On 14 August, The Checkered Flag had the opportunity to chat with off-road bike racer Ace Nilson, who was recently accepted to compete in the 2023 Dakar Rally.
Provided below is the full transcript of the interview. Some text has been altered from the actual dialogue to improve readability and remove verbal pauses. A subtitled version of the audio will be released soon.
An article summarising the interview can be read here.
Transcript
TCF: To start things off, can you recall what the feeling was when you found out you were accepted to race at Dakar? How long did it take to sink in that you had been accepted?
AN: Man, Justin, I got to tell you, I really didn’t believe it at first. It’s pretty unusual to get accepted on your first application. I thought I might be put into like a provisional status and need another result, but… Just super pumped when it finally sank in that all the work that I’ve been putting in had paid off and all the people behind me and just, you know, it was a little bit emotional. Super pumped.
TCF: What was the registration process like? What exactly did you have to do when you applied?
AN: I think I sent in the application that I first applied to with a couple of different teams. That involves sending your CV or your race résumé to a variety of teams and kind of interview each other and see if there’s a good fit. So I interviewed with, had discussions with BAS Dakar and then talked with Filip (Dabrowski) at DUUST.CO, and just felt a good vibe there and good fit. Invited me to send additional information and results and things of that nature, received an offer from him to me on the team.
From there, the team consisted of five riders: there’s a guy named Konrad (Dąbrowski) out of Poland, Jacob Argubright, myself, and then two guys from Australia were to make up the team of five for DUUST Company. They send in all of the information together as a team. He compiled all our résumés, filled out the applications, and really made it easy on the riders. As it turns out, there was three of us that were accepted and two that were declined.
TCF: Your GoFundMe said that you have been training for this for the past four years, but what specifically does your training consist of? Is it just competing in similar rallies or is there something more to it?
AN: I kind of got bit by the rally bug. I’ve always been a fan of it, and it really just never crossed my mind that it would be something that was possible that I could do.
I was invited to participate and help put on a class; kind of a rally raid navigation school out in Bend, Oregon. At the time, there was a few guys that were putting on the school and they didn’t have the necessary permits that I did with my company High Desert Adventures. We did just a little bit of conversation about the route and stuff like that, what it was going to entail, and pretty quickly figured that I could adopt the route to my pre-existing approval, with the Forest Service and the BLM for Central Oregon that I had. So I helped them put on an event out there. I didn’t ride in it, I just helped put it together and provided lunch and things like that. It was really intriguing to me and that’s kind of what got me started on this journey.
So, the next year, I took a school with Scott Bright out in Nevada—Pahrump, Nevada—and I just really got bit by the bug there and immediately entered the Sonora Rally in 2019. Just been doing as many roadbooks as I can, training with various people in Southern California, Washington, Nevada, Oregon, anywhere you can find a roadbook to ride, you do it. Even done a few roadbooks in Arizona, out and around the Grand Canyon, and stuff like that. That’s the navigation training that’s been going on.
Aside from that, just doing a lot of fitness. As far as riding, riding bicycle, CrossFit, and just ride my motorcycle as much as possible.
TCF: You’ve done both multi-day, multi-stage rallies as well as non-stop rallies like the Baja 1000. Even though they both have their differences, do you feel that your experience with those non-stop races in Baja can also help prepare you for Dakar?
AN: Yeah, for sure. Anytime you can go out and compete and get your race speed up and kind of see how you are compared to other people, you know, just put yourself in that kind of a stressful situation is a good thing to help prepare yourself mentally as well as physically.
Matter of fact, yesterday, I went out, and I haven’t raced a GP here in the Oregon Series in probably three years, and there was a race on the Oregon coast and buddy of mine invited me to go out to it and race. So I decided, a couple of days ago, ‘Yep, I’m going to go do that. I’ll just check my sprint speed and check my fitness a little bit.’ It was a tough race. It was a lot of sand, a lot of big whoops, and a little bit of motocross track and some tight trails, difficult trails in the woods, and stuff. Just anything to keep the skill level up, it’s beneficial.
TCF: For you personally, between those multi-stage rallies and non-stop races like Baja, which do you find tougher or enjoy more?
AN: At the time when I was racing Baja, I really liked and enjoyed the speed of that event and the fact that it would go point-to-point or even if it was a loop race. It’s by far the toughest race in North America as far as off-road racing goes, so to enter that four times and finish four times, that was a great achievement for the various teams that I rode on. I think as far as fun, you feel accomplished. You feel a sense of satisfaction when you finish the Baja 1000. In the moment, it’s difficult to call it fun. It’s a lot of survival, you know?
But I think I like the staged races of, like, the Sonora Rally and Baja Rally, just because the days are difficult, but it’s not just one day, it’s multiple days, so you might have a 250-mile day and then you have to rest and turn around and do it over again. I’ve always been more of an endurance athlete than a sprint athlete. It fits my nature, fits my personality better, and I’m more of a slow starter and a strong finisher.
TCF: Most of your racing has been in North America, but have you ever raced overseas before Dakar or will this be your first time doing that?
AN: This will be my first time going overseas for racing.
TCF: I understand that you work at a local medical centre as a respiratory and cardiopulmonary manager. Even though racing and working in healthcare are completely different things, do you feel that there is any overlap in mindsets between the two, like something that you do at the hospital that can also be applied to racing or vice versa?
AN: I think both of them take a big mental toll. There’s a lot of mental fortitude that’s required to work in the medical field right now, especially with the recent pandemic of COVID. The hospitals were already strained with enough beds for patients, with enough people to fill the positions we have, with enough doctors, things of that nature, and then to add a pandemic on top of that, it compounded the issues that were already existing in healthcare, it compounded them tenfold.
