CHAMPION GARY SUTHERLIN
VOL. 51 ISSUE 50 DECEMBER 16, 2014 P213
who kept taking the checkered flag. Aside from
one bad race where mechanical difficulties
slowed him down (round six in Utah), and a bro-
ken collarbone that sidelined him for two weeks
during the summer, Sutherlin sailed to the 2014
WORCS Championship.
Sutherlin's success in WORCS brought about
another opportunity–one he had been dream-
ing of for a long time. He was invited to race
the International Six Day Enduro (ISDE) with the
Wellard Club Team in Argentina. A stroke of in-
credible luck came shortly after when Factory
KTM racer Ivan Ramirez' plans to compete at
the ISDE fell through–due to his home country
(Mexico) not fielding a Trophy Team. Ramirez'
misfortune left a fully race-prepped KTM 450
available for use at the Six Days–and KTM
knew just who to offer it to.
"It was one of those things that all just lined
up perfectly," Sutherlin said. "Antti (Kallonen,
KTM's Off-road Racing Manager) told me that
Ivan Ramirez wasn't going to be going. He basi-
cally said, 'Here, you can use Ivan's bike at Six
Days.' Once I knew they were on board, I was like, 'All
right, I'm going to give it a shot!'"
Although the opportunity was huge, it wasn't a deci-
sion Sutherlin took lightly. Before committing, he sat
down with his good friend and ISDE veteran Destry
Abbott and weighed the options between an enticing
proposition and a looming championship.
"I knew it was a big commitment. ISDE is a lot of
work. There's so much that goes into it that people
don't know about. I actually sat down and talked to
Destry and it was a 50/50. I had to focus on WORCS,
and at the same time, I didn't want to pass up an awe-
some opportunity to race for my country and experi-
ence something like the ISDE."
After accepting the invitation, Sutherlin joined his
fellow American competitors for an ISDE training ses-
sion at Taylor Robert's house in Arizona. It was then
that disaster (almost) struck with an injury that could
easily have cost him the championship.
"They were showing us new guys the ropes and we
were doing some tests and stuff, and I ended up snap-
ping my collarbone on day two," Sutherlin said. "Luckily
I was back on the bike within two weeks and I was able
Sutherlin took his KTM 450
SX-F "media long term test "
bike all the way to victory.
