Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

thinking , 'Just kee p it together , j ust k eep it to geth er. ' A ll this stuff started ha ppeni ng, and it 's like, 'Oh, p leas e.' I' m pray ing while I'm racing, but it all came t hrough ; the bike held together, and everything was perfect at the end and came away with the win. " And the lo ng-awaited championship . "Me and m y brother really did our homework. We rea lly wo rked ha rd . We did a bunch of tes ting and st uff, went to the [finalj race, got the start and j ust had a good day." So me migh t th ink tha t w inning a desert-ra cin g ti t le me an s t a k in g r i sks - k ee pi n g th e throttl e p inn ed over a bl in d rise or ban zai -in g it in the dust, un abl e to see beyon d your own front fend er. But Russ says this isn 't t rue . "I take very few cha nces," he says . " I mean, I might take one or two chances a season , an d those you try no t to do. Heck, we 're in control 100 -percent of th e t ime; wh en we 're battling , we are in contro l. You go over a hill , an d if there's a big 01' cliff on the ot her side, which there prob ably will be, then yo u ' re goi ng t o get hurt b a d if y o u ' re tak in g cha nces and ri din g stupid o ut there. The on ly pla c e y ou ca n so rt o f risk it i s Luc ern e Vall ey . I c an' t beca use I don 't kn ow [Lucern e], but I kno w cert ai n peopl e th at have ridden so much down th ere that they actually know what's ov er th e hill s, and they'll go over stu ff that I'm b raking for. It's like th ey're e it her o n drugs , or - but t hen I real ize af te r I've ra ced down there a couple of times that they race there every weekend, so t hey k n ow what's over th ere . T h at' s the onl y t ime you're g o ing t o get someb ody w ho ' s g oi ng to g o over a hil l. D estry , Brian , D av id [Pear son ], T y [Dav is] , we don't take chances. I m ean , m ay be once in a blu e m oon , and th en yo u get away with it , and you're j ust thankful to God th at yo u go t aw ay with th at one . Yeah , you t ry no t to t ak e any c h anc es, beca use yo u ' re not going t o wi n a ra c e if you get hurt; y ou ' ve got to finish fir st - you 've got to finish to win." Oka y , if Russ doesn' t take cha nces, then wh at 's HI might take one or two chances a season, and those you try not to do. H hi s secret to succ ess? "I t ' s a ll about be ing smoot h , lo o k ing a head a lot," he exp lains. "A lo t of th ese c ou rses are marked ' v irg in '; th ere w ill be an arrow here, an arrow there , and an arrow here , and you need t o learn how to sm ooth out co rne rs and j ust st ay smooth and look ing ah ead bas ica ll y . In th e fast vall ey s, I hate it. In Lu cerne, I don 't like th e fast valleys , but yo u get in the rock s, yo u can pi ck up a lot of time o n peopl e by being aggressive and riding smooth . It' s ha rd to m ake up time on th e top gu ys , but you c an make up a lo t o f time on t h e reg u l ar p eopl e by bein g ag gressive in th e ti ght stu ff . And th en bein g out in fr ont is th e best k ey 'cause yo u' re out of the du st. " T h e st art s ar e a hug e po int o f d ese rt raci ng , b ec au se the du st is so horrend ou s. If y o u g et a 10th - plac e start, th e lea de rs are checking out, an d th e leaders are too fast to put minutes on . You ca n ma ybe get 30 sec onds o n a leader , bu t t o put a c ouple of minutes on so meo ne like Brian B rown or David Pearson or D estry Abbott or Ty Davis, it just ain't going to happen . You 're going to hav e to be in a helicopter if you want to put time on th ese guys. They 're rea lly good riders, pretty much impossible [t o catch ] in c ertai n races. In some races that are really , rea ll y tight, yo u c an put t ime on people. " Russ also thriv es whe n the t erra in gets d iff icult or th e co nd itions get ug ly . " I alwa ys li ke it wh en the ra ces are as tough as possible. Everyb od y likes t o cry and whine about it. This year we had the Palatka GNCC that was proba bly th e funn est race I' ve raced in my life. It was just g na rly and so gross, but I like it when it gets tougher , esp eci all y the last part of th e race. Obviou sly , I need to get a little qui ck er at the beg inning of the ra ce . The o nly times I rem ember, li k e the Six Da ys, you o nly rem em ber the days th at are the wor st - yo u al way s rem ember the harder tim es tha t yo u ha ve , you ma k e memories of them , and I lo o k bac k o n th ose an d sm il e. It' s something to be ha ppy about. It feels like an accomplishment to me whe n I come out of a rac e and it was just gnarly." If you ask Russ wh om he worr ies ab out most whe n he looks down th e st art line of a Nationa l Hare [, Hound , he won 't say T y Davis or Brian Brown or even h is c o usi n David Pearson . He'll sim ply tell you it' s "m e, m yself and I. I ju st have to wo rry about me." And if yo u ask Russ wha t his weak points might be on a b ik e, he wo n 't tell you . He doesn 't want th e co m peti t io n to know. While Ru ss Pearson has b een a good o ff -roa d ra cer for many ye ars , it wasn 't until he sw itched to fo ur-s trokes la st year tha t he reall y seemed to turn th e corner a nd really be c om e a t op c o nt ende r. A co incide nce, perh aps? He says not. "Sw it chi ng to th e fo ur-s troke defin it el y put me on a new lev e l," Pea rso n says . " T h e fo u r-st r o ke [YZ450Fj suits m e we ll , and it's just go t a lo t more power . In the off-road stuff, yo u need t o get the good st arts, and the po wer gets me up front wh ere I need to be. In th e tigh ter stuff, it's... it works good there, too; I m ea n it works good everywhere . I' ve ra ced it in an end uro before and raced it pretty much anywhere, and it's pretty good." Wh en m ost of us want to relax and get away from it all on the week end s, many o f us like to go rid ing perhaps a trail rid e in th e deser t. But what does a Hare [, Ho und National Champion like to do o n his days off? "Usu ally sit at home, wat ching a littl e TV ," Ru ss cue I e n e _ s: • J ANU ARY 7, 2004 25

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