Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

th~ ~nd of '75 also. On~ of th~ h~ad guys at th~ factory really liked m~. W ~ had don~ a lot of work t~ther on th~ bik~. W~ had good success togeth~r. Then Honda said th~y had to ~t an answ~r. So I said I had to talk on~ mo~ tim~ to U.S. Suzuki. I took a plan~ and came special to California ~a~ I had promised Mr. Miyashita. H~ called th~ factory again, and they had a meeting and th~ answ~r was n~gative. And I said to Honda: Okay. 8 What does Honda want you to do? Basically Honda wants m~ to do test work and b~ an advisor to their rac~ mana~r from Japan. Som~ peopl~ said I was going to ~ the race manager h~r~ or in Euro~, but that's not tru~. I will b~ an assistant to Mr. Miyakoshi. They will send m~ to some races h~r~ and in Euro~ to see what changes hav~ to ~ don~ and keep an ey~ out for futur~ riders. W~ did not ~v~n think about riding. Th~n I w~nt to Japan in Novem~r to test th~ new bikes. The peopl~ around the track staned making jokes about trying to race again. Why don't yo,u try...,.li.ttle.bit to race agaqt.,ncxt y~ar? Do you want to rac~? What do you think about the bik~? Mr. Miyakoshi flew back with m~ b~for~ th~ Anaheim rac~ and h~ said that h~ wanted me to rac~ again. And I said: W~lI, I don't know if I want to do that beca~ I do not know if w~ hav~ ~nough tim~ to mak~ th~ bik~ fit m~. I had a lot of work to do to get myself in sha~ again. So w~ went through th~ testing and I staned g~tting hungry again to rid~ a little bit mor~. W~ have not mad~ a 100% de· cision to rac~ again. It's not official, but it's pretty sur~. I know that's what it will ~nd up to. W~ will start the first Grand Prix and if th~ results ar~ not too bad th~n I will keep going. Oth~r· wise I will just keep testing this y~ar. This year Graham Noyce and Andre Malh~rbe will be Honda's 500cc team in Euro~, Number one and number three. And numb~r six. Were you surprised that Heikki Mikkola retired? No ... but for th~ mom~nt I know that h~ is training very hard. Right now? r~~h'l I Pfn\~'l~~ if 'r;'\\liry!1g_f~~ _, •• hunting or for skiing, h~ has officially said he is ~~, but I know from som~ fri~nds in Finland that he is training - not with a bik~ - but that h~ is physically training very hard. So you know as much as I do now. I know that Yamaha was very surprised and many oth~r people. But I had talked to him befor~, and I know he was not feding so happy at th~ ~nd of th~ season. H~ had hurt himself and from talking to him and his wife I was not surprised at all. I think I was o~ of the first ~ns h~ told. Belgium? Why did this small nation become the motoeroU capital? rv~ heard that question many times and I think it is very difficult to answer. We ar~ located v~ry centrally in Euro~, so this allows the promoters to have an advantag~ on other countries to attract tOP riders to Bdgium. It's not uncommon to see the top 10 in the world participating in a normal event in Bdgium. We don't have very good weather in Belgium, but it never gets very cold. Yau can race all year around except for two months. The country being very small, ther~ are a lot of races within short distances. Brad has been based in BdJ{ium. So the local racers ~t to see the world's best regularly, Once the trend got start~d the riders just became heroes to look up to. Like, you don't see anybody playing Ameri· can football in Bdgium, so no young kids do it. But her~ they play in ~v~ry school and the kids want to look up to the stars in that fidd. It is always an advanta~ to have a big star around, it Belgium has produced more chamcreates interesl. pions and won more team IIlCItOC:ru. How popular is motoeroI1I in ,:vents •th.14P. It,y .~~r ,lRtict"",Wlly. , ' ,Belgium? ~. •• "In A merica, everything can be done with money. In Europe, people are more traditz·onal. "

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