VOLUME 57 ISSUE 2 JANUARY 14, 2020 P73
Yeah, there was definitely some
frustration. It's not that I didn't fully
reach my potential as far as race
results go because I was winning
a lot of races and being as fast as
I thought I could be, but there was
definitely some frustration there. I
did win the WORCS Championship
in 2012.
From there, just with a little bit of
a change in the industry and focus-
ing on different series, WORCS
was kind of my bread and butter
growing up. I raced motocross for
a while, and I kind of transitioned
into WORCS when I was 15 years
old and just really took to it and
started doing well.
Then I won my first champion-
ship in 2012, then Kawasaki de-
cided they didn't want to race it in
2013 so it was kind of unfortunate
circumstances there. So I ended
up signing with KTM and with KTM
my main focus was supposed to
be Baja and EnduroCross, which
are—as you can tell—completely
opposite.
But the Baja [program] got cut
after Kurt [Caselli] passed away
[at the 2013 season-ending Baja
1000], so I felt like two years in
a row I got kind of taken out of a
series that I could do really well at.
I had to supplement it with other
stuff, which, luckily for me, I'm a
well enough rounded rider that I
can kind of ride everything. I might
not be winning every race like I
want to, but I can do very well in
a lot of different disciplines. It's
actually been really cool to try all
these different series and race all
these different things, similar to
what Ryan Sipes has done is kind
of what I've really been doing for
the last five years.
Finally, in 2017, KTM decided
to come back and race WORCS
again, which I was excited about.
Unfortunately, I got hurt really bad
at King of the Motos [in February
2017] and took myself out of the
championship there.
But then the one that really
stung was in 2018 when I got hurt
"ENDURO
RACING LIKE
ISDE-STYLE
RACING IS
PROBABLY THE
ONE I'M MOST
PASSIONATE
ABOUT AND
THE ONE THAT
I WORK THE
HARDEST AT,
JUST BECAUSE I
REALLY LIKE THE
VARIETY AND
THE DIFFERENT
TYPES OF
TERRAIN AND
THE INTENSITY."
Robert (left) and
team manager Antti
Kallonen don't take
ISDE racing lightly.
