Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

ever do again, so why give him more?" So, why did you change from Kawa- · saki? You were with them for seven years. This was the beginning of the seventh yea r. The seven year itch, huh? T hey say it's true ; I'm beginning to believe it. • What about your current ride with Can-Am? Do you have a factory contract? . No. Then, it's a privateer ride? All privateer. That way we can do what we want. Who's we ?" Me and Andy Kolbe and my me chanic Steve Stasiefsk i. How did the change in rides cOJ!le about? I think it was coining to a head (at Kawasaki). I know what I can suggest to mechanics and what I've learned over th e years . And I think I was sta rt ing to believe some of the th ings that they were saying to me. I wasn't happy; I was feeling like I was in a cage. I was getting really depressed . This seems to be similar to what Marty Smith told me a while go. Basically that the last year of his ride with Honda wasn't as good as it had been before, It's the truth. My ride was good the whole way. I had good mechanics, but I wanted to keep having good mechanics. I'm not sa ying that I know everything, but - damn! - I know a littl e bit! I should hav e for seven years. Specifically was it that you weren't communicating with your mechanics or your team manager? Gary Matheson (Kawasaki's MX team manag er ); he's a new gu y. He didn't kn ow tha t much a bout mot ocross - in fact, he didn't kn ow an yth ing , but he had ra cing expe rience with snowmobiles, with which I'm su re he's very ca pa ble. I don't think he understood m y personal ity: I'm not on e to be told wha t to do , how to do and I th ink that hurt me. Was it ego? I don 't know , but th e way I was feelin g I deci de d I'd get out of t he re before something bad happened. This way everybody's happy, rio -one's mad at anybody, we're all good friends . What more could you ask for ? U Essentially, you got out while the going was good. . Like I said, before I ru ined everything , I got the heck out of th er e . . . before I ruined my ca ree r. Everyone was so un happy and I.was wasting a whol e yea r there. Would some people interpret your move as the end of an effective career, since privateer riders have aI";ays had a hard time competing against the factories? That's true , that's very true . But the way I look at it , I know you can beat th e factories, espe cially at motocross. How? How? Because I'm Jimmy Weinert , and I've always beaten the factories . That's how I got my factory ride . I didn't get my ride by coming in strong seconds and occasionally winning a race. I was on a Maico when I was a kid, and I was beating them . I was beating the Yamaha guys , Husky and the others that were in it at the time. And I was just by myself. But .. . Yeah , I know: T ha t times have changed and the only advantage they have is money. That's all they have, is money. And I have the know -how . That's what we're doing here as a privateer. I've got Ste ve Stas iefski, who I would say is a very renowned mechanic, after working for Maico , and being on the GP scene working for Brad (Lackey). I've got Andy Kolb e behind me . He 's a very succ essful businessman and he knows how to run things . I think that between him and me , we'll be do ing good . Anybody else? Bel-Ray, Electro, Bosch, Scott , HiPoint boots, Gold Belt. Lectron Carburetors wants to help . T hat's another thing: Kawasaki d idn't want me to try their (Lectron's) ca rbu re tors. an d I said , "H ey! At least let's just test them ." Are you receiving any support from Can-Am? Not at th e momen t. Maybe if I sta rt winning and things look good th ey might say, " Let's send him somet hing special. " They don't have anybody r iding for them, do they? No , not at all . Is it a good bike? As far as a production rid e is concerned, I think it's very good. Very good power, the forks are very good. The choice of shocks is what I'm trying to th ink of now . Are you going to change anything? Oh, I'm going to mess around with th e shocks and things. I like the way th e bike works now; I've done som e cha nges. I've got my own handlebars on and I've set th e forks th e way I like them and th e shocks a re work in g good . The thing now is th at I'vegot to get familiar with it a nd go. But, all things considered, the Japanese still have all kinds of tricks up their sleeves. How do you expect to beat them? It's like saying' that you 're going to take on the whole Russian Army . That's exactly what we're going to do . Are you going to hold them off at the pass, or attack head on? I know everybody's going to make fun of my bike and say that Can-Arns can't handle, so they're going to have to watch out because I'll be out of control all the time . . . Naw, it's a good motorcycle . I feel confident, I feel great. When you made the move from the big Japanese company, where it was like a bilt famil y ••• I wouldn't say it 's a familyl When you're winning, you can have anything in th e wortd . When you're not , you might as welI go home. Is it the Japanese racing philosophy? I ihink so. But I th ink it's anybody philosophy, too : You gotta keep win ning to keep 'em happy. But people have bad days, bad luck. Don't they ever see it that way? The people I used to deal with at Kawasaki used to see it that way. But there's a who