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/126415
fast and smooth and you can really put time on anybod y that's in the dust. BW: The only advanta ge to starting in the back - the dust is a disadva ntage - but if you can get through the dust and make up time, once you get up to whoeve r started in front of you, you're already ahead of them, time·wi se. Like in the Mexicali 300, where we beat Bob Balenti ne by 11 seconds. The key to that race was that he started a minute ahead of us. So when we were dicing side by side physically, I already had a minute 's lead on him, which was to my advanta ge, 1 though t. Startin g a minute behind him wasn't a big disadva ntage, but once we got up physic ally with him, I had ,the advanta ge. If you were asked to pick two more riden for Team Husky, who would you pick? BW: Hard to say. I'd have to think ,about that one. SH: I figure there are a lot of guys who have the ability and could go out and win if they were given the chance . I rode for a long time withou t any help from anybod y. You look at the ability of the riders, the really good riders, and, boy, everybody's pretty close. There's not anyone who's just goin~ to wheelie away with the thing and blow somebo dy in the weeds. It's going to be pretty close. It's just a thing of having enough experie nce. You have to have someb ody who's had enough experie nce; has been to the races before. a fast motocr osser - the guy's just the fastest guy around - and take him to Mexico and he may not go fast at all. ~ ._ I~~~ ~~. • ~ E O"l r--. O"l ....... "If you 're the first bike thro ugh , chances are that ther e's goin g to be som ethi ng on the cour se that 's not supp osed to be ther e. And you 'd bett er be prep ared .." SH: It's all experie nce down there. It's being there before. The guys who are riding there now and are doing good on other brands - Bruce or Bob or somebo dy like that - I'm sure they could fit right in and do as good, given the right set of circums tances. They'r e talking about making the 1000 a point to point race this year, from La Paz ~ either Ensena da or MexicaIi. (The IIuI alHlOllJlCellHlnf - tmlt the raee will ru" from En- ' se"ad a to LaPaz was made after' tIrIs intervi ew took plaee ••• Ecftor.) .-' "Th at was my mistake , thin king I was goin g to win the race by the time I got to Ojos Neg ros. " That was my problem when I first started going. I was too keyed on the race, too psyched out by it. I would try . too hard right from the start and I'd end up crashin g the bike. One year I rode with A.C. (Bakke n), and A.C. was at Camalu ... and all of a sudden he heard that his bike was request ing forks, at Ojos - I broke the forks off the bike. I crashed it bad. I was really lucky; I was going fastl Seventy or 80 and it hopped sideways on a fast road out of Ojos. I stepped off and skidded on my butt for about 200 feet and the bike hit a fence and broke the forks off. That was my mistake , thinkin g I was going to win the race by the time we got to Ojos Negro . And that's only 25 or 30 miles ... BW: The more experie nce, the better. It's hard to pick someon e to ride down there because you really don't know. There's some people who go really fast in Mexico. They may not go fast anywhe re else, but you get them in Mexico and they're going to be good. And maybe just the ?pposit e: You ta,ke What do you think about that? -BW: I like that, myself. The longer, the better. The shorter races, I don't like. As far as I'm concern ed, they should all be four, five, six, seven, eight hundre d miles, because that's a true off· road race. If it's any shorter than that, like the Mexica li 250, it's like a Europe an scramb les. The longer it is, as far as I'm concern ed, the better race it's going to be. SH: I'd like to see it too. I've never ridden the long distanc e point to point. It's gotta be a trip to be on the bike for eight hours, nine hours at a time. Now, with the riders hoppin g back and forth, a guy rides 90 miles and they've got it worked out so that he gets off and they put a new rider on. I'd like to race a guy for 400 miles, 300 miles. That, to me, would be fun. Can you mainta in the concen tration that long? . SH: I'm sure you'd tend to slip after a while. Your mind can only handle so much. But I think we would do better if the race is long enough . The hardest part of a race for me, and I know for Brem, too, is the first 40·50 miles on the bike. I'm so awkwa rd and slow and I feel so sloppy. I don't even feel like I'm really doing that good Qut after that, I feel really great. BW: You'd have to use your head in a race like that. It'd be for so long, you just have to concen trate for so long. SH: You'd have to slow down just a little. BW: You have to back off an extra 5% but the key there would be consistency again. • :B'~";'f~JJ" 23 ....