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Bartels' Harlev-Davidson's Shaun Russell II II with Bartels', Russell has found his climb to Grand National stardom fraught with setbacks. Ask him if he sees himself where he envisioned he'd be at this point in his career, and his answer comes with some hesitation. "That's ... always a tough question for me to answer, because I think that I'm behind," Russell said. "Dirt track is kind of a strange thing, and it's kind of frustrating when you look at all the other sports where the young kids can just come right in and dominate everything. For us, it seems to be just the opposite. The older guys have the advantage. The only time that we really ride our race bikes is on race day. There isn't a lot of testing that goes on to find out where I am [setups]. But I think that it is coming along a little more now. I feel like I'm gaining ground on it." That mayor may not be wishful thinking, but 2002 could be a make-or-break year for Russell, who finished a disappointing 17th in the 2001 STORY BY SCOTT ROUSSEAU PHOTOS BY FLAT TRAK FOTOS AND ROUSSEAU rl t's the same thing that every professional flat IL!I track rider dreams of: turning pro and getting that big factory or high-profile privateer ride and then establishing himself as a consistent top-10 rider the kind that makes people "ooh" and "aah" a lot whenever his name is spoken, a championship contender. As a part of the Bartels' Harley-Davidson team, 22-year-old Shaun Russell has had the first part of that dream going for him for six years. The second part, however, has been slower in coming. Joining the Bartels' team in 1996, Russell's professional career started out with a lot of promise. He worked his way through the ranks in the HarleyDavidson Sportster Performance Series, missing out on the 1999 series championship by an elbow at the final round in Del Mar, California. But since abandoning the "anchors" for a full-time 750cc ride 30 FEBRUARY 27. 2002' DUD • e n e _ s AMA/Progressive Insurance U.S. Flat Track Championships - his best career 750cc finish to date. That's hardly what you'd call a great result, and it is results like those that have left him teetering on the brink when it came to the renewal of certain sponsorship packages in the past. But in 2001, Russell also showed what he his capable of, with strong runs in the second half of the year - most notably at the Springfield Mile, where he culled his fair share of television time by running up front for the entire day during the Hall of Fame Mile. A fifth-place finish there, combined with a few more solid performances, paid off big. The strength of those performances left Russell in a position to score a little more financial help and also land some tuning assistance for 2002. Instead of dreading the start of the year, he is now anxious to take his place on the podium. "I think that is definitely where I'm at right now," Russell said. "In the past, it was like I would get up in there [top 10] and then get set back with injuries. But I'm healthy now, and I feel like I need to make a definite improvement over where I've been. To say that we're going to go out and win the whole thing? Well, that's what we are working toward, and it would be nice, but it would be a tough process." Probably not as tough as it was to get back into top mental and physical shape following his debilitating crash on a terribly prepared Indy Mile during the inaugural Formula USA National Dirt Track Series in 2000, though. Russell's high-speed getoff down the back straightaway at Indy left him with a broken C-7 vertebra and a scary case of the tingles. It was also a painful injury that required nine weeks of five-day-per-week therapy. It left him mentally shaken, and when he did return he felt nowhere near as confident as he had been. "At the time, I didn't realize that it was going to take as long to recover as it did," Russell said. "I got back onto the bike too fast after that crash. It was a case of people telling me that it was time to start riding again, and obviously I wanted to ride. I just couldn't get comfortable when I got on the bike. There were times that I couldn't ride, and there were times that I didn't even want to be there. But I rode anyway, and then I went home and got away from it. I just relaxed and did a lot of trail riding with my buddies, and I started out the next year feeling pretty fast." Russell also started out the 2001 season without trackside help, however. He was left to his own devices when it came time to making adjustments on race day, and he quickly learned that being a jack-of-all-trades didn't suit him well. His early season performances suffered, but toward the end of the year, Russell once again appeared to gain