by Austin Lasure

What’s your name? 

-Austin Lasure

How old are you?

-33 years young 😊

Where are you from?

-Originally from Dallas TX but we have called Orlando FL home since 2016

When did you get into the sport of hard enduro and when did you ride a dirt bike for the first time?

-I got my first dirtbike in 2018 after moving to FL and realizing riding Harley’s down in Orlando traffic is miserable.  My buddy Jason Ennis called me one day and said he was headed to TKO in Tennessee.  I had at that point never heard of Hard Enduro.  I watched him and another buddy Bryan Fabby race the TKO and for some crazy reason I said this is what I want to do.  At the time I had just started my first year riding and racing in harescrambles in FL with an organization called Florida Trail Riders.  I was a a full blown C rider.

What bike do you ride?

-I ride a KTM 300 XC

What team do you ride in (if any)

-I started a team in late 2018 called FCS Racing focusing on up and coming rider development.  We like to find guys and girls that are on the “bubble” if you will and help to support them to the next level.  

How many hard enduro races have you entered (roughly, doesn’t have to be 100% accurate)?

-I would say at this point roughly 15

If possible, what would you characterize yourself as? Beginner, weekend warrior, ambitious amateur, semi-pro or pro? 

-I am definitely an ambitious amateur.  Still so much to learn but that is the beauty of this.  No one comes out the box good at Hard Enduro

What race are you going to talk about and what year did you do it?

-The Bootlegger Extreme with SEER in 2021

What was the race format like – how many days, hours or races did you have to do to finish/win the race?  

-The Bootlegger was a 3.5 hour multi lap Hard Enduro starting at 10am.  Race as far as you can clocking off as many checkpoints as you can get to before the time runs out.  

What excited you the most about this race? Was it the terrain, the grip, the camaraderie, the organisation, the weather, your own performance or something entirely different?

-This was an exciting race because for once we were not in rain or ice or a hurricane.  As much as Hard Enduro is hard…..it is something cool when the terrain provides grip and you can coordinate your bike and body over something rather than hurl it at it.  

What kind of tires/mousse/tubliss/tube did you use and why? More importantly – would you recommend your setup or did you learn that something else would have been better?

-I used an IRC VE33s rear (highly recommend) and a Kenda Ibex front (also a great tire).  I went with a 19” BIB in an 18” rear tire, drilled out but new.  It proved to be a horrible decision with PSI equivalent close to 8-10.  I did great in the modest stuff but in the true hard and gnarly I slid and lost traction.  In the words of my spirit animal Nick Fahringer “what the heck was I thinking”/  I plan to do a drilled front bib used and worn in next race and go tubeless in the rear and target 3-4psi.  

Was there anything bike setup-wise that you discovered to work great and that you’d like to share?

-SAG and suspension.  I have learned sooooo much on bike setup the last year.  But these two are something I never heard much on.  A highly classified local informant told me these secrets and they have yielded great results.  1- set your suspension up so soft if you sneeze you bottom out.  Suspension is not a big deal in these because of the speeds we carry but I will also say if your running an air fork swap that sucker out ASAP for springs.  The air forks don’t push back the same energy as they compress leading to unexpected and unpredictable rebound that simply put feels dead.  2- set SAG like a country boy with a lifted front and the stock springs in the back.  I set my SAG to about roughly 120-125.  GOAT trail stuff. 

How tough did you find the track physically and mentally?

-Physically it was par for the course.  Gnarly downhills gave anyone a pucker and the rest flowed well.  Great layout with very few bottlenecks.  You honestly cant get rid of them all until the race sorts itself anyway so no one truly expects better than what we had.  Turning the race from 3 to 3.5 also was more favorable.  It was really needed to push everyone to that exhaustion level on this terrain with it being so optimal in tackiness.  

Was the track easy to follow (markings or GPS) and was the difficulty level of the track what you expected, easier or harder?

-Track layout and markings were well placed and the difficulty honestly was exactly what I expected on the Gold/Silver loop.  

Where did you stay during the race, was it a good choice and would you do it again? (camping, hotel, private etc.)

-On this race we stayed at the Trials Training Center.  Normally we camp onsite but this one had a soft field and with TTC being so close it was an easy decision.  

What result did you get and are you happy with it?

-I finished 17^th in Silver 17-34.  Definitely know that my tire pressure being too high on the BIB and my stator and battery had me kicking the bike .5 miles in so lots to improve on.  This was my favorite track so far and I felt it was suited to my riding best and so the finish was definitely not ideal for me but there will be many more.  

Did you feel like you got a good value for your money at this race?

-Anyone racing Hard Enduro has some screws loose.  That being said we had a great time here and the memories will last a lifetime so yes the value was high. 

What would be your best piece of advice, to a person who is considering entering this race for the first time?

-Sign up for Iron, get your feet wet and go from there.  Don’t take it too seriously and just hydrate, put some skid plates, handguards and disk protectors on and go have fun.  

What (if anything) would you like to see changed in the event to improve it?

-The guys and girls that run SEER work their butts off.  The things that most commonly plague the series honestly cannot be controlled.  #1 being weather.  Just cant do anything with that.  The rest of it is in very good hands.  

Finally, would you do this race again and recommend it to other riders?

This round I would highly recommend for a new rider as the flow was phenomenal.  Yes we will definitely race it again.