le new regime in there and they don't want to, a nd I can't blam e them . . What were your former superiors like? Very friend ly. Like T im Smit h . when I won th e championships th er e. Very mellow person , nice , ca lm, ne ver go t excited . I d id n't rea lize how ni ce it was to ha ve a mellow team manager. Is there any psychological reaction in moving from t he security of a b ig , company to go ing privateer? Is that why some riders who've done it have faded awa y? I don 't know . Maybe I'll experien ce it real quick here. I hope not, but I jus t m igh t. You said that Kawasaki took a long time to make changes on your bikes. Was it because of the way they did things that took so long? I'd see pictures of Torleifs (H ansen ) bike with things on it that we didn't have. Did you ever come to the manager and ask why? Yeah. Put it this way: Were you always the last to know? Yeah. I think th e whole team and no t just me. T here's a whole lot of things that I still haven 't figured out yet. While you bailed out of Kawasaki, would it be safe to say that those still left behind on the team are unhappy? I look at it this way: When I was you ng, I went through a lot of changes that were good and bad . .. (b u t) that's part of the whole thing - "We stick with you ; you stick with us, right?" But I'm a t a point in iny life where I can't wait. I don't have time . The younger riders do , but I don't. I could stay around and just wait for my ch eck , bu t th is way I'll hav e a hell of a jump on next year. Your career with Kawasaki had been for years one of the most stable relationships of professional motocross. Well. they forgot it this yea r. You see, th ey'Il forget you real quick . When you weren't winning? I don't know . Maybe. When a pe rson has good ideas - th ey don't fir e exec utives if th ey have one of those bad things; they j ust keep on go ing. But you were getting more and more static. No, not a lot of sta tic. I could see tha t I was bein g hel d back. Through new equipment and mechanics? Ou r equ ipment was good this yea r. It was th at the few changes I wanted to ma ke, th ey d id n't want to do. Because .. . Who knows why? I gu ess they just had thei r system. T hat's why I said it' s a lit tle slow now, but it's going to pick u p and everyone's going to be happy aga in. I was helping Jeff Ward a lot , but then what he sai d in Cycl e News realIy hurt me. He said that I was too old an d too fat to ride 125s and I didn't ha ve a ch ance. He said how I ca n't ou tride Glover and alI th ese gu ys and th a t I tried to psych him out, but I never psyched him ou t. Why did Kawasaki want you to ride 125s anyway? Their reason was that's their biggest market , and I ca n understand that. T he n why d idn't t hey put in Warren Reid , who weighs onl y 125 pounds, or get some body else , and lea ve me where I'm (doing) good? Did they try to justify their decision by saying that you have all this experience and that you could beat everybody else to the first turn? Yeah , th ey did t ha t, Was it justifiable to have you ride 125s? No. I kn ew I could try and win the cha mpionship or win a few rac es, but I di dn't want to try it. I tried to psych m yself up for it and I lost weight , but I wasn't happy. Taking the Kawasaki brass' decision from another angle, was this just a discreet way to get you off the team? Tha t's possible, too, bu t I d idn't wa n t to look at it that way. I would've been realIy d epressed . I told th em that they were goi ng 'to need wa ter coolers (sic) (on 125s) and t hey sa id no . I said tha t I woul dn't be th e only guy on th e line with out a water cooler. And the n we only got th e bikes a week be fore th e race (H a ngtown ). So there was no time to set them up, There was no time. You cou ld see wha t happened to th em at Hangt own. I think th a t what happen ed to th em was a frea k t hing but the y d id have pr oblems. Now they're ou t of the cham pions hip already. Like J eff he 's ou t of it. The other guys b reak , bu t th ey usualIy don't. Because they're tuned in with their bikes. Exactly . (Broc) Glover's been the cham pion for three years. TelI me tha t they don't have it together? So it seems that Kawasaki has approached this year's racing badly. I wou ldn 't say if they're doi ng badly; it's just how th ey want to d o thin gs. Fo r a couple of years now, you've been called the "old man of American motocross." Are you getting tired of hearing that? Yeah , wha t a drag. I'm tired of it. I'm 28. When you consider your age with that of the European racers, you're not that old. I'm young. Heikki Mikkola didn't win his first World Championship until he was 29. The reason I'm the old est is because I've been at it the longest. Now , soon , when you ge t the Marty Sm iths , the Kent Howertons and the Marty Tripes, the Hannahs, they're alI going to be old too , soon. Then we're going to hav e that regiment of older riders and it's going to be hard for th e young guys to break in . So, it will be just like Europe. Sure, why should n't it be ? Then why all the emphasis on the you n g r iders? T hey're f earless! They put 'em ou t there, let 'em 'rid e the bike; wha t d o th ey know ? Weren 't you fearless when you started racing? Fearless? Heyl I was th e most f earless. • 17

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