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I couldn’t be happier. Yeah, I know he was kind of a pain in the ass to deal with, but he was one of my favorites to watch in my mountain twisties formative years of the early to mid 90’s. That and the fact that the northern Georgia back roads were his old stopming/training grounds.

I remember we used to have an annual Daytona 200 party, and wow was he fun to watch. I specifically remember that one year, he crashed (a simple low-side) and came back to win it on a Kawi. Then he won it on a Yamaha, which IMO was a great feat since their 750 was only competitive in the 600 class for power.

I remember him riding for HD thinking to myself “what the hell will happen to the motorcycle world if HD starts winning races????” Heh - no worries there. Then I remember him going to Ducati.

I had weaseled tickets to the 2001 Daytona 200 on the hot pits compliments of friends who were in with Parts Unlimited. We were about 50 feet from the starting grid, almost in perfect line with Scott Russell. Having always been a fan I was watching his start.

That start was a brutal site. The bike stalled at the start of the race right in his grid position. Yet now he had some fifty bikes blowing by him to get into turn one. I saw him start to pedal the bike and BOOM, he got somewhat t-boned.

It was obviously very serious from the beginning. The race got red flagged and the ambulance was on-scene immediately. I noticed that the guy who hit Russell was hurt too…and his bike was on fire. Didn’t matter. Russell got the full attention while the other guy ay on the ground rolling around grasping his arm and the bike burned to the ground before being put out. I understand priorities, but it was just an observation.

Russell was rushed to the hospital with a compound fracture to his leg among other injuries. I signed up for the mailing list (email) to keep tabs on his recovery through his website Screaming Chief. There are a lot of post-crash pistures out there, but out of respect I’ll pass on posting those.

My last run-in with Russell was here in Phoenix. In 2002 I went to a motorcycle show that had demo rides and super-motard events at Firebird Raceway. I had no idea he was with the factory KTM team. I was walking through the pits and low and behold I was standing in front of Russell. I said “Russell…cool” and he looked at me and gave the nod.

I’m partial to Russell because he was the guy to beat when I first started riding sport bikes. He brought the competition level at Daytona (the once premier race of the AMA) to new levels. He also rode Deal’s Gap et al. I for one am glad to see him inducted this year. A good choice in my opinion.