Personal History
Nicholas James Lake was born August 19th 1984 in San Diego CA. Growing up with his parents and little brother he was always out at the desert riding dirt bikes in the winter and swimming and water skiing in the summer. Growing up he lived in both San Diego and Riverside counties and was always on his BMX bike if he wasn’t at the desert riding with his friends and family. When at work early on the morning of September 11th 2001 like all of America was in shock and disgust seeing his nation under attack. Upon graduation of high school summer of 2002 Nicholas tried to enlist in the US Army but a dirt bike injury kept him from enlisting until February 2007.
In February 2007 Nicholas went off to US Army Boot camp at Fort Leonard Wood MO to become an Engineer. In his 7 and a half years of service Nicholas deployed in support of both Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring freedom, one of them was only Six short weeks after completing basic training. While serving overseas Nicholas completed over fifty thousand miles of route clearance. “Route clearance is where they go out and make sure the routes are clear from enemy threats before any other units come through”. He also assisted in construction of outposts and was part of a security team that helped build the first children’s cancer center in Iraq. While on these multiple deployments he was hit by multiple IEDs “road side bombs” and shot twice. These led to over 20 surgeries, 2 cadavers were used to help in rebuilding of his leg as well as 2 titanium rods. He Spent 20 months in a medical hold unit until. On March 25th 2014 Nicholas was Medically retired from the US Army at the rank of Sargent.
Like many of the young veterans he went out to try and start a new life as a veteran in the civilian world. But as time went on he realized he was having a very difficult time adapting to the new pace of life. Missing the adrenaline and camaraderie. He explored many different counseling and programs but none of them seemed to get the niche he was missing. While in school for photography he was sent to a Motocross event and that’s where his spark for dirt bikes spun back up.
Nicholas went out bought a used dirt bike and slowly got used to riding it. He discovered a few other veterans along the way that were using dirt bikes as a form of therapy. In 2018 he raced on a team in both the BITD Vegas to Reno “North Americas longest off road race” And the infamous SCORE Baja 1000. Realizing that this was a now essential part to his both mental and physical health, Nicholas took on a whole new level of motivation. He lost 60 pounds purchased a brand-new dirt bike and started working with a riding coach to become the best he can be. In 2019 he did several NHHA races and was again a member of a all combat veteran race team in the 2019 SCORE Baja 1000
Nicholas has realized this is such an important part of his life and like he has always done he gives everything he has at it. He is racing the entire 2020 BITD series in the Amateur Ironman class. Even with some technical difficulties he finished 7th in class on his very first race as Iron man in the BITD Parker 250. When COVID hit a lot of the races where canceled and postponed. Using the down time focusing on fitness and training. Went into the Silver State 300 strong and ready was leading class for ½ the race when a quad clipped him and he crashed and separated his shoulder. Separated shoulder and all he still finished the race and placed 5th in class. Vegas to Reno was cut short due to bike issue causing another crash and reinjured his shoulder and a bad concussion. With a month of rehab entering a local AMA district 38 race he placed 2nd in class.
The start of 2021 had some delays but on February 27th Nick got his 1st podium finish. He placed second in class in the Legacy Racing series Hare Scramble in Laughlin Nevada.
August 2021 he raced BITD Vegas to Reno on an amateur team and they placed top 10.
Going into 2022 now Nicholas will be racing his local AMA district 38 series and running Ironman in BITD series as well as some Baja racing on a team.