Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128245
AMA Hare & Hound Nationa pion Russ Pearson , • I Russ Pearson is proof that nice guys can finish first , I BY KIT P AL M ER PHOTOS BY K INNEY J ONE S u ss Pearson claims that rid ing ~ otor cycles didn't come naturally to him. In fact, the 24-year-old redhead eve n says that he was downright clumsy on a bik e when he fi rst started ri din g as a y ou ng boy in the d esert i n th e m iddl e o f " N o w h e re," Nev ad a , wh er e h e b a si ca ll y grew up. " B ut m y broth er wa s even m o re cl umsy than me , " he was qu ick t o p o int out (joki ng ly , o f course ). An ybody wh o follows the desert - raci n g scene m ight find this hard to believe. A fter all, both Russ and his older brother Nick are maste rs of the cross -gra in , an d on e of them , Ru ss, is now the number -one desert racer in the country. " It j ust go es to show that you can tak e a clumsy k id and m ak e [h i m] good at any thing if you 're devoted enough," Russ says . "We just worked real Iy, rea ll y hard. We never had it really easy ; we just worke d ou r bu tt s off." Russ and N ic k Pearson are sy no nymous with desert racing . The two have been racing Hare [, Hounds ever since they can rem em b er , b ut you might hav e noticed th at yo u have not seen Nick's na m e in th e headlines lately . La st yea r, Ni ck suffered a serious inj ury to hi s j aw and is sti ll held ba ck by it , havin g not race d since he sla m med his face on to hi s bik e's cros sba r while p racticing on a m ot oc ross track . Even though Nick has been forced to put his own title hopes on hold, he has still been foll ow ing the Hare [, Hound circuit - not as a rider, bu t as Ru ss' mec hanic , me ntor and supp orter . Tog ether, they have pursued Russ ' lifelong dream of becoming his sport's National Champion , whi ch they finally accom plished following the 2003 desert -raci ng season . " That [winn ing th e cham p ionsh ip] was a b ig relief off my shoulders ," Russ says . "I mean , I've been work ing for that si nce I was a little kid. You always have a dream in your life, and that wa s one of my dreams, so it was kind of a b ig accomplish ment, an d it put a b ig smile on my fac e. 1 still haven 't got th e gri n off my face. "You should ask m y girlfriend ; I've just been a bug ger to live with forever, [but] now 1 have a smile on m y face instead of being so intense and grumpy - well , not reall y grumpy, but just so determined ." A lot of people do n't know j ust how close Russ Pear son ca me to not getting the Hare [, Hound ti tle this year. Ev en th ou gh he led th e point s race fo r mo st of the seaso n, he nearl y lost it all becau se of a knee injury. Lu c k il y , he co ul d not have sustaine d the injury at a better time - at th e last race befor e a R 24 JANUARY 7 ,2004· cue I e n e vv fourmonth break in the series . " A t that race, I ended up tearing my AC L: he says . "That very next week, I went in and got an M RI, and they had seen I had torn the A CL. The next da y, I had surgery - the next m ornin g. I never want to hav e surge ry aga in , I can tell y o u that. It wasn 't a really good experience, but I h a d real go od doctors working and go t the knee back strong . I came into the sec ond-to-Iast round w ith a chance to sew it [t h e H[, H t itle] up, but I j us t got a bad st ar t. It wa s so du st y at th e race, all I co uld do was salvage a third, so it came down to the fina l rou nd. It was like a th reeway b attl e between me, B rian [Brown] and Destry [A b b o t t ] going into the final round ." At t h at final rac e , all that Pearson was hoping for besides winning, of course - was to have an uneventful race, but that was the last th ing he got. "Me and Brian were battling it out the begin n ing th e fi rst five miles, just back and forth and back and forth , and I finally got the lead ," he recalls. " I mean , that race was j ust ha iry. I bent my back disc, so I lost my rear brake in the first loop, [and it] was like a 120-mile race. I had t o herd ho rses off the course, and I was using sp ecial fuel that I hadn 't tested, and it ende d up oxygenating on me , and my bik e started runnin g fa t. So here I am , leadin g th e race, and I' m s