Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

INTERVIEW 14 and Hi, we go t fi;.~t 250 Exp~rt ~nd sevent h overa ll in th at race. We we re p retty excited after that finish. It was reallv ou r first team race, and it was really cool. I didn't really feel like I had .hit the big time . I wasn' t on top of the world or racing with Ty Davis or anything, but it was definitely fun to be doing well." It wasn't long befor e N ick was doing well eno ug h to catch the eye of the KTM factory . The older Pearson began piloting a facto ry- backed mount whe n he was jus t 17, a nd it wasn' t long befor e Russ followed sui t. "Right abou t the time I got the ride with KTM, I rea lly sta rted impro ving," Nick says . "I won a round of the Na tional Hare & Hound series - the Team No Snivelers race in Sparks, Ne vada - and I just kep t working on my rid ing." And there was plent y of op po rtuni ty for rid ing back in those days. "We we re raised in Las Vegas, but wh en we were in hi gh sc h oo l, w e moved to my dad 's ranc h. in Camp Valley. The near est tow n to that is Pioche, which is about 40 miles away, Pioche is 180 mi les north of Vegas and has les s than 1000 people in it," N ick says. "We lived up the re for four or five years and raised beef cattle. For the first couple of years, we didn't even have a telephone. We got a cellu lar phone after tha t. I guess it works about half the time." When sch oo l w a s ove r, the ra cer s moved back to Las Vegas and in to jobs that would accom mod a te their ra cin g schedule. "We work part time for Am erican Asphalt, doin g paving and grading," Nick says. "We drive heav y equipmentI drive a scraper, and Russ drives a scraper or paddlewheeler, The gu y we wo rk for rides d irt bikes and he is rea lly cool. He lets u s wo rk w h e never we want, so we can ta ke a lot of d avs off." And days off are w ha t it takes if you want to be a big name in desert racing. The Pearson s try to rid e thr ee times d uri ng the wo rkweek and every wee kend . "We live right by the airpo rt, so rid ing is only abou t 10 minutes away," Nic k says . "We have a lot of di ffer ent places that we like to go to. We have a rock section ; we have a pl ace wit h hill clim bs. Nick Pearson, 20, won his first AMA National Hare & Hound earlier th is year. Th ere's ano ther place tha t's reall y torn up and has whoops; another section with ~ashes. A bit of everything, really." Both ra cers spend tim e anal y zing their w eak points and w ork hard to improve so they' ll have the competitive ed ge they need ne xt ti me th e y race . They also sp end lim e improving th eir bikes. "We put the bik es together, but Pro Circuit does the motors and sus pe nsion and , ju st rece n t ly , KT M hired Dave Chase to bu ild our Best In The Desert bikes: ' j ick sa ys . "That's be en really nice, because we've been able to concentrate on riding, but we still prep are ou r ow n bikes for the Nationals and eve rything else." Th e ea rly d ay s spen t hel p ing th eir father work on his KTMs has paid dividends, in the form of excellent mechani ca l skills, and the Pearson s rep ort that th e y h a ve n e ver h a d any ser io us mechan ical probl em s. "Aft er our first sho t at racing, when we didn't get off the sta rting line, we've really had no bike problems. We've had a few physical ones, tho ugh : ' Nick says. "I separated my shoulder ou t riding, back in January or February, and I broke my foot on my first race back. The race was a National in Utah, and I broke the sa me foo t at that same race two vea rs befo re. Soon after tha t, I go t high er footpegs to try to fix that p robl em ." Higher foo tpegs a re n't the o n ly stra tegic advantage enjoyed by the Pearso n broth ers. Just an inch apa rt in height and with less than 10 pounds' diffe rence in their respective weight s, the brothers make a n ex ce p tiona lly w ell-m at ch ed pair when it comes to racing as a team. "O ur bikes are alm ost identical. The lever s are exactly the sa me; the bars are the sa me ; the sus pe nsi on is about th e sa me; and , if one of us tries so mething new , we bo th gene ra lly try it so ou r bikes stay the same: ' Russ says . "When • 48 Russ Pearson , 19, went to Australia last month to com pete in the ISDE. He proved his versati lity by taki ng home a gold medal and havin g the second-best Amer ican Club score. Nick Pearson. I wa tch the other guys race as a team, they alwa ys have to compensa te for the o ther rid er. They a re a lways sayi ng, 'Ma n, it's soft: or 'Ma n, the levers are high .' You can race so much easier the way weare." Whe n it comes to solo competition, however, it's a bou t to become "every ma n for himself." "We don't usually race aga ins t each other, because I'm on a 250 and Nick is on an Open bike. If I see him behind me and I'm not riding great, I pu ll ove r for him, but I'm getti ng a 300 to pl a y around on and I'll be movin g up in to the Open class probabl y in th e yea r 2000: ' Russ says. "He' ll just be ano ther one of th e guys th en , an d we' ll battle h ard . Th e o nly d iffe rence is tha t we probab ly won't take each other out, like some tim es hap pen s wh en th e raci ng ge ts close." The Pearso ns ar e hoping that all their stra tegies, training and har d work will result in two professio nal desert-racing caree rs . And they 're hoping to see tha t result as soon as pos sible. "Me a nd Russ wan t to become the bes t in off-road in a cou p le of years:' Nick says. "We really want to be professio nal racers; that's our goal and hop e. It's not going to happen tomo rrow, bu t in a couple of years, we wa nt to do this for a living. We know there's a lot more money in supercro ss and other types of racing, bu t we grew u p racing in the dese rt - it's kind of what we do. Tv Davis has proved that you can do it in the desert , and so did Dan Smith and Dannv Hamel before that. There's a living to be mad e there, and we wa nt to be next. " And eve n if the d ream doesn' t come tru e, and Nick and Russ do n' t mana ge to put the Pearson nam e at the forefro nt of desert racin g, be warned - there are plenty of others who might. "Th ere ar e eigh t o f u s: ' N ick says. "We hav e an older brother, Nate, who's ' 22, and ther e ar e five littl e kid s still a t home." "Dad is trying to get the little on es a b ik e for Chri stma s th isyea r," Ru ss w a rn s . "They mi ght a ll b e r idin g soo n." . f:\

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