Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

think it's time to do something to balance it. But if motocrolB ever '-om", a highly recognizable sport in America it will be because of TV covera~ of stadium racing. "Motocross is the best .balance between man and machine. As long as there are motorsports, there will be motocross. " That's why I think it's good to have some of it. But if all the money is invested into that it's going to become like short track. Pretty soon it will become so specialized there will only be stadium races and a limited number of racers. You cannot hire a stadium if you are .. going to go racing on Wednesday. Only the stars will be able to race. I don't think people are going to buy stadium motocross bikes just because they go to a, stadium race. They want to buy a bike they can use. and play with, but for that you need riding area. If the industry puts all their money into stadium races, then the riding areas are going to close more and more because the promoters for the outdoor races will have no way to compete any more. Then there wouldn't be any rid· ing, and the industry wouldn't sell bikes anymore. And if they don't sell bikes they can't sponsor racers in the stadium races. Then it becomes like short track. The number of Americans riding GPs is rather limited. I'm surprise that there are not more Americans going over. That's because too many of the guys look too quickly' to the financial aspect of it. It takes more investment of time and money to go to Europe and do the championship races than if you stay here and make the money directly now. But I would want to be the best in the world, not only the best in America. You can only prove that by doing. You've seen Brad Lackey come over for eight yean now. When you fint saw him did you think the potential was there, that he would become a World Champion? With Brad it was clear that he had potential from the very beginning. You can see certain things a guy does. You see something in him. The results are not there right away, but you can see by the way he goes around the track. You raced your fint GPs in '65 and won your first championship in '71. In '65 and '66 I only did some races. Then '67 was my first full season. Basically you staned at 21. I'm sure I would have started sooner in racing if I could have afforded it. I would have started at least three or four years earlier. You always do well at Unadilla, the "European" American track. Is there as much difference between American and European tracks as we hear? The tracks are very different In Europe. Unadilla is very much like a track you would find in Switzerland or Austria. An up-down track? There are bad tracks in Europe also. Many of the good tracks they only race two or three times a year. You could not keep Unadilla like it is racing every week. I do like to race much more on a track like Unadilla. Chuck Sun has ,said that he had to be much more precise in his riding over there. You have to be more pre.e;ise.. There are often trees along the track and you cannot just run off the track and get away with it all the time, taking a bunch of banners with you and going on. Why are you "cuned" at Carlsbad? Maybe I want to win too hard there. I don't know. Like the Grand Prix in Belgium. I have won it seven times, and I could have won it 10 times. Something seems to be wrong in one of the heats at least. Did you think America would have a World Champjon by the end of the decade? Before last season I thought Brad had a good chance of winning it. Were you surprised by him switching from Honda to Kawasaki? Oh, a little bit. I don't think it's so much the fact he did not ride the Honda diat he did not win the cham· pionship. I think there are other things. In your conditioning program, how do you balance riding, running and physical training? Of course I have to do more training now than 10 years ago . Do you do a lot of riding during the week? At the beginning of the season I usually ride twice a week between weekends. In the middle of the season I back it off to one time a week, usually on Wednesday. What abou.t your running and other training? Last year with my injuries it was diffi· cult. The thing I do on the most regular basis is running, which I do five times a week. At the beginning of the season I will do six miles a couple of days and the others I will do about three miles. What about weight training? I think it's good to do it at the beginning of the season, but you have to do it under the supervision of someone who knows. You can do bad things with that type of training. I don't think it's important to be able to carry big weights. I think it's more important to be flexible and have endurance. What about this training awareness program that Honda started this year for the American team? I think it's very good. It was especially important because they have young riders. They are exposed t!J training and also how to take care of injuries. Do you feel that motoerossen may be the mOlt conditioned athletes? I don't like to compare too much that sport against this. But I know if you want to be the best in the world in your field you have to work hard for it. It may come easy one time, but if you want to repeat it you have to make some effort. There is certainly a base of good conditioning that you have to have. I don't think it's always going to come out the best guy is the strongest. What about some insight into practice for the learning rider? The most important thing to do is work on your weak points. 