Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

RICH SCHLACHTER By Tom Mueller In 1980 Rich SchlachteT locked up his second consecutive U.S. Road Racing C1I4mp;onship. With th4t title he proved his fiTst championship was no fluke, and th4t lie is one of the fastest pavement racers competing inside OUT country's boundaries. Now is the time of yeaT raceTS plan their strategy and line up support fOT the coming season. Schlachter is no e~ception; he's been spending most of his time at home in Connecticut by the typewn~er, putting together publicity packets to send to prospective SponsOTS. It looles to be another year on the U. S. circuit fOT SchlachteT. Parts are alTeady Tolling infOThis Yamah4 TZ7'0 in oTder to moltlit into a competitive paclcagefOT 1981. SchlachteT will only compete if he is competitive--TUnning with equipment th4t won't put him in winner's circle isn't racing to him. Combining sponsorship, fine mech4nics, fabricatOTs and his talent, Schlachter feels he has a grasp on another h~ befOTe the first greenJ14g has come close to waviftg. We were luclcy enough to fit into Schlachter's busy schedule and get his insight into a few matters. We found his comments not only aimed at the season to come, but into Toad racing'sJutuTe, and his futuTe in relationship to th4t. We find. Rich Schlachter interesting every time we get to talle to him. We hope you find. him interesting, too. 18 CongratulatioDJ are in order for winning your KCODd COIIIeCUtive U,S. R.oad bcing Champiolllhip. Wu the win a financially rewardiJlg cn1e? , Yes, I did make some money last year, but only because I had good sponsonhip. For what I did on the National circuit I didn't really make all that much money, but I did come out in the black and not in the red as usual. Next year with Honda, and Suzuki involved in Formula One the money' I take in from winning will have to go back into the program, and I just can't keep on domg that year after year. Last year, I didn't even pay a mechanic. George Vincensi, Frank Shepp and Kent Petenon helped me out at the "races and they dia it for absolutely nothing. If I had to put $20,000 out for a mechanic I would have made absolutely no money last year. I did all the work myself between the races and Kevin Cameron did my cylinden for me and these other guys helped me out. In essence the only reason I made money was because I completely took care of my own program, and next year that won't be possible because it's becoming J.11ore and more competitive. What happened to you at The Saperbiken race in California? Well, I started off with this dynamite start (in the heat) and I had brain failure because I shifted the bike like my road racer 7&0 and it's exactly the opposite--I went directly from second to fint. That put me in last, but I worked my way up. Then I stalled my engine on this little hill on the dragstrip. Then in my semi I threw it down in the oval part. I wish there was more road racing and faster paru to the Superbiken course. The speeds aren't where road racing really counu. I feel it's more geared to motocrossers or dirt tracken. It was more competitive this year than last, though. I think it's an interesting concept and I plan to do it again. What spolllOnhip or help have you lined up for the '81 _ n 10 far? Right now I'm getting my proposals out. I hope to hire Kevin Cameron full time to work on the bike. I'd also like to get a new 750 and spare erigine if they're available. To do that I have to go outside the motorcycle industry to get the sponsonhip I need, so I've been hitting the cigarette companies, the gas companies, that type of thing. At this time I have absolutely nothing concrete. I've even gone to computer companies, but as of now I haven't inked anything. I've spent $1,000 on proposals and pictures; alii can do is hope for the best. I'm looking to put together a 100 percent com~tive program, and in order to do that the sponson have to commit themselves fairly decently financially in order to get a return. Do you haft any ,uperbike p1aIII for next year? No, I have absolutely no superbike plans. I would be interested in riding a superbike, but I would only ride a factory superbike. To run a program competitive with the factory su~rbikes would take a quarter of a million dollars; a lot of money. You can talk to anyone at the factories and they tell you they can build their superbikes for $10,000, but I think tnat's bullshit. Were you approached by any of the factories in connecticn1 with racing for next year? No I wasn't. I talked to them through my own initiative. I told them I would be interested in riding a superbike and I had no response from them. Part of the problem may have been they