over here where its a two moto final and you average the two. But you have to qualify for them, too get in. There were probably 40 racers and 20 go to the final. So im my qualifier i got a horrible start, but managed to work my way up to second, until 8 laps in i locked my brake up in a corner (they didn’t have an air duck to the brake to cool it off so yeah its welded stuck hah)… my teammate qaulified right threw to the final and i had to run the lcq. The lcq was just based on a lap time… 10 minutes, top 4 people with the best lap time make the final, so i got second in that and made the finals.
first moto i got another shitty start, and worked my way threw the pack… i got up to 6th right behind my teammate and followed him the rest of the race. we worked up to 3rd and 4th. Which i was happy for riding a borrowed sled.
Moto two i got an awesome start and got into first threw the opening corner. i knew it was a matter of time before the top two guys would catch me because they were so much faster threw the turns. the track was just over a minute long and we ran 15min plus two laps. so half way threw the artic cat who was also in the lcq with me because his sled broke in his quailier too caught me. so battled and bit then i fell in behind him… The top guy was still coming thou, so with maybe 3 to go he caught me and blew by me in the long sweeper hah, a lap later going up the hill he cart-wheeled threw the whoops putting me back in second. He ended up finishing 4th i think which made him the champ. I took 4th overall and my teammate took 5th. We were very excited, because we were the highest finishing americans so far, and for not using our own sleds it turned out good. 
last night they had a huge party, in the high school hockey arena … slightly hung over to say the least. The ice landers party sofa king hard, and they were making us drink a bunch of gross homemade moonshine type stuff. ill update how amsterdam turns out when we get home.
Oh and i completely forgot to say that were staying at VW’s test facility… Its a hotel 45min out of mala and we have to wear a tag around our neck when were here because not anyone can walk in… Basically its hotel and a bunch of big buildings in the back that are all gated off. I haven’t seen anything that cool but new audi’s and vw’s roll in everyday. They have a track out on the lake too, where i guess they test anything from new lambo’s to vw vans. If your room is on the back of the building you have to leave your camera’s or phones (with a camera) at the front desk, plus they made us sign a waver that said blah blah we will prosecute to the fullest extent in a picture of any new cars leave the hotel… kind of cool thou