After a slow start in Florida, Russell has won the last two races of the series, including the Steele Creek Round, one of the few races he didn't win last year.
Hey, Kailub! Congratulations on grabbing your second win of the season at Steele Creek and on the 3rd place overall finish. At the beginning of the race it looked like it might be another dogfight between you and Jason Thomas but you were able to make a break on the second lap, take us through your race.
Well, I got a good start and kind of just followed Thomas around for the first lap and couldn’t get around him. Right before the finish on the 1st lap I noticed something going on with my throttle, I had a little crash before the finish and I ripped my whole throttle tube off. I guess when I was adjusting my levers before the race I had loosened the throttle tube and forgot to tighten it back up!. Thankfully, I saw my mechanic Hollywood like 3 turns later and I stopped he fixed it. After that I put my head down and charged and was able to catch back up to Thomas, he made a bobble and I was able to get around I pulled away. I started to catch XC1 riders and I’d make a pass on them and pull away and eventually I had worked my way all the way up to Charlie Mullins and we rode together for a while and I was able to get around him, too.
In the past you struggled in mud races, it seemed like it was a combination of your stature and maybe even a bit of a mental block. What’s changed that’s helping you be more successful in mud races?
I really don’t know, lately I just seem to have a lot of fun in the mud. To be honest, I didn’t really think of it as a mud race, the first three laps were perfect. As it rained harder it got worse and the last lap, the lap they didn’t count, was the only lap that was really muddy.
Kailub could be the first rider to ever win a GNCC overall from the 2nd row.
When you get up into the XC1 guys and start putting yourself into a position for a top-3 overall finish, it’s pretty much the talk of the race in the pits and over the PA. We’ve even seen mechanics mention it to XC1 riders on their pit boards in the past. How hard is it for you to keep focused on the race and winning your class, and not the overall?
It’s hard to keep your mind off it, it really is. But, when I catch those guys I just have so much more fun than normal because I really don’t like riding with anyone in my class, all I want to do is break away from everyone that I’m racing against in the XC2 class. It’s so much easier to follow the XC1 guys and see what are the good lines and what lines aren’t, and just have fun riding and racing. It’s hard not to think about it but I just try and focus on the race and keep pushing.
What are your thoughts on the ruling to allow 2 strokes into the XC2 class? Were you concerned that 250F wouldn’t be able to compete?
I wasn’t really too concerned about the horsepower, because the bike isn’t really a problem for me since I’m so small. I also really don’t think there’s a “2-stroke track” out there–I don’t think there’s a track that favors them. The only place I see them having an advantage is off the start and the only guy out there whose bike is as fast as mine is Thomas’s.
Last year in Florida you won by nearly 2 minutes, this year it seemed like you never really found your groove. What happened at the Florida GNCC?
Well, I went down off the start but, honestly that didn’t bother me too much. I got into 3rd really quick and then into 2nd by the time we were into the woods. Then I kind of pumped up a bit so I dropped back and once the arm pump went away I started to ride better and catch up. I started riding good and felt really good – but for some reason I didn’t tape my hands like I usually do for Florida races and I ended up getting really nasty blisters on my thumbs and just couldn’t push hard. It was basically all I could do to hang on to the finish, I was riding with my thumbs over the tops of the grips because it hurt so bad.
Kailub didn't tape his hands before Florida, and paid the price with some gnarly blisters that slowed his pace.
So going into Georgia you weren’t dwelling on your performance in Florida?
No, I wasn’t really worried about it because I was riding well but the blisters really got me. I don’t have too many concerns about being able to win in the XC2 class, I know we’re all pretty close and speed and some days some guys are faster than others. But I’m confident in my speed and I feel like I can be up there battling for wins regardless of the conditions.
There’s always been a lot of talk about your training routine, or lack of one. Can you give us an idea of how you train?
I started at the beginning of the year training really hard and after I didn’t do well at Florida and Georgia I reverted back to the old Kailub Russell and I’m just sitting around doing nothing at home – it worked out pretty well for me in North Carolina!
Do you really want me to put that in the interview?
Yeah, why not? It’s the truth! [Editor's note: I'm not so sure it really is the truth.]
Riding the momentum of two straight wins, Russell heads to the Big Buck GNCC with a lot of confidence. He finished 3rd overall there last year and says it is one of his favorite tracks.
People always want to talk about who trains harder, when obviously to race as hard as all of you guys do for 3 hours you’re all in pretty good shape. It seems to me that the thing people either love or hate about a rider is their confidence, sometimes thought of as cockiness. How do you keep your confidence high going from a bad race like in Florida to wins in Georgia and North Carolina?
I feel confident going into every race, but some days I really feel like riding and I just know I’m going to do really well. Other days I don’t know what happens, I just have an off day. This season started out pretty good, and yeah in the past I’ve had those years where I did really good like the year I won 200A [Russell led every lap of the first 9 200A races in 2007] and then those bad ones like my first year in XC2. I think that’s all really in my head, I know I’m capable of winning and running up front every race. I think it’s really a positive thinking thing before the race and during the race, and regardless of the weather. I never did enjoy racing in the rain and now I could care less about racing in the rain and I don’t care anymore what happens. We all have to race the same track, and I know I’ve been told that a million times, but for some reason it has finally sunk in. I know that if I want to continue to doing this for a living I need to have my head on straight and make my worst races count.
Let’s switch gears a bit, what went through your mind when you came upon that huge bottleneck on the 6th lap in North Carolina?
When I first got to the hill and I saw Cory and then Josh. Everyone was telling me to stop and I couldn’t’ figure out why I in the world I would want to do that! So I moved up the hill a bit and my mom told me that there were a ton more guys up the hill and it was pretty much impassable. So we just kind of sat there and I was talking to Cory. Whibs ended up coming around and passed us all and ended up making it, but the officials had said the race was called already and that was the smart, fair thing to do. I think that if they had kept it going that there would’ve been maybe 10-15 of us that could make it up and then there’d be all those guys stuck the next lap. The only way to reroute that section of the course would’ve been to have guys racing up and down the main road with campers leaving and that would’ve been a seriously dangerous situation.
Alright, Kailub, that’s about all I’ve got. Thanks for taking the time to talk to us.
No problem, thank you!