Tuesday Toolbox: Josh Kirkland

XC2 Pro-Am Champion Josh Kirkland says he doesn't talk a whole lot. Maybe you won't hear a lot from him when he's on the podium, but if you read today's Tuesday Toolbox, you'll see how much the native West Virginian will open up, especially after a hard work out! Kirkland talks about what it took to take the championship (by one point!), why he decided to stay in XC2 to defend it and how much he enjoys his FRE KTM teammates.

Josh, how's the workout going? Done running? Hopefully! Running isn't that much fun.

Do you have a pretty strict workout routine? I try to find excuses to get out of it sometimes, but it doesn't really work! It's a pretty strict routine.

What does it consist of? Are you allowed to tell us that? I just ride and do some odds and ends. Angel and Tim are my trainers pretty much. They push us pretty hard. Angel is pretty focused herself. It helps us to have that additional push. Bryan and I are kind of the country guys that never really worked out that way. But Tim knows what he's doing and Angel loves it. At first I had to get bossed into the gym. I don't really mind it, but I like it in a way. Basically because I'm not a fat kid anymore.  (laughs) We do a lot of running, and it's really more of a full body workout.

Where did you come from anyways? Or rather, how did you get started racing? I'm from a small town in Proctor, W.Va. It's not even a town, but it has a post office and that's about it. There's a town close to there though. I'm really close to Morgantown, where you guys are. That's the closest big college close to us. A lot of my friends went to West Virginia University. I love West Virginia. Florida is nice for the sun and stuff, but it's nothing like being home.

How did you get into racing GNCCs? I guess it isn't too hard being a West Virginia boy. Well it's a long story actually. I had a really close friend who was few years older and we had planned to race the 2003 season. He passed away in 2002. After that I didn't do much riding for 2 years. I didn't really want to touch a quad. I had another friend who raced that talked me into it so I started in 2004 in North Carolina. My friend and I had planned to do it and I really wanted to see what I could do and how I could compete at the national level.

If you don't mind telling me, you said you didn't really ride for two years after your friend died. Were you just not interested in it anymore or was it just too painful?
He was pretty much my brother. We were really close, and it messed me up. He was on the way to my house. I was messed up for awhile. I rode here and there, but racing just kind of left my mind for awhile. I had never really lost anyone before.

Wow. I bet it is hard to talk about that. But thanks for sharing that with us; I know that had to be hard.
Yeah, It's still bad today to talk about.

When did you get hooked up with KTM? It was a real shocker, actually. In my mind, no factory was going to pick up a Pro-Am guy in such a bad economy but Tim called me in really late January, and said that he just wanted me to know that there might be a possibility for me and Angel to be picked up. He told me not to get my hopes up but not to buy any bikes either.

So you and Angel knew each other before KTM? Angel and I were both teammates on the Honda team the previous year so we had known each other.

The KTM seems pretty tight-knit. What is your working relationship with the team? These guys are awesome to work with. I don't really care to work with anyone else. Tim is great.  It's impossible to ever want to leave them. Tim is constantly on the phone with sponsors, doing everything everyone hates about racing. He works his tail off to get the satisfaction of us winning. We try to do the best for him.

It's obviously a good relationship since you won the Championship. You narrowly won the XC2 Pro-Am championship this year against Brian Wolf, just by one point! Are you stepping it up to build a more comfortable margin this year? I sure would like to. Last year was very stressful. It was a fight to the end. Brian is a great competitor. I had some ups and downs and so did he. Towards the middle of the season and up to the last few rounds I thought maybe it was over. Really, at the Ironman I thought it was over until the last couple turns. I had to finish seventh and I was in eighth! But Angel jumped out after a couple turns and told me I had it. I was so shocked. I had no idea I had won the championship.

What happened at Ironman? Before then, you had run the entire season mostly in second and once in fourth. This was your worst race of the season. It was the most horrible race I had in a long time. This was my best season ever, but at Ironman, everything that could go wrong went wrong. I got stuck, I wrecked in front of Tim! (laughs) It was just crazy! Everybody was stressed out and told me not to do that again, to not bring it down until the last couple turns. Luck didn't go my way that day. I had an off day to begin with. I've been able to come from the back before but that race I couldn't do it for nothing.

Well luck didn't totally leave you it seems, you did win the championship. But a lot of that was because how consistently you performed all year. How did you stay so consistent? My goal this season was to put the bike on the podium every race. As long as it was up there I was happy. Our guys work hard and I wanted to show people that. I was happy to stay on the podium that much.

When it comes to being consistent, I just go out and ride my race. I don't let anything bother me. I'm just there to have fun. Whatever happens, happens. My team is behind me whether I finish 1^st or 10^th. They don't pressure me to win, just to have fun. That makes a big difference when people aren't pressuring you to win. I mean, they definitely want me to win, but they understand when I have an off day.

Let's talk this season, why did

you decide to stay back and defend your XC2 title instead of moving up to XC1? I really didn't feel like I was ready to. The top Pro-Am guys may be able to run top 5 in some races, but I don't think we can do it in all of them. I don't feel that confident yet. I want to make sure I'm ready. Tim and I talked about it and we figured it was the best thing for the team. You never know what's going to happen. I'd rather hang out in this class and see what happens.

Do you think you will move up next year? We'll see how stuff goes. Hopefully this economy comes back a little bit.

Brian Wolf is going to be back as will Parker Jones and you'll even have the challenge of Walker Fowler this year. Do you think Walker will be a dominate competitor? Yeah, for sure. He ran the Pro class at Yadkinville, and he gave us a run for our money until his bike broke. He's really impressive and fast. I'm looking forward to competing with him because it will be fun. But he's definitely a challenge to look out for. I really think the class will be more challenging than last year.

The FRE KTM team has changed this year, with Bryan Cook being signed on. Do you think the new balance in the team will affect you in any way? If anything, it will help. Bryan is really great to work with. He's a really happy go lucky guy that goes with the flow. He just loves to ride and he's so appreciative of what FRE/KTM offered him. He's quiet and shy like me but we hit it off really well. It's like a big family, we get along really well. I'm really happy with the team we have.

Let's go towards goals for this year... Obviously, you want the championship again. What do you think it's going to take? I think it's going to take being very consistent. I will have to go out and do my absolute best. It's hard to tell what's going to happen. I hope to have a season like I had last season. Hopefully I've picked up more speed from Ironman until now. And, Everything was new last year. Now that we're used to the bikes and the people it will get a little better each race. Being consistent is the key to doing well.

Anything else you'd like to add? I'd like to thank Tim Farr for all of this, for putting it all out there for us. I don't know, maybe he doesn't get as much credit as he deserves but he's the heart of the team without a doubt. He just does it because he loves it. He's a good dude.