The last two seasons of AMA Superbike racing have not been what either Scott Russell nor Harley-Davidson thought they would be when they hired the five time Daytona winner and former AMA/World Superbike champion to ride the black and orange machine. Now, some feel he is ready for the glue factory, and with more than a million dollars in the bank, Russell can retire in comfort if he wants.

But that's not what he wants, not yet. Racing has always been about winning to Scott Russell, and he wants to leave the sport that made him a legend the way he came into it: winning.

Here, for the first time, Russell talks about his decision to ride for Harley-Davidson and what it's been like from his perspective. And he talks about the future.

Russell says that money is no longer an issue, that for the right team and on the right bike, he'll ride for performance bonuses only in 2001. Anybody who knows Scott Russell, really knows him, knows that inside Russell burns a nearly self-destructive desire to win. Few who know him feel his winning days are gone. Here it is, from the mouth of Mister Daytona himself.

Q: Are you going to retire at the end of the year? Do you want to retire, or what's the situation?

A: If I retire, I'll be forced into it. There's no way that I wanted to end my career on this kind of a note, because I feel like I've still got a couple of good years left in me.

The move I made to the Harley team, you know, it wasn't, it didn't ... the things that I was hoping to come from it didn't, and we tried. We gave it an honest shot. The development of the bike is kind of at a standstill really. That's really where Pascal and I have been sitting the last two years.

But as far as riding next year, yes, I definitely want to continue even if it's just a one off Daytona run or something. Just something I can do and make myself feel better about myself, you know? I'm ready to win races again. It's been quite a long time.

Q: I think there's probably three guys in the paddock that finishing in second place is probably the worst thing in the world to them, whereas some riders see that as positive. One is of them is Miguel DuHamel, one of them is you and the other is Mat Mladin. Knowing that, I'm kind of wondering what have the last two years have been like to a guy who for much of his career second place was like eating glass.

So, I'm asking, what's it been like?

A: Well, it's been worse really, because I can't make the top ten on this thing, so it's been tough.

I knew when I signed the contract that I was taking a gamble and I wanted to do it. I wanted to be the guy that put Harley on the map. Honestly, that was my idea when I went there.

The things that we were expecting to happen to the bike and for it to evolve, it really never happened due to whatever the reasons there are. It just never happened, the development of the bike. So, finishing outside the top ten basically for the last two years has been really a hard thing for me to handle, but you learn to deal with things as you go a long.

The two years has made me, well, it gave me a little bit more patience now. I know what situation I'm in. I know I can't win with this bike and that's a sad thing: to come to a racetrack knowing that you really have no to chance to win.

Q: How does that sit with a guy like you?

A: It sits heavy. I go home and it effects me at home, thinking about it. I'm not happy at home because of it. I can only hope at the end of this two years that somebody out there will give me another shot to prove myself one more time. Not to the world, but to myself. It's not anybody else, just for me. I know I can still do it. I know that you don't just lose what you have as a rider, the talent that you have. I know I'm loaded with it still. It was dead easy for me all those years coming to get to the top. Even when I got there, you know, when I won the World Championship. It was hard work, but yet it was easy for me. I've still got what it takes there's no doubt.

Like you said the guys it hurts to finish second, I'm definitely one of those guys. When DuHamel won (at Brainerd), I was happy for him. Because I know he's been struggling. I'm just like that. Give me a bike I can win on and I'll win for you. It's real simple.

Q: When you rode the Harley for the first time at the tire test, there's a picture in my mind. You came down the pit lane after your first lap and flipped your (face) shield open and someone you knew was standing on the pit lane wall. You focused on them for just a second and you rolled your eyes back in your head, just for a split second. Comment?

A: It's been like that every weekend. This motorcycle is a strange piece of work, you know? It doesn't feel like anything else I've ever ridden. It doesn't react to changes that we try to make to the thing.

All I could do was come in with the knowledge that I had of other things that I had ridden and what made them work somewhat in the past. To try this with the Harley bike, it just never came together. The bike doesn't react like some of the other stuff that I've been able to ride in the past. Shoot, you know, everything we did to this thing and nothing's happening. I'm not gaining a tenth; I'm losing a tenth here and there.

Then I'm watching my teammate maintain somewhat consistency on the thing and beating me every weekend, that's even worse you know for a guy like me to have your teammate, that's the last thing in the world you want.

We've struggled through. We tested a lot at the racetrack just changing stuff around. We really didn't have a lot of new parts to test and what we did, we basically just changed stuff on the bike trying to find something that felt better for me and we never really found it. Still haven't. I go out everyday not really feeling comfortable riding this motorcycle. I haven't been comfortable with the bike but twice the whole time I've ridden it and that was at Elkhart both years. That's it.

Other than that, I feel like I'm going to get hurt riding it. I just feel like that. It's a bad feeling.

Q: How can a guy go fast with that in the back of his head?

A: You can't. I came to the realization that this is what this is. This is not at this point in time moving forward the way I hoped it would, it's not. I've got to ride sticking my ass out on a limb, and that's the difference between me being thirteenth and maybe tenth. And to me that doesn't even register. I give not a shit about finishing anywhere just inside the top ten. It means nothing to me.

People may look at me and think, "Oh, he's not even trying". Well, let's just sit your ass on this thing and you tell me what you feel like, and then we'll talk about it.

We've had a lot of mechanicals, it's let go and let oil under the tire and then you think ?It's going to kill me'. I don't feel that bad on it, but I don't feel comfortable and it's real simple: when you don't feel comfortable you don't go fast. Simple.

more in a few hours

earlier:

(DuHamel says Russell can still win)

(Rob Muzzy thinks Russell can still win)