The only way we were able to accommodate the patients was to reduce the number of elective surgeries we were doing. That had its own drawback in that that’s kind of the financial bread and butter of a health system is elective surgery. It’s really put the entire healthcare system across the nation and probably the world—I don’t know the status of things overseas, but here at least, there isn’t a hospital that’s not struggling financially right now.
On top of that, there’s issues with throughput trying to get patients out of the hospital to the next care facility, whether it’s a long-term care setting, a rehab setting, or a homecare setting. It’s difficult to move patients right now because everybody is full. As far as the pandemic itself and COVID for a respiratory therapist, the normal tools in our toolbox that we used to treat people and help them get better really didn’t work with this virus and the way it attacks the lung. It was really disheartening and a lot of clinicians, RTs, nurses, physicians all experienced some trauma from that and some depression and anxiety and all the things that you feel when you kind of feel helpless when you’re trying to treat somebody like that.
Glad to be on what seems to be the tail end of this and the most recent variants don’t seem as extreme and have a high… You know, COVID’s always had a fairly high rate of survival. It’s very low mortality when compared to a lot of things, but it’s really high on everyone’s radar and it’s a hot topic publicly.
You see some of the same things when you’re racing and preparing for an event and going through a week or six, seven days of rallies. It’s similar because that’s what we’re experiencing now. Healthcare is day after day after day with no break. The patients just keep coming. Not sure if that answered your question. [chuckles]
TCF: Yeah, it does.
Even with them being incredibly challenging, especially in these times, would you say that racing is kind of like your escape from the world going on right now?
AN: Definitely. Definitely, because it’s something that I really enjoy doing.
I find a lot of peace when riding on the motorcycle and I’m able to tune the day-to-day of my job and life in general is just kind of put on hold while you’re riding because you have to focus on exactly what you’re doing. You can’t have any lapses in focus or else you end up on the ground. You got to have a hundred percent focus on where you’re going, what you’re doing, especially with rally when you’re trying to read a roadbook and navigate at the same time. You can’t have any distractions.
TCF: You set the goal for your GoFundMe at $75,000 but the total expenses will be more than $100,000. Can you break down specifically what each cost will go towards, like how much is projected for travel or paying for a pit crew or whatever?
AN: The team that I’m riding for, DUUST.CO, they have a fee of $75,000. It does not include travel, it does not include lodging prior to or after the event. That makes up the majority of the fees. The registration for the event, the rental of the rally bike through KTM, and then the pit crew, they also include a physio or a doctor on the team, a nutritionist, and it includes all the meals. There’s lodging that travels from bivouac to bivouac that’s included in that fee, and then there’s a week and a half to two weeks prior to the event of training in the dunes that’s also included in that.
TCF: Where specifically is this dune training going to take place?
AN: That’s in Abu Dhabi.
TCF: Outside of fundraising, what other methods do you have to make money for Dakar?
AN: Right now, we’re doing fundraising and a variety of events, barbecues, rides… We did a sprint enduro a few weeks ago, and then some of the funds are coming from my business that I do tours in Central Oregon and Baja. There’s a tour in November that is specifically dedicated that the funds from that event will go towards my Dakar fund and then personal savings. That’s the balance of it, whatever isn’t covered by fundraising.
TCF: You’re going to be one of at least ten Americans competing in the Bikes category, the most of its kind. How does it feel to be part of such a group getting to represent your country alongside so many of your compatriots?
AN: Just a real honour. Super excited to see so many of my fellow friends and competitors get their application approved as well because the next thing that I tried was after I got my notification, it was a lot of texting and phone calls and emailing to see who else got in. I was super excited to see that everybody that applied was able to make it in.
They’re all really strong riders. Aside from the factory pros of Skyler Howes and Ricky Brabec, Paul Neff, David (Pearson), Kyle McCoy, all these guys are super good riders. Just really honoured to be included in that group.
TCF: What goals do you have set for Dakar, not just in 2023 but also in the future?
AN: This year, first goal is to get there, get to the starting line, and the second goal is to finish. Those are the two main goals. I don’t have a bone that says quit in my body, so my intention is to be there at the finish line barring any catastrophic failures of the bike or myself. I’ll be there.
TCF: Once you cross this off your bucket list, are there any other races you’d like to do someday?
AN: Yeah, I really want to do the Rallye du Maroc. I’ve heard really good things about that rally and it’s the place that we want to do and has a certain charm to it and just an allure of that rally and a lot of history. The Abu Dhabi Challenge is another one that’s got good reviews from a few Americans that have gone and done it.
So yeah, there’s a few. Rally is interesting in that it provides you with an opportunity to travel and pursue your passions at the same time as getting to see some of the world that you likely would never seen any other way.
TCF: If you had unlimited amounts of funding, would you like to maybe compete for the World Rally-Raid Championship someday if you could afford it?
AN: Yeah, if money were no object and I was maybe fifteen, twenty years younger, that would that definitely be on my bucket list. [laughs]
TCF: Before we wrap this up, is there anything else you would like to add that we haven’t discussed?
AN: Just a huge thank you to those that have supported me thus far. I’ve literally got checks in the mail for varying amounts of money and checks, donations, we have Venmo, and like, coming from people that are complete strangers to me. I have no idea who they are. It’s really just been touching to see the support that’s come from the motorcycling community and beyond. Just really, really grateful for the support thus far.
Nilson’s GoFundMe can be accessed here. Donations can also be made to his Venmo at @Ace-Nilson.
