by: Jared Bolton
Tuesday, March 24, 2015 | 3:10 PM
Kenny Shick has had two consistent round thus far in the 2015 season, and leads the College-A class points heading into Steele Creek. We caught up with Kenny to talk about his 2015 season, plans for the future, and more.
GNCCRacing.com: How's it going today?
Kenny Shick: It’s going good, just got home from school and trying to making sure everything is ready to go for Steele Creek.
So tell everyone a little about yourself.
I’m 19 years old, I live in New Castle Pennsylvania. I’m currently attending my first year of college at Youngstown State University.
How did you get started racing?
I started riding when I was pretty young. Cole Richardson and I live a few miles apart and started riding quite a bit when we were younger. From there he started racing and a year or so later I started and it took off from there.
You've been having a pretty great 2015 season so far. Tell us how it's been going. Did you expect to start off the season this strong?
Yeah, it’s started off pretty well! I was able to win Florida and then I had a good ride going on in Georgia where I actually ran out of gas on the last lap and had bike troubles. I was really lucky to come away with a fourth with all the circumstances that happened. I had a feeling I would start off strong because I got to spend about three weeks over this winter at Chris Borich’s house in Florida and ride with a bunch of the top guys like Chris Borich, Johnny Gallagher, Landon Wolfe, Josh Merritt, and Chad Wienen. It was a big confidence booster to be able to ride and train with those guys.
How does it feel to currently be holding the points lead?
It feels awesome to know all the hard work I put in over the off season didn’t go to waste and I was able to put a great program together with awesome people supporting for this season, which really helps.
It's still early but do you think you could hold onto that lead as the season continues?
Yeah, I feel if I keep putting in the hard work I have I will be able to hang on to the points lead as the season continues.
What's it going to take to continue the success the rest of the season?
Hard work for sure. Everyone in the College A class are really good riders. I think whoever puts in the most effort will rise to the top and be there as the season progresses.
What are your goals for the rest of the 2015 season?
My goals for the 2015 season are to be able to come away with the College-A championship, Top Amateur, and a top 20 national number.
What do you hope to accomplish beyond 2015?
Short term goal would be to move to XC2 next year, try to be a top runner in that class and maybe try to contend for the title in that class. My long term goal in racing is to be a top XC1 Pro in the future.
What's it going to take to make that happen?
It’s going to take a lot of learning, hard work, dedication and most importantly having fun with it. If you’re not having fun with it, why race?
Alright before we wrap this up, who would you like to thank?
My family for being behind me 100 percent, my trainer Jourdan Calhoun, Ryan and Robert Smith at BNR Motorsports, The Parks at Spider Graphixs, GBC Motorsports, Fly Racing, Shoei, Gaerne, all my friends that help out so much, and Jared Bolton for this interview.