Harri Kullas Interview

Finnish rider Harri Kullas of the Sahkar Racing team hasn’t had the best run of luck in recent years. Injuries and problems with arm pump continued to hamper his career, although the always smiling Kullas has made some changes recently that he hopes will help him get back to his best form.

Having finished 11th and 9th in the 2010 and 2011 seasons all was looking good for Kullas until his injury riddled seasons dropped him to 18^th place in the MX2 series in both 2012 and 2013.

Now 21^st in the 2014 MX2 championship points Kullas missed the opening three rounds of the 2014 season due to injury. He also missed the Grand Prix of England and the Grand Prix of France due to an operation on his troublesome arms. We caught up with Kullas and asked him about his past, present and future.

Q: Harri, you are having another tough time with injuries and stuff in 2014. How can you turn it around?

Kullas: I had problems with arm pump a lot. I tried creams and all types of things, nothing helped enough. Some things worked well for a short term, but then it came back. I wasn’t doing so well in the points and I talked to my team and my family and I said I am not in the points anyway, because I missed the first three GP’s and I had an operation and was back on the bike within two weeks time.

Q: You also had a couple of injuries right?

Kullas: Just before the arm surgery I had a small crash and hurt my shoulder and I had some help and it felt good, but it was good timing with the arm pump. So I rested for that and did the arm surgery.

Q: What is the future for you, you must be getting close to 23 or not?

Kullas: I am 22 and it’s maybe my last year in MX2. The past two years I have had injuries and last year wasn’t so good, so I figured I should stay in MX2. I had thought about moving to MXGP because of the bigger bike. I will do my best this year and see what class I do in 2015.

Q: You have been around the GP scene for a while now and had some good years. How tough is it to keep motivated when you have a lot of injuries?

Kullas: I risk my life and train so hard, but if you are not top three or five then you need a good sponsor and I am not top five and I don’t have a big sponsor, so I need to think about my future. I still have something to prove in the Grand Prix series though.

Q: You also race some national championship races in your home country or Estonia right?

Kullas: Racing in Estonia you can earn good money. I raced both classes before Maggiora and won both, I was happy for that, but I want to race the world championship, because there are good riders and it’s the top level.