thought I had a program put together. They tnight have felt I had a major sponsor put together for next year and that I was interested in Formula One. I approached Kawasaki, Honda, Yosmmura Suzuki and even Suzuki but nothing came of it. Do you lee the P~Am races increuing interat in road racing cn1 a Naticn1al event level? I think the concept is decent on putting the Pro-Am circuit together, but it all comes down to it casu just as much money to go to a Pro-Am as to a National. But I'd rather have races and not make very much money than have no races. It's a beginning effort and hopefully it will grow and it will tum into Nationals. So, yes. I would say it is a good idea. It 'will probably take another year or two to really get going. The trend is really going towards superbikes, because they don't have the Formula One program in there (Pro-Ams). I still feel the major cluses should be the GP cluses. Next year it tnight be different with Honda and Yoshimura Suzuki getting more involved with Formula One. You're on the AMA', profeuional racing rulea committee, and that _kes you an "imider." Do you lee the champiomhip road racing achedule gro~g in yean to come? We, brought that up at the last meeting and realized that interest is starting to grow, but I think we'll have to separate the cluses in dirt track and road raci~ and try to get two championships going. I think we're going to have a problem if we don't get twelve or at leut ten road races because it will be hard to get a sponsor that a rider can tell they'll really get something out of it. It's an obvious situation where the dirt trackers are just doing dirt tracks and the road racen are just doing road , races. There's very little overlap, and with the expense in both Class C and road racing it's hard to do both. Even if they kept it in the same Winston Pro Series schedule and still had twelve road races then they'd get more dirt trackers involved in road racing. Even if one dirt tracker did it he'd be at an advantage because of the road ral:e poinu. Right now dirt tracken can't righteously say it's good to invest money in a road racer when they can't even make any money back. Do you have plalll to compete in Europe and join R.obera, Mamola, Singleton, and Mike Baldwin and David Aldana, who jut inked , CODtraeu with Honda to CODtat the European endurance races? I definitely want to go to Europe. I'm malting some friends right now and will possibly do that in 1982. If I can't get into a really good 500cc program I'd probably start out in the 250 or !lSOcc World Championship races. I feel I would be more competitive as a privateer agaiilst tbe factories in those cluses than the 500cc class. Then again the big factor is sponsonhip. You need a quarter of a million dollars to race the 500s competitively. There are lIOIDe who say your U.S. title has a hollow ring to it. Those people cite the handful of races conducted for the title and the fact that American racen'like Kenny R.oberu, bndy Mamola and Dale Singleton didn't compete in more than a couple of the U.S. championship races. Othen refer to Singleton running away from you at Pocono and R.obera lapping you at Laguna Sea. How would you respond to those skeptics? I feel it is a title and I'm proud to have won it. It has a lot to do with consistency and finishing all the races and gaining all the poinu and winning it. I wish that Roberu and Singleton and all those guys would compete. because when you get into it there's very little competition. I ride to win at the slowest possible speed. It's sometimes hard to get going really fast when you're accustomed to not going even 90 percent, or sometimes riding 75 or 80 percent. It's not the title that it should be. If I could have beaten Singleton at Pocono or have done a lot better at Laguna Seca it probably would have helped me a great deal as far as the public eye. There were still a lot of circumstances that determined why I did what I did at those races. That's one of the reasons I want to go to Europe. I'd rather finish third, fourth or fifth in a field that's top notch than to win every race where the field isn't 10 top DOlch. But it's hard to get sponsonhip and' the proper publiaty without winning the United States Road Racing Championship as I have done the put two yean. Other than that I just want to tharik all the people who have helped me over the years: Microlon, Energy Efficient Systems, Castrol Oil, Arai Helmeu, Sky Cycles, and all the other people who help me besides my product sponson. Without them I'd go racing. but they give me a chance to make some lOOney at it, because that's what I'm trying to do, make a living.•

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