2019 WORCS, SPRINT HERO & ISDE CHAMPION TAYLOR ROBERT
P80
Interview
KTM has a presence in
many different arenas and
that's something that made it
possible for Kailub Russell to
try some motocross nationals
a couple years ago. Given your
background, would you want
to try qualifying for an AMA
Pro Motocross?
I think so. I still have a big
passion for motocross, but at the
same time, the struggles I've had
the last few years getting hurt
and whatnot, I kind of got to the
point where I was like, "Okay,
just focus on the two series that
I'm getting paid to do" and try not
to get myself hurt doing some-
thing I didn't necessarily need
to be doing. I think I'm going to
try to do that another year. My
KTM contract will be up the end
of next year so hopefully sign
again with them then assess what
races I want to do with my career
at that point.
How about Six Days? Is that
something that you want to
continue doing?
Definitely! I really enjoy Six
Days. Like we were talking about,
one of the people who influenced
me was Kurt—he always pushed
really hard to make a good Six
Days effort so I'd love to keep
that effort going and try to keep
the guys together and healthy
and motivated. So yeah, I would
love to keep doing it and keep
trying to win that World Trophy.
It's such an awesome experi-
ence. I've been fortunate enough
to be part of both winning teams.
Both times, it was just unbeliev-
able and I'd love to keep being a
part of that.
You could be considered the
senior member of the Trophy
team. You've been to Six Days
quite a bit now and you've
done really well just about ev-
ery year. Are you regarded by
team manager Antti Kallonen
the team captain or is there a
captain or leader of the team?
I think he kind of considers me
the team captain. It's not official;
it's not like I wear a patch or any-
thing that says captain, but I've
kind of taken the role and respon-
sibility of trying to keep every-
body focused and the logistics of
getting everybody around during
the week, walking the tests and
whatnot. More or less, it's really
just keeping the guys under con-
trol and making sure they walk all
the tests and everything like that.
That's no easy task getting
that many guys—racers espe-
cially—to go on a forced hike
in the woods, even though