GNCCRacing.com: How are you doing?

Ricky Russell: Not too bad, just driving across the country. Right now we’re in South Dakota.

Heading back home to Washington State?

Yeah, it will be nice to be home while I’m recovering. It felt like I had to wait forever to be mobile enough to travel. I finally felt good enough, so we loaded up the van and headed west.

Are you actually able to drive now? Or do you have someone with you?

It’s just me and the girlfriend. I can drive, so we’ve been switching back and forth. It’s a long drive to try and do alone.

What have you been up to since your injury?

Really, I’ve mostly just been sitting on the couch at Stu Baylor’s house. Literally just sitting on the couch – it sucked. But for the first few weeks that was all I could do. Last week I was finally able to get up and start moving around again, and I got to come spectate at High Point as well.

What did you do to try and keep yourself entertained? Besides the fact that you were at Stu’s house… I’m sure there’s never a dull moment there (laughs). But I know being stuck on the couch has to be really frustrating for someone as active as you are…

(laughs) Yeah, there’s a lot going on so that’s always entertaining. But there was a lot of Netflix… Amazon Prime … some supercross video games. Watched Camp Coker on my computer. That was about it. Being unable to get up, I just felt so useless and lazy, it was a little bit demoralizing. But now I’m starting to see a little bit of improvement every day. So I’m a lot happier now.

Were you actually staying and training with Stu prior to getting hurt? I guess you wouldn’t be down at the ranch since you’re no longer riding for Yamaha…

No, so my plan this year was this: The Coastal team has a house down in Florida, so I started out there for the first two months. The weather was still not awesome up here after round one, so I went back down to Florida. Did Wild Boar and then The General. The plan was to stay around Stu’s area, but that’s when COVID hit. So, I flew home to Washington and was just doing my own thing out there. Then when GNCC announced that we were going racing, I spent a week back here getting ready, then I crashed and here we are. I was never actually training with him, but Stu’s house was only an hour or so from the hospital. Even though we race against each other, we’ve always been good friends and he would come there and bring me stuff. He’s been through a lot of injuries and knows what it’s like, and I really appreciate how helpful he was through all this.

I know you’ve probably told this story a lot now, but what happened during your crash?

I had a really good race going. I wanted redemption from the previous Georgia race - I missed on the setup and struggled a lot there, so I was actually really excited we were headed back there. Anyways, decent start, slowly moved up, and by the last lap I was right on Kailub [Russell]. He was struggling a little and I was able to get by him once. He made a pretty aggressive last lap, last-ditch-effort pass, and got back around me – we actually both went off the track but stayed upright. He slowed down a little bit after that. Maybe to catch his breath after that exertion. As we came back near the start, I took a lower line that was a little faster than the main one. Anyone else, I almost certainly would have made the pass. But Kailub… I mean, he’s the fastest rider on the track anyway and he can like… tell, somehow, when someone is trying to pass him. So, he, I don’t know, felt me there and sped up. You couldn’t see well from one line to the other, there was kind of a blind there because of some trees, and by the time we both saw where the other person was …. Well, I tried to get on the brakes at the last second, but it was too late. We came together and kind of hooked to each other and were barreling down the trail side-by-side, until I sheared off against a tree. It was a fast section; we were probably going 35-40 mph when this all happened. The tree cranked my handlebars to the right and I went flying over them. As I was going over, the end of the bar or the lever basically grabbed my whole groin area and tore me up. As I got up off the ground into a kneeling position, I felt a whole bunch of warm liquid running down my legs. I was like “uh-oh”. Mike Witkowski’s girlfriend was standing right there, and I saw she had a radio, so I yelled “medic, I need a medic” and she radioed for one. Another guy had come over and was trying to get my bike out of the trail – I don’t know who he was, but I’d really like to find out so I can thank him and send him something. He gave me his t-shirt, which we tied around my leg to staunch the bleeding. That was a huge deal.

Then what happened in the aftermath?

After that I took an ambulance ride and found out that my femoral artery was super severed, and I had almost no pulse in my foot, plus I had a broken hip. Going into surgery they told me that I could possibly lose my leg… that was definitely the scariest injury I’ve ever had. They were putting me out and I had no idea if I would still have a leg when I woke up. So when I woke up and my leg was still there I was obviously super excited. They ended up cutting out the bad piece of the femoral artery and replacing it … I guess our bodies have an “accessory” vein that we don’t really use? That’s what they call it. So, they cut that out and used it to fix the femoral artery and they say it’s supposedly as good as new now. We’re not sure how long it’ll be until I ride again, but it will be awhile.

