BTG Part I: The Fans Want To Know - Kim Morrell Edition

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The belt greets Kim Morrell every time she opens the door.The belt Morrell won after winning the ADRL Pro Extreme Motorcycle World Championship at the “Battle For The Belts” last month is hanging up in her front entrance and is noticeable every time the front door is opened.Morrell laughs at its placement - “It’s a reminder everyday that anything is possible” - but 2010 truly was a remarkable year for the quickest and fastest woman on two wheels.She also has garnered quite the massive fan base in a short period of time and, in an innovative feature the ADRL introduced last month, we had her fans pose some questions in the latest “Beyond The Guardwall” segment.With so many great questions, we split it up into two BTG pieces. Part I runs today and Part II will appear tomorrow.Let’s get to it:April Jean Balzanti wanted to know, “What are the building blocks that got (Morrell) to where she is today?”Kim Morrell: I would have to say teamwork from my crew and my determination. I am determined to succeed and my crew is so important. All of us work together and the funny thing is we molded right away. It really didn’t take too much time. When my crew chief (John Sachs) first started, trust always comes into play, but I had no problem trusting him. It was easy to trust him - he’s a world champ and he knows what he is doing and I believed in them. I definitely couldn’t have done this without them. My determination came from people telling me I can’t. It drives a fire in me just to prove someone wrong. I’ve always been determined to do this and get it right. Next up is Michael Kolbrick, who asked, “Is it a big deal being a female driver and winning the world championship?”Morrell: Everybody kind of brings up being a female to me and I don’t see it like that when I’m competing. But I guess it is a big deal as far as showing that women have just as much strength and determination as men. Once I get something in my head that I want to accomplish, it stays in there. Of course, to represent being a female and doing well, it’s just huge. There are so many female fans that I’ve gained and they are just so proud. That’s just breathtaking.I also have a daughter and winning that world title has impacted her life quite a bit. I’ve always told her to believer in herself all the time and I think that proved to her that I believe it, too. Setting an example as a woman for my daughter is big and very important to me. She’s at a vulnerable age right now and I try to teach her strength as an independent, young girl. As long as you push and work hard, you can succeed and I kind of proved it to her. That’s the most important part of this to me.But as a racer, I just view myself as another racer. We’re all out there for the same goal and I want to run with the best of them. I think maybe I work a little harder being the only girl because I constantly have to prove myself that I can hang with the best.Timothy McIntosh has a great question: “What was going through your mind when you crossed the finish line, knowing that you had just won the World Championship?Morrell: Wow, there’s so much that went through my mind. When I finally got to the turnaround road and got off the track, there’s a picture of me with my head down on the bike and I think it was just a sigh of relief.But I was screaming from the minute I saw I had won. I was just screaming like crazy. When I stopped, I put my head down on my bike and just thought, ‘I did it. This is real.’ (ADRL TV Personality) Bret (Kepner) had to continuously say that I had won. It was just disbelief as to what had happened. I finally did it. All the races I lost all year long and here I am in the world championship and I won the race. It was sweet and definitely mind-boggling.Ethan Snyder gets the last one for Part I and asks, “Will you be as strong as you were this year in 2011?”Morrell: Definitely. I had a lot of goals this year and pretty much captured and got every one of them. I didn’t win as much as I set out to, but in the beginning of the year I said I just wanted to be in the ‘Battle For The Belts.’ To win it was pretty crazy. But I have new goals now and I’m definitely going to come out stronger at the start of the season. I definitely want to get in that 3-second range, too.I’m going to be even more determined and I think I’m stronger now than I’ve ever been. I went through a year (2009) of not qualifying to year (2010) of being the third qualifier consistently, and now my goal is to be a No. 1 qualifier, set a world record and run in the 3s. I’m ready to go right now.(Photos by ADRL/Richards)

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