On The Pegs March 2020 - Volume 5 - Issue 3 | Page 65

On The Pegs
VOL. 5 ISSUE 3 - MARCH 2020
65
ALKS RETIREMENT
A lot of people are surprised about your plans to retire after ths year. You
still have a lot of racing in you. Why the decision?
I’ve still got a full year. I’m still racing after that. I’m not fully done, but it’s coming.
I’m done with GNCC after this year. That’s kind of the main focus that I’ve had for
ten plus years now. I just feel like it’s time. I’m not getting any younger. I’m getting
older. I’ve told everybody when I made the decision. I’ve been mitigating risks.
It’s a tough sport. It’s not sustainable. I’m not going to be able to do it forever. So
what’s one more championship? What’s one more year? What’s one more race win?
That’s kind of how I look at it. It’s not sustainable. I’m not going to be able to do it
for forever. I’ve had a good run and a great career. I want to give myself one more
year and try to go out on top and call it a career for GNCC. For the following year
in ’21, I still want to race and be relevant. Try to go after Six Days one more time
and get that done and put more focus on it and do some other races around the
country and around the world. There’s some events that I’d like to do. Just kind of
bucket list stuff, in a way. With riding GNCC and being so focused on that, there’s a
lot of events that I never had the opportunity to go do. That’s kind of where I’m at.
We’ve heard that you bought some new property. Do you want to talk
about any camps or anything in the future that you might be planning?
Yeah. I’ve got some things going on for after racing. It’s still in the very beginning
stages. I’m kind of starting it now so I can transition into it. I can’t really get into any
of it yet. But there’s going to be some camps and stuff. The ideal thing is create a
business that’s going to be sustainable for the future, and also to still be relevant in
the sport and continue. We’re going to try to continue to work with KTM with the
off-road team, along those lines. It will be cool. Once we get everything ironed out,
we’ll be able to talk more about it. It’s still in the beginning stages. I’m kind of go-
ing to be transitioning into it in ’21. But there’s still a lot of racing left before that.
Are you a little bit scared or a little bit nervous about retiring and thinking,
“Oh, my gosh. I’m not going to be able to keep myself busy enough. This is
all I’ve done my whole life?”