Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

~. They doD't know what they're able to 1001 out for younelf and your financial a£fain? I am worried about that. I'll have to look out for myself one of these days, but righl now everything'S pretty well taken care of, and my money is in all the righl placcs. So I don'l have to worry. Do you ever think seriously about your future? Vh·huh. What do you think about? I don't know. Just thinking about doing as good as I can in racing for as long as I can. But how long is that going to last? Maybe four or five years. It'll be time to get OUI by Ihen, becausc guys are starting to get younger and younger every year. It gets harder to stay on top. This year I just want to go out and prove a lot of people wrong, that I can do it, otherwise I wouldn't have signed a contract with Suzuki. How are you training? You name it: Nautilus weight training, racquetball, running, swimming and riding. I do Nautilus twice a week; everything else I do every day. It then must be a lot harder to get bad up than it is to faU clown, true? That's true. llight now, what's your biggest hurdle? I would say that it's getting baelt to Number One again. But I want to go out and win some races. I've heard some people say: "Well Smith ain't going to win no more raccs," but that's one of the things I'm going to prove. I'm going to go out and win some ta1kiDg about. MMty. They doG't bow anything about thr sport, and they're just watching thr first and second place guys. They're DOC watching the guy who's coming around through the paelt and doing aD thr P-ing. They aren't watching any of the dices, or anything like that. ThiI obwiolaly gins the viewer a disronal ...... at the spon. Yeah. They're saying, "This isn't excit· ing. I don't think I'm going to watch one of tbeIc." But if they showed Ihe whole~, that would be ex=. Do r - daiDl that it was a idea for the AlIA to repeal the claimiDg • naIe? Yeah, because with tbe claiming rule in cfkct, thr factorics couldn't come out with a lot of the new lhings that they'd like to have, becausc they're afraid that somebody else would get ahold of it. The only reason they come out with thac new things is that the foIlowing ycu's production bikcs are better for the privateer. "Suzuki's a good company- I've got them behind me, and I'm going JOT z't 150 percent. " r It'.... beaer publicity. That'. right. Without the claiming ruJc, they (the factorics) can build anything they wanl and they'll be able to come out with it sooner than they could before. "' 011 tIae other aide of the coin, s0mebody lib KekiD 'raw, who builds . . . .y -.alf bikes, can come out and _ . _. without haring to tnah 25 copia to qualify for natioaal a.apetiuon. So it beIp. the little illY. - . Right. And all the production bikcs this year are really good, too. They're really dole (in performance). Is that _ vi the _ you tdOi.m to ridiag production-baaed bikes the Iut two yean when you were with Honda? Yeah, because we could make changes on production bikcs easier than we could on the works bikcs. H_ did r - b _ that Honda was girill( r - a good clcal when they lint Iiped r - in 1974? They could han had r - for anything they offered r-, aDd you wouldn't have t - I I the difference. I didn't really know that it was a good • deal, but it was more than I was making. It was the fint offer I had and I didn't know if I was going to get any morcoffcn. So H-.Ia i - said, HHere'. 50 grand a year. kid." Yeah. And I talked with my parents about it, and my dad negotiated with tbcmforme. H_ . . . _ that fint contract} A year. The last contract was for two years. W.. that ... contract a miltake for r-. with all the problema you had? Yes. Maybe with Suzuki it would prob· ably be an advantage (the current one· year contract just signed) becausc they make 10 many changes. They don't sticIt to the same thing every year; they proglCII and havc. new things each year. So it ~Id probably be an advantage, becausc then I wouldn't havc to worry about changing or negotiating. But as far as my last years with Honda, it was more or less bad, and I had to stay with the same old motorcycle for twoycan. CaD r - lIdl me about SUZlIki'. new faaury bila? races. I just bow that all thr new works bikes are going to be completely different from last year. They're going to havc a lower center of gravity and five or 10 percent more borsepower. What do you daiDl about when you race? I think about who's in front of me and who I've got to catch. I think about how much time is lefl in the race. Is it aU race thinliDg? Yep. Totally. It's a zone (of