Trail Rider Magazine

Yeah, so much of it was new to me. I've been telling everyone the rules are kind of a mix of the NEPG and the Six Days. Right off the bat I was caught off guard when they told me I had to pick my row, and we got to choose based off our finish order in the prologue… I was like 'well, what row do you want for this, I don't even know' (laughs). I wanted to win the prologue for the li le bit of extra money that comes with it, but a erwards I was hap- py, because I got to see what some other guys did. I decided I'd choose one right behind Tyler Medaglia because obviously he knows what he's doing, he's won it the last three years. So I chose one behind him. And then, I guess earlier rows are always be er because you can't move forward rows, but you're allowed to drop back to different rows without penalty, as long as you don't ever get thirty minutes behind… there's just a lot of strategy with that. That's different for sure. The impounding of the bikes is sort of like Six Days, but not completely. The whole event is just very unique, and that's a cool part of the race. You men oned your dad came with you to the race, does he normally come with you to the races? Through most of my racing career he had a full- me job that was hard to get away from, but he's re red now and it makes it fun to have him along. He's never chased in an enduro be- fore, so that was kinda new to him, but he just jumped in my truck and did it! And helped me a lot with the drive. He's in the vehicle with you now, right? Mr. Rus- sell, can I ask you what it was like being a chase driver for the first me? He's here, but he's way in the back so I'll relay what he says. "It was fun. I enjoyed it, and Ricky lined me up with Al. We did get sepa- rated a couple mes but I s ll made it and I enjoyed it. One thing that made me feel good was that Evan Smith said he saw me more than he saw the KTM truck!" Yep, that's how you know you're doing a good job (laughs)! So, Ricky, do you think you'll come back next year? I'm not sure. And this year, I s ll wasn't sure un l the week before whether it would actually be pos- sible. There's so much going on in my life right now, it really depends on a lot of things that I don't have answers for right now. We will see how everything looks, and this is definitely an event on my radar. If it's possible and there's enough con ngency and I'm on the right bike to make it realis c for me, I want to come back. I'll spend money to go race, but I can't afford to spend a lot of money to go race. I mean, I definitely could have lost this weekend and came home with nothing, but at least with Kawasaki being so generous there was chance to do well and make some money. It just has to make sense, because I have a baby to think about now. Anything else you'd like to add before we wrap this up? I just want to give a hats-off to the promoters for do- ing such a good job with the event. There's so much that has to be done to organize an event like this. I also think it's cool how welcoming the Canadians were. They were happy to see more American racers coming up, which is nice because in some countries they aren't always so happy to see us. All of my com- pe tors were such good sports. We'd talk between tests and hang out even though we were compe ng, it was such a good feeling and a good me. And last ques on as always, who would you like to thank? First off, I have to thank my wife for le ng me go to this event while she stayed home with a two-week- old baby. I would like to men on that occasionally the thought of how expensive baby diapers are would cross my mind mid-test and really mo vate me to keep pushing (laughs). I also want to thank my old man for coming along, driving, and helping me throughout the whole trip! Then of course I want to thank all of my sponsors: Lynnwood Motoplex Kawasaki, Americool, Bicon Services, XCGear, Pirelli MX, FXR, 6D Helmets, Lacey Collison Center, Tasha Fuels, SXSlideplates, Bullet Proof Designs, ODI Grips, Seat Concepts, IMS Prod- ucts, Trammell Tire Pros, Fusion Graphix, Dirt Tricks, TBT Racing, The Beech Club, DP Brakes Racing, Slavens Racing, Team Green Kawasaki, Nine2 Tech- nology, An -Gravity Ba eries, Yoshimura, Hinson, Rabaconda, and Tear-Off Gaskets. 14 Trail Rider www.TrailRider.com

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