Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/917325
VOL. 54 ISSUE 50 DECEMBER 19, 2017 P143 marking the course, those guys don't know the speeds we're actually hitting or coming up on stuff, so sometimes stuff is marked late. Luckily with the help of the Kurt Caselli Founda- tion now, they're working really hard at trying to make hare and hounds safer. I'm a huge advo- cate for making it safer. I'll be honest with you; I'm basically scared shitless racing hare and hounds most of the time. I never get half as nervous at a WORCS race as I do at a hare and hound. That's just the speeds." Sutherlin says he plans to de- fend both titles next year. "Yeah, that's the plan right now. I'm not 100% sure. I might add Big 6 in. We'll kind of see and just wait. I know the team's waiting in limbo. We're talking with Yamaha, trying to get the whole program set. Then that kind of determines what I'm going to ride and how much is available to me as far as parts and all that stuff, and where they want me to focus." Sutherlin loves racing but says there is a lot more to it than meets the eye, mainly the pres- sure to do well. "People are like, 'Oh, man, that's so awesome. You get to do it [race dirt bikes for a living].' I'm so appreciative and so thankful that I'm able to make a living and make decent money to go racing and take my daughter with me. But what they don't understand is when it's hot out and you're going to the lake and partying, I'm having to do motos, having to eat salads and crap. Then come Sunday, you can't have a bad race. The com- petition is too stiff. You can't have a bad race. You have to be there every single weekend. There's a lot of pressure. That taxes you mentally, too. It's a lot more than people think it is. A lot of people, when it's a hobby it's like, 'Oh, man, this is so awesome.' You know that time when you shut off going across the desert because you don't want to get hurt? Well, I have to keep it on! You have to risk it a little more. "When you start winning quite a bit, even the excitement of you winning goes down because it's so expected of you. So I would say the pressure gets almost more as you start being more successful, because not only are your expectations higher, but so are everybody else's. So, it's a cut-throat business to be in." So how does he deal with it all? "The way I deal with it, the pressure, I can control one thing: I can control winning the race or not. All the other stuff, the buzz, the social media, all that stuff, I can't control what Cycle News writes, I can't con- trol what Dirt Rider [writes], what anybody posts, so the pressure is on me and my goals now. I've realized as I've gotten older that it doesn't matter who writes what. It's about what I want to accomplish and the goals that I set to succeed, and show my daughter how hard work pays off and all that stuff. That's kind of how I've dealt with it. I've kind of just twisted it a little bit like, 'hey, this is what I expect.' If I meet my expectations, everybody else can be happy, too." CN "I'm basically scared shitless racing hare and hounds most of the time." Winning brings home the bacon.