On The Pegs VOL . 4 ISSUE 11 - NOVEMBER 2020 49
just focused on dreams , in a way . So racing a motorcycle was always what I wanted to do , and that ’ s all I knew . I got a harsh reality check when I actually started to try make a living at it . Then I turned it around and got a couple XC2 wins . Offroad , it ’ s hard to make money . I was making pretty good money my second year in XC2 and then I signed my XC1 deal . It was a better salary , but it was going to be a lot harder to earn those bonuses , like a lot harder . So in theory I was going to make less money than I was when I was in XC2 . I got third . I started up front my first year in XC2 . I had a couple rough races there at the beginning . Then at Big Buck I started up front with Charlie and I battled him for the first hour and a half of the race . I remember he yarded me at the end of it with two and a half laps to go , and then Strang caught me and passed me and I got third . That was a huge turning point for me . I didn ’ t get beat because I was slower , I just got beat because I wasn ’ t as fit as those guys . After that point , I sort of made it my mission to never have that same feeling where I couldn ’ t hold on and battle with those guys . And it ’ s happened a few times since . There ’ s been races where I can ’ t hang on at the end . I knew that ’ s what separated winners from the rest of the pack . I knew right then and there I needed to make a change and take it a little bit more seriously . Luckily I was still young . That ’ s what changed it all . It was first getting fit . I knew I had the speed and I could run with those guys . I was just as fast , if not faster at the time , but I wasn ’ t as fit . Then I got fit and the next year I won a ton of races , almost won a championship . Just everything snowballed in the right direction for me . Definitely once you get a taste of winning and what it ’ s like , there ’ s nothing that can replace that feeling . It becomes an addiction , and that ’ s how I treated it in a way . It ’ s the racer mentality , at least my mentality , how I look at things . I ’ ve always figured out or found a way to be able to make it happen , no matter the circumstances or what ’ s going on around me . I can ’ t control anybody else . I can only control myself . So I ’ ve always just taken that into perspective and always made sure I was able to get the job done mentally and physically .
For all these years you ’ ve had this focus , this intensity . Are you going to be able to relax and just be a regular guy ?
I ’ m still going to race a little bit next year . It ’ s going to be tough because it ’ s fresh . It ’ s going to be a few years before I even want to really ride or go to the race for fun , because for myself I know what I ’ m capable of and what I ’ m still going to be capable of and what I was able to do , and I ’ m not going to be able to do that . So , I ’ m not going to get the same gratification out of it . So . it ’ s not going to have the same meaning for me . If I can ’ t get that same gratification from riding a mo-