Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

. i ~ E • • - 36 ~ Race goers' guide (Continued from page 17) Honda went through. But at eight . hour races you can't have anything go wrong. Does that mean Suzub is more difficult than, say, I.e Mans? It's more physically demanding on the rider, yes. But 24·hours on a road racer is a long time for any motor to last. That's Pops' new cIiaJlenge. Just to get one to last for 24 hours. He goes from stage to stage. First his challenge was Superbikes. We've got things pretty well squared around there. We just need to win a few, that's all. It's not that we can't - we just need some. Now it's the 24 hour thing. That's why he's moved back to Japan. It's just tOO hard to communicate with Suzuki otherwise. Having them build the stuff over there, ship h over here, us test it over here, then try to tell them what was wrong with it, ship it all back to Japan ... so, he just moved to Japan. Why is Suzuki even into something like endurance racing? I think for the same reasons the U.S. is into Superbike racing. In Europe there's even more of a crowd identification. They can get out there and go to a GP race and see Robens on a Yamaha or Sheene on a Suzuki but that's not the motorcycle they ride and they. know it! When they go to an endurance race that s the motorcycle they ride over there. That's a [OUTstroke lilte the guy's got his straps on every morning to go to work on. Everybody is looking more towards the four-stroke image because the twostroke is being virtually eliminated as far as the road is concerned. They can't pass the emission standards in California and it's the same with Europe. And - Honda's had the endurance title for so long. They're all at war With each other over there .. All the factories, that is. They won't admit it, but everytime someone grabs hold of something for SO long, someone dse wants it. I suppose that's their reason for doing it. It was good to win Suzuka last rear l>ecause that gave Suzuki the incentive to know it's possible to beat Honda. And Honda has so many dollars to spend that if's unreall We. really didn't do anything at Le Mans or the Bol 'd Or last year, but everyone was trying very hard. We had Mr. Ken Ito, the head of the racing department at Suzuki out watching things at Le Mans. He's going to manage the teams at all the 24 hour races now. We really need to win Suzuka. It's home country and it's worth a lot of percentage points. We understand that Spencer and Singleton will be on one of thOR Hondaa. • No. Freddie Spencer is too young. They won't let him ride. You have t9 be 18 years old to ride an FIM sanctioned event. Aldana is going to ride with Singleton. At least that's who Freddie told me was going to replace him. It should be a good team. Of coune, you'll be back in time for Laguna Sea won't you? Oh yesl I'll be riding both the GP anQ the Superbilte classes there. That'll be a good race, too. AD year now, I thought I'd have to deal with Michael (Baldwin). I tbought he was the one who was going to be fast on the Kawasaki. But, now tha.t he's out, after meeting up with a bit of misfortune, which I don't like to see happen to anybody I think Spencer's going t~ be hard to beat at Laguna. McI,.aughlin is too. It's a track that he likes. Some people can go to one track and not do so well, then go to another track and do real well. Some. ~an do well at all of them. But I like Laguna Seca. Especially now that they've repaved it. What's your favorite track on ~he American Circuit? I guess Laguna Sea would be my pick of the best. As far as tracks that aren't used on the National' circuit, I'd say Riverside is a good one. Daytona is just so fast - there's really not much to it. It's just get on the gas, get on the brakes, get on the gas, get on the brakes - a few sweepers here and there, but that's it. Loudon I don't really lilte. It's not just because it's so short, I just don't really get along well there for some reason. I think it's one of those tracks tha t you have to ride a lot to do well. It's evident by all the club racers who do well and go there a lot. I like Sears Point, but it's a tough track. It's really bumpy. That's the only thing I have against it. As a rider's track, .there's everything you could ever want as far as a corner's concerned. Maybe not too much in the high speed type sweepers, but as for a set of esses, or an off-camber this or an uphill that, I think it's really good. What's your schedule for the rat of . the year after Laguna Seca? Pocono the week after Laguna', the Bol 'd Or in September and the week after that I've got an offer to ride the AGV . World Team races ajtain at Donnington Park in England. Two weeks later there's the second round at Imola, then it's back home for for a break.. I just got a telegram the other day and I might be going back over to run the Castrol Six Hour in Australia in October. After that it's pretty much OYer. • . So what', the plan for 1980? It all depends on what the AMA does. If they keep the 75Occ's around, then I'm going to go out and pump some more sponsors for that class. I think Yoshimura will help,me out next year again too. With a little bit of luck we might win the c.hampionship this year and I think that will be enough even if we don't win any races. But, if they don't go, I'm working on something else. I'm a diabetic. I'm always out and about, hustling up sponsors. We have a friend of the family who helps' me out on the side. She's an excellent letter writer. She sent a letter off