Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126302
20 as getting m ech anical th ings togeth er engi ne wise. The chassis is pretty well d ialed in. . You stay in Illinois when the Nationals are back East, right? I've got these people I stay with . They really ge t involved with me in ' th e raci ng when I'm back th ere. wh ich is real nic e, because if it weren 't for th em , m y expenses would be wa y above what th ey a re usu all y. After each National I get to , we just head ba ck for their hous e , wh ich is in Plainfield . So it's kind of nice ; afte r each Nationa l we hav e a place to go. I know, most riders , a fter they lea ve a Na tio nal, they h ave to stay in a hotel , or stay at a shop, or sleep in their van . You still have to sleep in your va n , don' t you ? Yeah, in fact we just went p racticing at Riversid e, got there a little late at night and ended up sleep ing in the van . That's the way it goes. You have to kee p at it. Tell u s about the p ractice session. Everything is still ne w to me in road racing. As a Novice a nd first yea r Ex pe rt on the 250 , I didn't really feel comforta ble a nd I d id n't actually know what I was do ing. The 750 is actually a little easier , to ride for me, and no w that we've gon e out three or fou r tim es, I' m actu ally getting used to the thing and getting mor e co nfidence on it. All I need is more practice time , and I think I' ll be fai rly co mpetitive on it in the comi ng yea r . You seized in the race didn't you? Yes. W e ran th e practi ce sessions really well - I felt really goo d . We kept a n eye on the t hing - you really ha ve to keep an eye on the pl ug readi ngs because you don' t want to be seizing. Everything looked good. T hen , coming u p on about the fourth or fifth lap in the main event, for some reason th e thing seized on the left side. Unfortunately, it was in th e same exac t corner where I seized m y 250 and got sp it off m y rookie year. That yea r I d id n't manage to get the clutch in 'time , bu t this year I grabbed th e clutch and saved myself. I was running in third place at the tim e and closing in , doi ng really well . It's kind of a shame that it seized u p . It would ha ve work ed ou t rea lly well to . win that. What do you think of the new Professional Riders Organization? I d on't know how it's goi ng to operate , yet, ' it's such a new th ing . From the rider's view of the thin g , it's going to be a lit tle be tter because they' re trying to ge t more money in volved . Right now, for a racer to go to a race, a National , there's j ust not very much m oney to be made . If . something.can be done whe re the rider can make more money, it 's just goi ng to be that m uch better. You've won the H ou sto n TT and short track. Does that gi ve you a lift , an advantage - besides the obvious points advantage - that you might not have had before ? It gets us pumped up mor e. It gives us a little colla teral as far as trying to get hel p from certain people , say, parts or a lt og e t h e r help . W e 've got two Na tio nal wins . When we tell people we're tryi ng to get some help from , it kind of gets th em enthused. Your sponsor Mario Zanott i. How did you two get h ooked up ? What does he do for you ? Right now he's m y total sponsor. H e's responsib le for th e motorcycles, a ll th e hel p and equipment. He stands behind a lot of things as far as po lit ical a nd just a ll around help . How did you two mee t ? H e has a son t ha t raced m inibikes , a nd at th e time , I was racing Sport sm an . He'd sho w u p a t the ra ce track with his kid on the minibike . He happened to see me there and he liked th e way I rode . Just so happen ed t ha t we bumped int o each other again at th e shop of m y sponsor at the time , who built ra ce frames. At th e time I was getting into class C as a I ' ovice and h.. was kind of in terested. H e'd come d own to the shop every so ofte n a nd we'd ta lk . Finally, he got invo lved with the 250cc twin , whi ch was a h a rd engine to get hold of. He looked into it and go t an engine for us . Ever since then , he got into it more a nd more . T hen we got together, just me a nd h im , and it's been going strong ever since. H e designs everything on t he motorcycles and comes up with some really good ideas whic h the guys a t the factory couldn't even come up with . He designed a nd made th at ignit ion for t he Harley. It wo rke d o ut tremen dously . W e had m agn et o problems on that thi ng a nd it kind of cured tha t problem . What other things does he do for your bikes? Well you kn ow , he loo ks at th e overall , just keeps an eye on everything . Lik e to keep th e weight down on the bikes. T here a re a lot of th ings he has redone , remade because a lot of stock parts are bulky and made of steel. He's done a lot of work as far as tricking everything out, using a lot of his own stuff, his own ideas. You're a professional racer, and the AMA figures largely in your profession. Any thoughts on how the AMA is doing its job? I don't like to say too many things about it because naturally there are some things I don't like about the AMA . There's not too much you ca n do when you show