'Everybody has weak points. What are the major mistakes that ridenmake? Many riders do not use enough front brake. One of the biggest mistakes is not being relaxed, having difficulty relaxing and concentrating at the same time. Does that just come from experience? I think that's just a matter of learning to know yourself, to analyze your races afterward. Even if you won, there's always something you could have done during the race. Think about what could have gone wrong. Look back: I did all these things last week and I felt pretty good. Then try to repeat that. Analyze and try to find some similiarities and reasons why things went good or bad. Would it be better for a youn~r rider to keep some written records of what he does to be able to pick out some trends? Yeah, I think so. You don't have to go to the slightest little details. How important are things like motocross schools and reading motocross books to improving riding? I don't think you have to believe every word that IS written, but basically there's more right than wrong, and it's a matter of adapting it to yourself. By reading a lot you attract your attention to many things you may have forgotten about yourself and your bike. You can never learn too much. Should a rider attend any school he can? I think it is good. What kind of feedback have you got, ten for the school you helped develop for Suzuki? I've never had one guy come up to me and say: Gee, your school was disappointing, I've had many good comments on it. I've had people come up to say they just went for the third time. And some who go riding just for the fun have gone. I think Suzuki has been very happy with it overall. Did it IUrprise you that America's fint dirt world champion was a trials rider, not a motocrosser? No, not really. You rode trials in your early days. How did that come about? Well, the motocross season ended in September and did not start again until March. I liked motocross so much that when the season was over it drove me crazy and I could not 'stay at home. I had to do something. So I went to.some trials. And right away I was in the points, and I wanted to win then. Did you win a junior championship? I was second in the Junior championship, and then I won the Expert cham· pionship. How old were you then? Nineteen. I would just ride trials until motocross started again. Do you feel that you picked up something from your trials riding that carried over into your motocrOllS? I think it helped reading terrain. And I have always done very well on the wet tracks. Rainy races seemed to be a big advantage for me. "One thing that really helped me develop into a smooth rider was caring about the bike. If I come down hard in a jump, it really hurts'me to feel the bz"ke gettz"ng hurt. " You seem to emphasize traction control, keeping the rear wheel hooked up. Any kind of riding is going to help you. The more situations you get into, the more it's going to help you. Even if you race flat track it's going to help you in some particular ways on the motocross track. In the 'past you've been involved in some temporary rider strikes to ~t safety conditions improved. Now the top road racen have pulled out of the FIM to form their own series. Can anything be done about the low pune structure of GP racing? The FIM is a very old federation, and the problem is to get them to keep up with the evolution of the sport. That's where the problem is. It's necessary that once in a while the riders do what Roberts and Sheene did to keep improv· ing the evolution of the sport. When a promoter is, paying the winner of two GP motOl! only $500 he's making a lot of money. - There are promoters who are spending money on things that are 'not as important as purses. There is definitely something unfair. The promoters use that against the factory racers because they have to be there. If Roberts and Sheene are successful, could there be a similar move in motocrOllS to either raise punes or do the same thing? We have to do something like that sometime. The FIM should be watching more the way the races are promoted and give the World Championship races to the promoter who can really do it instead of just going back to the same promoter because he has done it for so many years. They need people with new ideas, and they need to get to work with TV. If you are going to compete with. other sports, you need to have new ideas. o 00 C') 'Joel had so much talent that he could get away wz"th much more without much difficult traz"ning . .. If he trz"ed to do today what he dz"d then, there is no way ... " Do you think we'll ever seen stadium racing in Europe? Europeans have always been more conservative than Americans. There are nice stadiums in Eur~pe, not as many as here I'm sure, but for someone to open up a stadium and let them bring a hundred trucks of dirt, it's very difficult. In America, everything can be done with money. In Europe, people are more traditional. Eventually it will corne to Europe, but I think it will take some American promotion over there like we introduced motocross over here. Will you continue to base in Belgium and Santa Barbara? In the. past it was a little bit more Bel· gium than here, but in the future it may be more the other way. How old is Nigel now? He's three and a half. Christian is 14 months. What are your plans beyond this year? I have a three-year agreement with Honda. Will this be your last year for competition? For sure this year, otherwise my beard is going to catch in my front wheel. Do you want to stay with motocross? I want to stay at least in some form of motor racing. That could mean cars. Have you ever thought about that? I don't think about it much any more, but there was a time that I was very close to racing cars about five years ago. Formula type cars? Yes. But it was very difficult to make a decision, being World Champion, to go to something new when you are the best ill the world at what you are doing. And if I had gone to car racing I would have had to learn again and probably not make much money for a while. Where do you see motocross headed in America and Europe, given, current political and economic situation? Motocross is probably the most reason· able of the motor sports. As long as there will be engines, people will race machines. Motocross is the best balance between a man and a machine. I think as long as there are motorsports, there will be motocrosS. • 11

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