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INTERVIEW AMA HARE & HOUND NATIONAL CHAMPION RICKY BRABEC P90 Actually, yeah! I know I can ride for three to four hours consistently on a hare and hound-style course. I learned how to manage myself racing Baja and racing rallies; you figure out how to manage your- self and keep yourself energized for the entire time you're racing. I think other riders kind of push a little too much in the beginning or vice-versa—they don't push in the beginning and by the time they start pushing, the leaders are already gone. I kind of go balls-to- the-wall to mile two or three after the bomb. That's when your heart rate starts to slow down and you start to find your groove. Some races are different; you race a lot faster in some races, kind of depending on where you start. For sure, if you get the holeshot on the bomb [run], you're controlling the race. The way my starts have been going, I have to push the whole, entire race (laughs)! My training program is, I think, where it needs to be to stay consistent. So your rally experience has helped you in the hare and hounds? Yes and no. I would say hare and hounds helped me in Baja and Baja helped me in hare and hounds, and Baja and hare and hounds helped me in rally and now rally helps me with higher speeds and looking farther ahead for hare and hounds. I think all of them together; it's like a circle. In hare and hounds you have your three hours of high intensity where it's also technical. Baja, you have your high speeds and your rough course racing, and rally, you have your mental focus for six to eight hours a day. All of them together is good. You mentioned Baja and you haven't been racing there for a couple years. Do you miss it? I miss Baja a lot. When you're racing rallies, that's five days of racing [at most of them] then you show up four days, five days before the race [for the pre-race responsibilities] so you're gone two weeks. I do miss Baja, but I think it's in the cards—I hope it's in the cards—for the coming years, but that's a process I think we're going to have to work through. Getting back to hare and hounds, 2016 seemed to be easier for you than your first championship year in 2014. Was it? It wasn't easy. The first year that I won the championship, I had different intentions in hare and hounds than I did this year. The first year, I had no idea I could win a National hare and hound, so I was just racing and wanted to see how I could finish. My first one, I was in fifth [at the end after running second most of the race until breaking the front brake off]. After that I told myself, 'I think I can win a national hare and hound.' The year kept going on and I kept doing better each race. Getting the championship was a big surprise; I was super-excited. Then last year due to my neck injury and other injuries that I had and the one crash, I wasn't able to make two of the rounds so I think last year I could've had the "I do miss Baja, but I think it's in the cards—I hope it's in the cards—for the coming years…" Brabec clinched the H&H title at the final round and celebrates here with his mom and dad.