After clinching the '14
GNCC title early, Russell
challenged himself by
riding a small-bore 150
XC two-stroke, quite the
change from his 350
four-stroke. He still won.
VOL. 51 ISSUE 50 DECEMBER 16, 2014 P199
on that thing," says Russell. "I
knew it wasn't going to be easy,
no matter what track we were at,
but the Ironman, especially, was
a tough one to try to do that. The
track gets gnarly, and the woods
are super rough. I knew I was go-
ing to be fast in the woods, but
there are so many open areas. I
knew I needed to open up a lead,
but I knew I didn't want to be bat-
tling anybody on the last lap or I
couldn't have won it."
According to Russell, the 150
was incredibly fast.
"We actually put the 150 on
a dyno and it wasn't that far off
of the 350 I'm racing, when it
comes to horsepower," says
Russell. "Obviously, it didn't have
nearly as much torque, and that's
where it was lacking."
Russell still favors last year's
GNCC title, when asked which is
the most memorable.
"I still think my first title meant
the most to me, the way it came
down at the end," says Russell.
"It took a lot of concentration
and a lot of preparation, where
this last one was kind of handed
to me when Charlie [Mullins] got
hurt. It feels good to be two-time
GNCC champ, but that first one
I worked really hard for and it will
always be special."
Even when Mullins dropped
out of the series, Russell still
found plenty of reasons to keep
pushing harder.
"If I could have won them all
[after Mullins dropped out], KTM
would have been the only manu-
facturer to have swept the entire
series in one year, so that was a
lot of motivation to keep up the
intensity," says Russell. "Also,
if I had won out [the rest of the
series] it would have tied Juha's
win streak. Unfortunately, it didn't
happen. Josh Strang was able to
steal one from me at the Power-
line GNCC."
With 20 years of racing behind
him, Russell is now one of the
stars of the series that his family
started many years ago, and he is
very proud of how far it has come.
"I feel like it's a really good time
to be an off-road racer right now,"
says Russell. "I feel the sport is
more popular now than it has ever
been. It's becoming a little more
mainstream, although not quite
as much as Supercross or moto-
cross. It's come a long ways and
the talent is slowly getting better.
It's hard for the new riders com-
ing up to get the hang of it right
away because it's so physically
demanding. You've got to be in
really good shape, so sometimes
it takes a guy a few years to break
into a top placing.
"But before, it was kind of an
old man's sport; guys in their late
30s and early 40s were the ones
winning all the classes, but now
it's the young kids for the most
part. It's cool to see the way it's
grown and how much it's grown.
We've had record crowds this
year and the tracks can handle
even more riders so there's no
reason it can't grow bigger."
In addition to GNCC and Six
Days, Russell gave EnduroCross
a whirl in 2014, with mixed results.