up at a National. T hey've got thi ngs pret ty much set and if th ere's some thi ng you don't like , th ere's not much you ca n do about it. T ha t's the way it goes, I gu ess. How about the Race of Champions in Pompano Beach, Florida? How did that all unfold? For me, it actu ally turned ou t all right. T he re was a li ttle bit of confusion because I d idn't plan on goi ng . Here I was at home , a nd the AMA ca lled me up and to ld me I was su ppose d to sho w up . I was in no wa y prepa red , so it was kind of a bad dea l. As thi ngs turned out, it was actually for the better because it was televised , which th e sport needs to exploit more. The AMA ended up paying for your flight? For m e , the expe nse of go ing to Florid a fro m Cali fornia is a lot. Tha t's why I d id n' t p lan on going - because I couldn't afford it. They offered to help me ou t , so it sounded p re tt y good . We crated the bike a nd sent it air freight. I flew up wit h Tom Hastler, m y mecha nic and we got there and one of the AMA offici a ls was helping us out. He treated us really well , got us a room , rented a truck for the bike. It was a p retty good race though I wish I was more prepared . Being that I had to crate the bike up there , we couldn't crate any tools , nothing other than just the bike and ou r bodies. Makes it kind of to ugh in a race like that, especially for us. It pu ts a big bind on the way we work t hings out at a race . Did the AMA make it clear that you 'd have to race Pompano Beach since you won at Santa Fe? No , see th a t was wh y ther e was a lot of confusion. Dou g Mock ett - he was the one who phon ed - was co nvi nci ng me to go a nd I d id n't wa nt to go. He started threa ten in g me and te lling m e he was going to fine me so much mo ney if I di dn' t go , or pull my license a nd th ings like that. I d idn't see anyway tha t he cou ld possibl y do it. T here were no forms, no co ntracts saying th a t I ha d to show up at th is ra ce , so th ere was no way he co u ld threaten me like that. He was just doing everything in his power to get me to go because not many riders showed 'u p at all . Ken ny Roberts d idn't show up because he di d n't wa nt to ride. A few of th e rid ers wer e hurt , so he was desperate to get as man y riders as he co uld. N a tu ra lly, he was go ing to try anything he could do - wh ich isn't right. It made me look kind of b ad , forcing me to d o somethi ng I d id n't want to do . Tom Hastier, you r mechanic, what does he do? Well, in m y rook ie year I had a b mechanic who was rea lly good - we " ma naged to win th ree Nationa ls - r' but we d idn't get alo ng too well so we prize money with him . You can't afford a salary , so I just split the prize money, which is pretty decent. We just work at each National as hard as we ' can. The higher the finish, the more money. ' .: Doesn't someone else build your Harley enginesi' Right now we still have J im Belland. He'" used to tune for Mark Brelsford wh en he was number one. T om does all the chassis work. Because we d idn't ha ve too much time for Tom to work on the Harleys, whi ch a re new to him , wh en we first started out , we had J im Belland do the work on the engi nes. When you work on a Harley engi ne, you have to ha ve ,special too ls a nd a little b it of experience behind you . T hey're such a d ifferent typ e of engi ne . When we were back east and ha d engine troubles , we'd cra te th e engi ne up and send it d own here. J im wou ld do the work and send it back up. Then we'd just throw it in the frame and go to a race . Worked ou t pretty decent. What about outside of motorcycling. What kind of hobbies do you have? I like to go water skiing . O f course , cowtrailing; that's just about rn fa vor ite. I like to go out cowtrailing with m y friends. I go all over , spend weekends ou t cowt rai ling. I like to do a little b it of te nnis, all th e physica l spo rts . Snow skiing, tried tha t once - that's prett y good. I'd say that co wt railing and water skiing are m y favorite hobbies , tlie ones I do more of. What abou t you r family ? I' ve got two older brothers. They bot Ii raced at one time - Sportsman . I' v got three o lder sisters . I 'm t lie you ngest in the family . Two of m y older sisters are rea llv involved in racing, which is neat:They went up r Houston in a motorhome. I had mv own cheering section. My paren ts follow me to as many N ationals as th ey can. T hey're rea lly into raci ng , too . They've hel ped me a long qu ite a bi t. Girlfriends? I've been goi ng with Ann for a bout three a nd a h alf years. I don't thinli we'll get m a rried for a nother year or maybe longer. . Do you think marriage and t he National Circuit can mix? I don't kn ow . I just a in't ready to get ma rried right now . I wa nt to get my own hous e ; that's m y next goa l. I'd like to ge t some propert y alon g with the house so I could do wha t I want . It 's a b ig ex pense buyin g a ho use so I'm trying to save m y money so I ca n ha ve a nice ho~se and some propert y. If you get ma rned befo re you ha ve a house. ' it's kind of tough. Besid es Mario, do you have an y other sponsors? N o , the re's nothing really major as fa r