INTERVIEW
2016 CYCLE NEWS RIDERS OF THE YEAR
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"We really put the focus on not
making any mistakes. We have
fast riders. It's not like we have to
coach and teach the riders to go
fast. But we really put an empha-
sis on making sure there's no
mistakes—going fast and follow-
ing the rules and understanding
the format so they don't make
a mistake. Because they don't
regularly race that format."
Kallonen repeated the strategy
ad nauseam throughout the week,
pointing out the "dos and don'ts"
over and over again, which proved
to be effective, if not somewhat
annoying to the riders.
"At one point I thought I was
too much on their nerves,"
Kallonen said with a laugh.
"We were at the service area
reminding them like, 'Okay fol-
RANDY HAWKINS
Randy Hawkins—you've
probably heard of him. He's
a seven-time AMA National
Enduro Champion and has
many times been a member of
the U.S. World Trophy team,
racking up 13 gold medals
between 1987 and 2004. He
was inducted into the AMA
Motorcycle Hall of Frame in
2009 and currently manages
the Am-Pro Racing Team for
Yamaha.
"I was very excited," Hawkins
said of Team USA winning
for the first time. "It's been a
passion and goal to win the
Six Days for so many years, it
goes back to before they [the
2016 U.S. Team] were born,
and my hat is off to those guys
[Russell, Michael, Duvall and
Robert]. The Six-Days spirit
never died, and these guys
did it—it's great for the U.S.
It makes me proud to be an
ISDE participant. I've told
my guys [Am-Pro Team rid-
ers] that they have to ride the
ISDE at least once; it needs to
be on their bucket list.
"I always thought we had
the potential to do well in the
past; we had the riding skills,
the trail, enduro skills, but
lacked the grass-track experi-
ence. But our races are evolv-
ing into more ISDE-style rac-
ing—no time-keeping, faster
GNCCs, more moto-like, so
our younger guys are more
used to that [ISDE] kind of
conditions. I'm excited about
our future."
