INTERVIEW
N-FAB/AMPRO YAMAHA TEAM OWNER RANDY HAWKINS
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for his riders Ricky Russell and
Josh Toth, Hawkins says it's in
their hands.
"Josh is riding super well, but
winning doesn't mean every time
that you're always the hands-
down fastest guy. Sometimes
you can win a race that the other
guy's misfortune. But you have
to be there to win it. That's what
Josh has been doing. Has he
been getting great starts? Not
really. But he's been working
hard, he's charging to the front.
And week in, week out, he's put-
ting himself in a position to win
and those opportunities have
opened the door, and when they
did, he took full advantage and
he stepped through the door
and won events."
As for Ricky Russell, "We're
happy with Ricky. He never actu-
ally had full factory support like
he has now with a full mechanic
who takes care of everything—
practice bikes and all that. It's
been a change for Ricky. He's
had to be the mechanic, the
driver, everything else with his
program before, so this year it's
taken a little bit to get a grasp on
it. Sometimes you got to tell him,
'Ricky, you come in the shop
and I'm going to put white gloves
on you. I don't need you to be in
here working on the bike.' But
on the other side, he'll jump in
and he can do anything.
"He's getting faster and better
every event for us. So he's really
knocking on the door with start-
ing to be a consistent podium
guy. Ricky will do a great job
for us. I'm expecting to see his
results continue to get better."
The overall GNCC Champion-
ship might be a ways off at this
point, but Hawkins is happy to
have his team back to where he
feels it functions best—some-
thing he plans not to move away
from again.
"I am very pleased with the di-
rection that we've moved into 17
and I don't see it changing from
the future of how we do things.
I'm truly blessed to be around
a company and the racers and
guys that I am, as well as the
fans and the people involved
with off-road. It's been a won-
derful ride for me and I plan on
being around for a while." CN
Retired GNCC and OMA champ Paul
Whibley is back with the team as
mentor, trainer and part-time racer.
