November 2020 - Volume 4 - Issue 11 November 2020 - Volume 4 - Issue 11 | Page 47

On The Pegs VOL . 4 ISSUE 11 - NOVEMBER 2020 47

On The Pegs VOL . 4 ISSUE 11 - NOVEMBER 2020 47

When did you actually make the decision to retire ? Honestly , I can ’ t really remember . It was a little bit before this time last year . I would say it was in September , October of last year . I had thought about it actually a couple years before back in ’ 17 . I had a little bit of a rough patch there . I was kind of just over it . I know if I would have been doing it then it would have been for the wrong reasons . I rethought it and I went back to the drawing board . I got back into race mode and I got three more years out of it . I kind of had to reset and get back into race mode and just reevaluate everything . But it was still in the back of my head , even in ’ 17 . Honestly , racing is not sustainable . I ’ m 30 years old . I had a unique opportunity to maybe create my own business and move in a direction still within the sport and help guys out . At the beginning of the year I was back in form and ready to go before all this COVID and everything happened and I was really on point . I was feeling good . I was actually healthy . I had been coming into the previous few years a little bit banged up and beat up . I had a knee surgery in ’ 15 , then I ended up having my shoulder done in ’ 18 . My shoulder was torn . Both of my shoulders have been torn up for several years . So I wasn ’ t actually ever really healthy . I was getting lucky to make it through these years . Like I said , I was back on form and healthy . If I could win my eighth , which now I did , I just felt it was the right move to do . I ’ ve got nothing left to prove . The only thing I ’ m going to gain from here on out if I keep continue winning I feel like is monetary gains , and it ’ s not sustainable for another five plus years . Really I just wanted to go out on top and say I was the best there was to do it . I didn ’ t want to race until I lost and then lose the nostalgia , in a way . I wanted to be more along the lines of what RC did . I grew up in that era where he dethroned Jeremy McGrath . Jeremy is a great guy , an awesome competitor and I was a huge fan . I still am , but once RC beat him and he kind of kept hanging around he lost that nostalgia in my mind . RC went out as the best to do it and nobody beat him . So I figured that was my best option . Like I said , I was planning on still staying within the sport . I ’ ve got my places . I was just in a good spot to do it . I ’ m content and I ’ m happy with where I am as a racer . Like I said , I can ’ t race at this level until I ’ m 60 , 70 years old . I ’ ve had a really good run . There was nothing more to gain .
Different people race for different reasons . What did you get out of racing ? What drove you to race ?
It ’ s ever-evolving . It ’ s always changing . At first I was a racer because my dad did it and I wanted to be like my dad . I wanted to race a motorcycle . As a kid , you don ’ t understand about life and making a living and living on your own . You ’ re