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/1319485
2020 GNCC / FULL GAS SPRINT ENDURO CHAMPION KAILUB RUSSELL P92 Interview OVER IT Russell is going out on top. There's no disputing that. But some question why he wants to quit GNCC racing when he would begin the next racing season (2021) healthy and in the best shape for the first time in many years. According to Rus- sell, the bottom line is he's just "over it." "Honestly, racing is not sus- tainable," said Russell. "I'm 30 years old. I had a unique oppor- tunity to maybe create my own business and move in a direction still within the sport and help guys out. I had been coming into the previous few years a little bit banged up and beat up. I had knee surgery in '15, and then I ended up having my shoulder done in '18. My shoulder was torn. Both of my shoulders have been torn up for several years. So, I wasn't actually ever really healthy. I was getting lucky to make it through these years. But in 2020, I was actually healthy for once. If I could win my eighth title, I just felt it was the right move to do. I've got nothing left to prove, and honestly, I just wanted to go out on top and say I was the best there was to do it." Like many racers, Russell got into the sport because his father raced, and it just seemed like the thing to do. He wanted to be like his father. "As a kid, you don't under- stand about life and living on your own. You're just focused on dreams, in a way. So racing a motorcycle was always what I wanted to do, and that's all I knew," said Russell. But making money and a living out of racing off-road is tough. "In off-road, it's hard to make money," says Russell. "I was making pretty good money my second year in XC2, and then I signed my XC1 deal. It was a bet- ter salary, but it was going to be a lot harder to earn those bonuses, like a lot harder. So, in theory, I was going to make less money than I was when I was in XC2." SUCKING WIND Once he moved into the elite XC1 division in 2011, Russell ad- mitted that he suffered through a few tough races because he wasn't fit enough. "At Big Buck, I started up front with Charlie [Mullins], and I battled him for the first hour and a half of the race. I remember he yarded me at the end of it with two and a half laps to go, and then Josh Strang caught me and passed me, and I got third. That was a huge turning point for me. I didn't get beat because I was slower; I just got beat because I wasn't as fit as those guys." From that point on, Russell vowed never to get beat again because he wasn't fit. "I knew that's what separated winners from the rest of the pack. I knew right then and there I needed to make a change and take it a little bit more seriously. I knew I had the speed, and I could run with those guys. I was just as fast, if "I just felt it was the right move to do. I've got nothing left to prove, and, honestly, I just wanted to go out top and say I was best there was