Endurocross Round 1

My dad Dylan Murdock and myself loaded up the trailer Thursday afternoon and we left around 6 PM for Denver. We drove to Mesquite NV and spent the night. The next morning we resume driving to Denver. The drive had lots of neat scenery and we saw lots of wild life. We arrived in Denver at 10 PM, drove to our motel had dinner and settle in for the night. Our sleep was interrupted several times due to our motel was located near a bar. Some what rested we got up and drove to the National Western Complex at around 7 AM. After we located the complex we drove around and found somewhere to eat breakfast. After breakfast we drove back to the event and set up our pit next to Mat Henderson from Apple Valley. I went to sign up and got sign in and got my racer instruction. Track walk was at 9 AM. The track didn't look that hard! Practice started at 10 AM and I got my first experience at endurocross. Well I was wrong! It was a lot harder than it looked. But I managed to get around the track and felt pretty good about my chances of doing well. At 12 PM the qualifiers started I was in group 7 and group 16. Things went from bad to worst. Keeping my bike on two wheels and racing at the same time prove hard to do. I ended up going to the last chance qualifier and I managed to win which transferred me into the 26 racers that went to the night show. The night show consisted of the 26 racers that qualified and the top 10 from last year’s event. I thought I was done till the show at 7:30 PM. I took off my gear and got dressed in street clothes and my dad and I went to watch the top 10 from last year do their practice. I was setting with my dad inside the complex when they started calling out the names of the three groups of racer, which would practice next on the course. Nick Burson name came out over the loud speaker. Yikes I'm in the first group to practice. I'm ran back to the truck put my gear on and got on my bike and drove into the complex. I missed practice and now for the next surprise the 36 racers completing in tonight race had to go out one at a time and do one timed hot lap. This timed lap would determine your gate pick tonight. I waited till they call my number and name went to the starting position on the track and waited for the guy on the track to finish. They had made some changes to the track to make it harder for tonight's show. I didn't have the practice that the other riders did and didn't know what the changes were. About then I heard my name called over the loud speaker and the starter was pointing to me to start. OH WELL! Here we go! I blasted into the first corner rounded the turn over six logs over a table top into the second corner around it wheelie the front wheel over a log up onto a mound of logs and up over it I went. So far so good. Climbed another group of logs piled six to eight feet high and on to the next obstacle. Now came the big tractor tires set upright and about six feet tall with no ramp. I wheelie right up on top of them and over. I'm feeling good everything is going all right. The next obstacle was some big rocks one to two feet high follow by some logs, which lined a hill about eight to ten feet high. At the top there was a dirt gap of three feet and then some really big rocks three to four feet tall I wheelie up these rocks onto a flat section of large rocks about ten feet long. This is where I got into a little trouble. I landed between some rocks and my wheel got locked in between them. I muscle my bike out of being struck and keep moving on. I lost about 5 to 10 seconds. Next I went through a turn over some more logs into a water hole about two feet deep and ten feet long over some logs in the water hole and another ten feet long. Climbed out of the water over some logs into a really soft sand turn and into a thirty foot straight of soft sand. Turned another corner over some logs stacked three feet high. Now I was in the river rock section, which consisted of three to eight inch rocks completely covering the ground and about fifty feet long. I made it through to the next obstacle which were longs running long ways in the trail with about ten inches between them. You had to climb over a log get your wheels between the logs running with the trail and climb back out over another log into a turn full of river rock. I went around the turn over some more big logs and onto some large tractor tires laying flat. I had to be careful not to fall into the center hole of the tires. THE END!! My time 1-minute five second. I made it and didn't fall in front of the large group of spectators watching. Now we had a few hours before the event started. At 7:30 PM the show started. I was in the first race of twelve. I got a good start and was running fifth or sixth when someone hit me and knocked me over going up one of the log up-hills. I picked up my bike kept going but on the second lap I fell going over one of the log piles and smashed my hand. It hurt so bad I pull over and I was out of the race. My next race again I got a good start and was running mid pack but got struck on the hill with the big boulders. My tires were stuck between some rocks and my hand was so sore I couldn't use it to pick up my bike. Track workers help me get unstuck and I was down a lap by the time I got going again. This was my last race so my dad and I sat in the grand stands and watched the rest of the show. I had fun and now know what to practice to get ready for Las Vegas. Nick

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