Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Talkingwith . Roger DeCoster "T h e Man" takes a look at his past and future By Dave Hawkins The 500cc W orld Motocross Championship, which belonged to R oger DeCoster for five of the p ast seven years, has been all but officially given to Finland's Heikki Mikkola . DeCosrer , in this Cycle News int erview, discusses the idea of losing to Mikkola , the possibility of riding for I H on d a , and hi f u t ure pans. IS "HerikkiI h as Iit pre tt y we II 'In th e b ag . h b this year, He would ave to reak a leg have to wi an d I wou Id ave to Win every moto to have a chance ," admits R og e r DeCoster, current worl d 500 motocross champion. For the second time in seven years and the first time since 1974, Heikki Mikkola will win the 500cc World ti I It e.. . ef In spite 0 f t he tact t h at R oger knows that he doesn't have a chance this year, his attitude toward racing is thed u~;f co~rse it does not make me happy that I didn't win it this year, but it was much more difficult to handle when I lost it the first time to him ," said Roger, " He [Mikkola] beat me hi b f he ti most 0' f t e time t IS year ecause 0 hi race Circumstances, a guy eras Ing. or inz duri h hi h somet Ing appenlng unng t e race. Right now the Suzuki isn't too heavy and it's as good as the rest of the machinery _ probably better now _ '" . again. "Maybe it should make me a little more upset that I lost the title this year but it doesn't. I don't know what t he reason for that is. It 's strange, maybe because I've won it many times. I feel worse for the Suzuki factory people than for myself," Roger continued. " Maybe later on it will hit me more but I don't think so. " Roger shed a litt le light on the new champion, saying, " Heikki only wants to do what will help him in his racing. He does not care very much about the advertising or public relations work for the factory . That's one of the reasons things were not going so well for him at Husqvarna . I'm not sa ying that Husqvarna was always right , but if they asked him to do anything outside racing he would say yes and then not show upl" Ever since Roger signed with Suzuki for the '71 Grand Prix season , in which he won his first World Championship , other factories have tried to gain the racing services of DeCoster. Currently one of the loudest rumors is that Roger will ride a Honda next year. "I almost signed with Honda two yers ago for t he '76 and '77 seasons. In fact . I was very close to signing ," Roger said as he told how he felt about changing rides. "Since then I have had a very good relationship with Honda and I know all the head people involved in racing, Whenever I see them they are real nic e to me , but we have never talked a bout my riding a Honda next year . After it didn't work out before , · we haven't talked about contracts anymore , "The reason it didn't work out with Honda is because I won the championship in '75 and the Suzuki was a very good bike I couldn't make the change just for money reasons. I didn't feel that would be honest to the people at Suzuki to leave just because of a difference over money. Maybe it was a mistake , but I don't feel bad that I did it this way ," . . Changing bikes for money al.one h~s ,bee n the downfall of many riders In the past. Roger remembered one such . "Wh Ak J did II ' Instance: . en e onsson I we on a Maico and then changed to Y h h . h d f ama a, e SWltC e or money I H didn' Iik h reasons on y, e. I n t i e t e Yamaha but he s":ltched because th,e money w as fantastic. For me, t hat IS not a good .enough reason to ~hange. ~he first th~ng you have to do IS really like t he bike a!,d, th en comes th,e money, Money IS Im port a nt , but It. , h fi hi .. ISn t t e irstht R lng, ' AI . . . , o~~ wit oger s r~Cl ng expertise, Suzuki reaps benefits In the research and development departments as well, If you, have any. doubt of the popularity of SUZUki, take a count at the n~t motocross you ,attend, The Suzuki motocross machines evolved ~rom the early efforts of ~he TM 400 Into some of the best bikes on the mark er, "Th e RM 250C . rea IIy t h e IS b 250 h k" R id est on t e mar et, oger sal . "1 h TM' I d h . d n t e , sear y ays t e raClng an production ~epartments . we.re two separate functions ?f ~uzukl. Since the m iddle of the year In 74 they have put . t h I' racing . an d t h e pro ducti uctron motocro~s blke~. under the sam.e manager s supen;slOn. So .now there ~ an exchange of information , That IS ?ne of the reasons ~or .the Improv.emen~ of the production bikes and a little bit because of myself. "W hen they made the TM 400 I was new at Suzuki," Roger remembered . 'J oel had tested the TM and he liked it. He said the bike was good! He had more influence at Suzuki than I did . He had been with Suzuki for over a year and I had only been with them for three months. "J oel was a very talented rider and if he had a good day he could win on anything. On a day that he didn't feel like ra cing or he didn't feel good you could give him the best bike and he would complain about everything. And maybe the next week you could give him a bike with solid shocks on the back , no springs or anything, and he would win the race and say 'The bike is fantastic! ' He was not a good test rider at all , Absolutely no d" Roger shuns long term goals for his future but for im media te plans he is quite clear. " In long range goals I don't have any definite plans , because I don't think they work ou t. Two or three years from now it might be difficult to work out plans made today. And in spo rts it's more difficult than any other field . You can be a journa lis t o r the president o f a company. There is no way you ca n tell what will happen to you in the future , I don't like to make long term plans. "However, for next year I want to win the championship back. That is my immediate goal. This year Heikki outrode me in only two races Holland and Sweden, I outrode him in Germany but it didn't work out because I had some problems. I was better in Canada but the brake pedal bent. In England I was better but I had problems when my throttle stuck because of th e mud in both heats. And at Carlsbad I think I was better than he was . I was second in the first heat and was ca tching Brad [Lackey] for first place when he fell and I hit him and bent my forks, This year has been an unfortunate one for me , And if I do win it back next year - I' ll quit. " Only one other rider in history has won the title six times - Joel Robert in the 250 class . when motocross was a lot younger. Roger views his attempt at six t itles in the 500 class this way : " I th ink it will be pretty difficult to match m y record in the futre. The level of th e racing has improved vastly th e last three years. It will be pretty difficult to win six again. Now it's hard work . In '72 I won the title pretty easi ly but in the following years it was hard work. Whatever the 250 people say, the 500 class is more difficult. When Joel won the 250 clas s he and Hallm an were very good, but there were only two factories involved in motocross at that time , CZ and Husqvarna . Greeves quit in '61 and there were no other factories. The other riders just had stock bikes, But now the list of factory bikes on the circuit is large: Yamaha , Honda , • Suzuki, Kawasaki , and still there is Husqvarna and Ma ico . CZ now is almost finished but there is so much tougher competition involved , There are a lot more riders who are capable of winning, getting better bikes than before," The sole Amrican contesting the 500 Grands Prix is Brad Lackey, who just won his first overall after five years of competition. Of Brad, Roger said , "H e has a good body, his physical side is really good . Also he has good co nce n t r a ti o n , which is very important. Brad is building up a lot of experience in Europe: he is doing well consisten tly on very different circuits. He has no worries, he has a nice wife and a good company behind him. I think he has the biggest chance of all the Americans. Brad is the only American that I think is capable of winning the World Championship," Currently Roger is third in the points race for the World Championship, With three rounds remaining DeCoster should produce some great racing. But regardless of the outcome of this year's racing results Roger is, and always will be a winner. • 13

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