I was going to ask how long it will be until you think you’ll even be able to start training again…

I talked to a lot of doctors. Obviously they know how us racers are, and knew the first thing I’d want to know is how soon I could race again, but one doctor really put it in perspective for me. He said something along the lines of “First off, you’re lucky to even be alive right now” to which I replied, “good point”. He followed up with “You’re also really lucky to still have your leg” which was also a good point. He concluded with “You need to give this one time, and either way you’re already coming out ahead, because if you were dead or only had one leg you wouldn’t be coming back at all… so give it time and recover right.” The biggest thing is that I have to be on blood thinners for six months, which is really limiting. If I cut myself too badly, I could bleed out super quick. If I hit my head or get a concussion, I would end up with a brain bleed which would be really, really bad. So until I get off them, I can’t do anything too crazy that could risk injury. So it’s going to be really hard, because even if I do feel good and strong, I won’t be able to get back to it. I’m going to keep seeing doctors and get all the advice I can, but I’m not going to rush this. My 2020 season is over, which is a bummer for sure, but there’s always 2021, so the goal is to come back then, strong as ever.

Did you enjoy getting to come to the race this weekend, or was it more difficult than fun for you?

This year has been really good – I love the team environment at Coastal, so it was great seeing them again. My boss’s wife was the only one in the hospital with me, and she was so helpful. They stayed overnight to make sure I was good the next morning… like, they didn’t have to do that. And I know a lot of other teams would probably do the same but it still really means a lot to me. So it was good seeing everyone again and hang out, because the last I saw most of them was before the Bulldog. And I do miss racing. It’s hard not being out there, but I still enjoyed being there and seeing my racing friends, really you could call them my racing family. So it was kind of a love-hate weekend (laughs).

Obviously, the injuries are a big downside of making a living like this, but what are some of the things you enjoy the most about being a pro racer?

Really, it’s the racing itself I enjoy most. I love riding, I love racing, and I get to do it all the time. I get to train and race with people who feel the exact same way. The competitiveness, the desire to win and improve. I started racing, caught the bug and it’s hard to say when I’m going to stop. This was a big eye-opener for me, but I 100% plan to get back at it.

Since this was a bit of a bummer of an interview for you, having to talk about getting hurt, I thought we’d end with some lighter and more fun questions. So, what’s your favorite GNCC round and why?

Which one is my favorite? In the past it’s always been Ironman. I mean everyone tends to love Ironman. When we go there the dirt is usually awesome and that time of year is great. I kept saying for the last three or four years that we’d really lucked out with perfect weather and we were eventually going to get a mudder. And of course, last year we finally did (laughs). I struggled there last year, but every other year I’ve had good finishes and a lot of fun. My very first year racing GNCC in 2013, I jumped straight into XC1, and Ironman was my best finish, I placed sixth overall which I mean isn’t really anything to brag about….

Okay, stop, stop, back it up. Did you just say 6th overall wasn’t anything to brag about?? (laughs)

(Laughs) Well okay, let me rephrase – now it wouldn’t be anything for me to brag about, my expectations are a lot higher and I’d be a little disappointed with a sixth place. But yes, at the time it was something I was super excited about! So yes, Ironman has always been my favorite.

Who was the pro rider you looked up to the most as a kid?

This is a really interesting question for me to answer, because there weren’t really any that I looked up to, just because I got into racing so late. I didn’t start until I was 16 or 17, and before then I didn’t follow racing and knew nothing about it, aside from occasionally watching supercross. By the time I knew what was going on and started paying attention, I was past the prime age for hero worship, ya know? That being said, when I first came over Jason Raines – he did the same thing, came from Washington State and became a top racer in GNCC, so I respected him and did look up him a lot and he was a huge help in me even coming to GNCC. Randy Hawkins was also a huge help to me, and I admired his accomplishments in the sport as well.

Speaking of Jason, it is kind of cool to see him back at it in XC3!

Oh yeah, he’s definitely competitive and stubborn, so he doesn’t give up. It’s cool to see him out there, he still rips on a 125. Didn’t lose much, though he is getting older and I like to tease him and make old man jokes all the time. But he’s still killing out there!