NBL Jackpot National Race Report

The NBL kicked off its 2004 Pro Series season in Boulder City, NV this past weekend. Just 15 minutes outside of Las Vegas, the Boulder City track was as just as risky as a high dollar bet, with a tight, technical layout giving the best of riders troubles. With the NBL Pro series just consisting of 8 Pro weekends, each race is important to get a good score to go toward the overall #1 Pro title. On Saturday night, they also held a special Pro race, called the Double Down event. It put 2 riders on separate courses, simulating dual slalom racing. 32 riders would go and get qualifying times and then were bracketed up against each other to find the best rider of the night.

Nate Birkheimer has settled into his new role as the Schwinn AA Pro just right, as he was in 3 out of 4 main events this past weekend at the 1st NBL Pro series event for 2004. Boulder City, NV, just 15 minutes outside of Las Vegas was home to the event, as well as being just a few miles from Nate's house. The Boulder City track was super technical, and Nate seemed to have the track wired, as he was out front all weekend in qualifying moto's.

On Saturday Nate made it to the Pro Open finial and had a great come from behind race, where he would finish up 4th. On Sunday, with the Sun out shining, it looked down upon Nate, as a bad crash took him down early in qualifying, but he was able to come back and make both the AA Pro main and Pro Open. In AA, another crash held him back to 8th for the day, but in the Pro Open main, a clear run down the first straitaway, put him right up in the front of the pack. Nate rode a flawless race and would finish up 2nd overall.

Nate will be heading off to Washington in a few weeks for the next round of the AA Pro series.

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