to the American 'Diabetes Association and I've done some public service an· nouncements for them on the diabetic thing. So, they're thinking of helping me out. They can say "here - this guy's got diabetes and he races motorcycles. So you too can do whatever you want." So there you go. Some parents, when they fmd out their kid is diabetic, won't let them out of the house. When did you find out you had diabetes? When I was 11 years old. But I'm pretty stable. I'm not brittle at all. The heat affects me a lot though. I sweat a lot and the heat takes an awful lot of energy out of me. Your carbohydrates and sugars are what propels your muscles. What happens is that you have insulin which takes up the excess. I inject it so I always have that amount in my body. If I've used up all the sugar, I've still got this insulin that's using up whatever is left over - eventhough I might need it so I can get a little bit dragged out. I do heal slowly though. Something that would take a normal person maybe a week to heal will take me two or three weeks to get over. Actually, broken bones heal at about the normal rate. How do you feel about riding in the rain? . A good example was last year at Pocono. It started to rain. and .everybody was running around.saying we're not going to do this and that and the AMA threatened to cancel. I think Romero came forward and said, "Hey, this is why we're Expens.· We're supposed to be able to control situations, you know." So if you're riding in the rain or riding in the dry - if you're an Expert you should be able to control the situation. If a bike's going over 200 mph, I'd say that's too fast. You don't have to get going that fast to have a good race. If you remember back when Yamaha ·came out with their 750cc - the AMA said oh no, they're going to kill everybody. They're too fast. But when they came out with the 750 there were less accidents than the previous year with the !l50's. So it's not necessarily the speed that makes people fall off. It's where your head's at when you're out there riding. If you're not thinking about what you're doing, you're on yOUT butt, just like that. It doesn't take but about 50 yards. When you're really going for it whether you're going for the lead or just trying to stay in the lead - what goes through your head? The best thing to do is nOl "think" about the situation you're in. It's like you're a race horse with blinders on. You can't let anything affect yop. If the person in front of you happens to be Kenny Robens, don't look at him as "Kenny Roberts." Look at him as a flag post or something you have to pass. The minute you think - uh oh, Spencer's behind me and he's going fast, or will I be able to 1r.eep up with him if he gets past - then you've lost that hundredth of a second of concentration that it takes to go two tenths of a second faster into that comer. If you can just put everything else outside of your mind ... that's what I have a hard time doing. If I get . off to a good start, I have trouble keeping myself paced. I have a tendency to get out front and if I build up a good lead, I slack off.a little bit. I wish I could break that habit! I like to race with somehody, but I don't want to have the pressures that are involved. It's hard for me to keep my own pressure up sometimes. If somebody's pushing me around, then it's just "hang on" the best you can. I don't ever think about getting hun. If you start thinking about that you're going to tense up. If it's bugging you to go out and ride the bike you shouldn't be doing it. If you start thinking about getting hun, it's going to happen. Outside of Kenny R.obens, who do you think is the best racer on the American circuit at this point? I think Skip (Aksland) is. Baldwin is really intense right now and .he could probably beat Skip on any given day. But I think Skip has his whole package together a little bit better as far as a road racer goes. BeaUle of his spoOlOn? That's possible. But probably because of Kenny. Skip hasn't fallen off his road racer for a long time; and I think that's really saying something. I have a tendency to fall down a lot.. I don't get hurt, but keeping your whole thing together is really something. So, I'd say Skip is the best and Baldwin's a real close second. I think if Skip went over to Europe and he had good stuff to ride, he could do well. Baldwin just loves to ridel Just like at Brands Hatch after the Match Races over there. He was riding a stock 750. The think was stone stock. and I knew it. But there he was, out there running around with. Johnny Cecotto, just riding the wheels off of him. Johnny would get in the straightaway, tum the throttle on and go by him, but otherwise, Michael would ride through the course 20 mph faster than him. It was just incredible. U Mike DiPrete asked you into his office and questioned you about Superhike rule changes or road racing in ~eral, what would you suggest? I wouldn't change any of the rules. I think the rules are pretty well set none of them are really bad. But through the grapevine, I heard they were thinking of running 750cc Superbikes next year. And that, I think, is ridiculous. Too many people have got too much money into the stuff they're running now to just ",1I of a sudden change it like that: We've been working on the class too hard. When the class first started, four years ago, there were only 15 riders on tbe grid at Daytona. Now there's 80. That's bigger than' the 750cc GP class IS now. •

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