Ihought); it's a total zone. You can't move out of that, can you? No way ... All the way, from just before the (one minute) sign is dropped (to Ihe end of the mOlo). How cIo you get into yourself for a race? I just lell myself lhal if I wasn'l any good I wouldn't be out there. I lell myself that I've beaten all these guys before, alone time or another. Now I'll be telling myself that I'm on a good bike. Suzuki's a good company. I've got them behind me, and I'm going for it ISO percent. When you were the 125a: champ, and later the Open cIaaa champion, CYeTYbody accmccI to Iikc r - and all the maguina were tailing about you. But when you bcgaD to han problema with the bikes, a lot of people wbo 1Ucd to hang around r IOn of drifted away. Yeah, that'. true. But that's normal with any professional sport and any professional atblClC. When you're doing J(OOd, they all want 10 talk to you; when you're not, they're talking to the guys who are doing good. So they're mostl y profCllional frieDcIa. That's it. Who an: your real fricncla, anyway? There arc a lot of people that I could say are my real friends, but as far as being in the sport, I could say thaI lhe owner of If Racing - John Gregory - he's a good friend of mine wbo'. been through thielt and thin. Anybody cIac? There's a lot of good people in Ihe spon. I can't think of them all righl now, but John Gregory comcs 10 mind fiTSt. Then there's a lot of my friends who I've grown up with. Because of aU the mODey that you'vc made in the past few yean, Many, you've really got it made. You're privilcdgcd. You've got .tuff that mOlt people just won't ever have. What'. going to keep it from all fall. ingapan? Keeping my money invcsted in Ihe right places, I Ihink. And not buying too many more toys. I've got enough toys right now. How did you acquire aU of the propeny that you now own? My dad got me into it when I had all thaI money. I would've burned il if he hadn't helped me invcsI it. Are there guys who'vc maclc loti of money like you have, but they just wasted it aU? Yeah, there's a couple of guys like that. It's easy to have a lot of money and blow it on toys. BUI if you don't have somebody above you to help direct your money, then it'll be gone. You can blow 100 grand in a couple of months. Do you thinl that you've earned everythiDg that you have? For sure. I felt like I've earned it, becausc it wasn't given to me for nothing. Can you j _ live and do nothing? I could, but I'm not the kind of person who could just do nothing every day. Do you ever think about just traveliDg to _ pan of the world for fun? No. I've had enough of traveling al· ready. I'vc been 10 Japan twice, I've hccn to Europe. Japan's really nice; in Europe there's places that are really nice and other placcs that are really ugly. I didn'l like Italy; I didn'l like France. But has it all been wonh it? Oh, yeah. It's all pan of learning. Are you planniDg to lO'Deday hciDg Signing with Suzuki this year, I think I've had the best chance I've had in four or five years to win Number One again. Even though I won the Open class three years ago, this is the best chance I've had since that last championship. Since you haven't been at the top of motoeJ'Olll for IOIDC time, have you had any trouble trying to keep visible with the public? Yeah, it's hard to do that. But I don't worry aboul that. I plan to get out and win some races; and when I do then Ihe name gets around, you get back in Ihe light. But not being in the Iighl doesn'l bother me at all. "Yamaha gave Bob Hannah a FeTTan~' Honda gave me a Honda car. " What'. the bat pan of racing? I've had a lot of good experiences about racing. I can't pinpoint one thing, but just winning is a really good experience in itself. What'. the wont? Losing a championship by a couple of • points. The year I won the Open class championship, I missed the 250cc (championship) by just 1S points becausc I ONF the second to last race in Michigan. I would havc had two National Championships in two classes in one year, which would'vc never happened again becausc now they won't let you riclc two clasacs. That was a depression to me, becausc I wanted it really bad. Now I'm in about the same boat as I was then: I want the championship really bad, and I won't let anything get in my way. When I get on the statting line for the SOOcc Nationals, the only thing Ihat's going to be in my mind is winning. I'm going to give ISO percent, and I'm going to go for it. Since you're a Catholic. do you han aily ..iDtllooling after r-? I must, becausc I'm not dead yet. •

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