Cycle News

VOL. 56 ISSUE 4 JANUARY 29, 2019 P109 Sheene denounced Hennen as amateurish, writing memo- rably: "If you pay peanuts, you get a monkey." Sheene's great friend Steve Parrish later told me: "Some monkey. This one had horns." But Hennen—the first American 500cc GP win- ner—was himself injured before any real chance to resolve the rivalry. To tell the truth, none of Barry's bedfellows had a com- fortable ride; Sheene took the "beat your teammate" dictum very seriously, and took every opportunity to establish himself as top dog, on or off the track. Fair enough. This is the stuff of which champions are made. The list of mutual hostilities over the years contains many great names. Long-time fans will recall 1988, when Yamaha's triple champion Eddie Lawson's abrupt switch to Honda took everyone aback. Nobody more so than incumbent champion Wayne Gardner, who had shared many previous public spats with Lawson when they were on dif- ferent bikes. Wisely, although both rode Rothmans Hondas, they were operated out of sepa- rate trucks and separate pits. Lawson, by the way, took the title. A little further down the road, Wayne Rainey got the chance to show a hitherto unseen abrasive side when reigning 250 Cham- pion John Kocinski moved up to the dominant Marlboro Yamaha 500 squad of Team Roberts. Rainey never missed a chance to pour scorn on the upstart. In a way, this could be seen as a sign of grudging respect. That's probably always the case. Nobody needs to fall out with a teammate who doesn't pose any threat. But Nicky Hayden, the ultimate nice-guy racer, came very close to blows with his 2005 Repsol Honda teammate Max Biaggi, for the latter's apparent assassina- tion attempts with ultra-close overtakes, even just in pit lane. Hayden would later (eventually) forgive Dani Pedrosa for knock- ing him off at Estoril, almost costing the American in 2006 title. Dovi appears in some memo- rable duels. When paired with Crutchlow at Tech 3 Yamaha they kept the battles for the track, but when I asked Dovi if the two had friendly relations, he responded: "Friends is a big word." Dovi and later Ducati team- mate Andrea Iannone were bad friends, especially after the latter knocked Dovi down in Argentina in 2016, and the more so when Dovi was retained by Ducati in spite of "The Maniac's" often better results. But Dovi's real ire was pre- served for Lorenzo at Ducati over the past two years. Not surprising, when he was getting much better results but getting paid much less money. Things have started very dif- ferently for 2019 with compatriot Danilo Petrucci joining Ducati. The new boy has even moved home to be closer to the senior rider to train together, and the pre-season love-in at the recent team launch had each speaking warmly of how they could help the other. We shall see how long that lasts. And we shall see how it goes between new Honda teammates Lorenzo and Marquez. Jorge has plenty of experi- ence of in-team hostility, and not all of it generated by himself. At Yamaha, Rossi was absolutely filthy on him, and eventually left the team in disgust. Marc on the other hand operated alone in the smaller classes, and with the most unthreatening Pedrosa alongside him in MotoGP. And he cannot fail to have observed that since he arrived in 2013, Lorenzo is the only rider to have beaten him to the championship. Adding extra spice is that each will potentially be taking points off the other, possibly opening the way to a more consistent rider—say Vinales or Rossi—to snatch back the crown. Stand by for a vintage year. CN

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