For many of the club level riders, the opportunity to ride the Six Days is a once in a lifetime dream. My buddy Billy Burns has been tearing things up in the North East this year, finishing on the podium in a number of races and also leading the 200A class in the National Enduro Series. Billy has been working really hard on his race program this year and will be riding in Portugal. This is his second shot at an ISDE medal. He tells a little about his experience from 2008 in Greece:

Hey Chilly,

Where do I even begin? Well as you know from last year’s ISDE in Greece my swingarm broke on my Gas Gas 200 EC in the middle of Day 4. You were the unfortunate one who got to give me the “bad news” that my day was over and that my hopes of a silver medal were gone. I will never forget looking at you and hearing your words, they were as devastating as seeing the broken swingarm! I knew that with your Six Days experience that you were quickly trying to give me my options and hoping to snap me out of my state of shock. I can tell you this, I cried as I rode off that mountain knowing that my medal hopes were over. At 40 years of age last August I knew that my lifelong dream of going to the ISDE as a competitor was about to end in a way that I just couldn’t accept. I was there to finish and I was going to do whatever it took to do it.

Well, I pulled into the pit and everyone rallied behind me and I got a new swingarm from Gas Gas of Spain and two hours later I had a new swingarm, new rear tire and new brake pads. Basically I did a quick rebuild of the bike and made all the repairs that I could and still impound before the end of the day. I was out of medal contention but I still had the chance to finish and in the end that is what I did and I got my finishers medal. I also bought my ISDE bike from Gas Gas and I have it in my barn so it is pretty cool to be able to look at the scratches on it and relive my first ISDE. In the end it was an amazing experience, one that I will never forget and more importantly it is one that can never be taken away!

See you in Portugal!

Billy Burns