Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

c-r 00 0') - o ~ Steve Wise: "The first time I tried a Superbike ... 1could not believe there could be that much horsepower under two wheels ... it scared me so bad I was shaking when I got off. " By Tom Mueller Photo by Tim Roberts Last w eek St eue Wist! gavt!us so m e insig h t into h is perjorman ce at the Houston TT Nat ional on February 7, uihere he placed th ird in his first W in ston Pro Series ride. MX talt!nt, said the Team Honda racer, is uiell su ited to the demands of TT racing. He 's looking for wins in the other th ree TT Nat ionals th is season, and W ist! hopes that a su perio r t!ffor! at those events will t!arn him mort! respe ct than he attained in his dirt track race debut . A II of the Houston TT scuttlebutt w ill be ouershadoured uihen W ist! takes to the gr id for the Bell Superbik e 100 at Daytona o n Mar ch 5. That w ill be h is road race debut, uih ere he w ill once aga in push , shove and bump his way to th e fi nish-or to the ground-s-urhich euer comes fi rst. W ist! proved his abi lity when he timed in (It 2 m inutes, 11 seconds o n the Daytona Int ernat ional Sp eed wa y cou rse durin g h is f irst visit th ere a few week s ago. That lap time is co m petitive, and on ly time itself w ill tell w he re Wi se will be wh en th e checkered fla g waves. What happene d the first time you rode a Superbike? 30 T he fir st time) tried a Superbike out a t Willow Springs (Ca liforn ia) I co uld not believe there could be th at much horsepower under two wheels. It really bothered me at first , I know _road racers .a re crazy but I thought that first ride was ridiculous. he first time I'rode that Su rbike it do , but those thoughts only come before or after . Wh en yo u' re out there you don't think about it much. You really had lO pay attention when you 're going from 160 lO about 30. When we tested at Da ytona there was a big change. Freddie Spencer" Mike Ba ld win and Roberto Pietri are so friendly and asked me if there was anything they could do for me, which was co m p letely different from the dirt track guys. Then rurinin ' the bowl at Daytona, that was stra nge the first time. Wha t sort of mod ifica ti o ns have you mad e in your style in orde r to road race? Wh en you get on those bikes you automatically ride differently. You have lO be smoot h, and ') can' t ride nea rly as aggressively as my nature will allow. You have to start hangin' it out, hangin ' your body off and getti n' your knee down there. It 's going lO take me about six more months lO really get in tu ne with it. I haven 't ridden a road race bike since ) rode at Day to na in January. lO sca red me so bad) was shaking when I got off, and everyo ne as ked me how I liked it. Of course I told th em I loved it. By the third time) rode it that day) was throwing it around. There was a real high crosswind that day and it was making the bike wobble really bad a t 150, and all I could think was, ' Man, does this thing do this all the time?' Then I wondered if this is what) really want I never ri de o n the street m uch , but when ) d id it was n't very wild beca use I'm scared of cars . The first time ) ever ihought about ri ding the pavement was after The Super bikers (Wise won the all-terrain event twice, in 1980 and '81). How do yo u realistically expect to do at Da ytona in th e Bell Superbike lOO? If I cut one or two seco nds off per la p -- which shouldn't be too hard to do once I get down to busi ness -- I should start on the second row. I'm looking for a to p five finish, that's my goal. You migh t as well set yo ur goals a bit high the first rime. If I make my goal I'll be really hap py. . Are yo u enth used about a career in TT a nd road ra cing or is it just another wa y to get a new contract with Honda? No way ! I am really en thused. I've been racing motocross for a long ti me. and I just ' don ' t have the drive lO conti nue lO trai n li ke I need to, O th er ave nues opened u p lO me, a nd I was ta lki ng lO some people abou t MXing in Europe a nd lO so me J apanese co mpanies about stayi ng ove r here a nd racing MX. I have so me d ifferent roads lO go down; it isn't like I had to do this at a ll. I co ul d make more money going ot her p laces, lO tell the truth. The people I'm worki ng with said they'll give me a chance , and if I'm not doing well I' ll get out. '81 was a ba d year for you concerning injuri es wh il e mo tocrossing, Are you scared of crashing a Superbike? The injuries) had last year weren't that serious, except when I broke my wrist. Since I became a C h ristian I feel totally different about life in general. Road racing doesn't bother me. I could die in a plane crash going to the race . Most of the guys out there know what they 're doing, and mostly I'm worried abou t myself being too aggressive. I have good comm u ni cation with Udo and the guys a t Honda, and ihey ta lk to me about what to do, I feel bad in a way about where I'm at . I did get the chance of a lifetime, and a lot of people are sayi ng it's not fair) got a Superbike because they paid their d ues, maybe five years racing the circuit, and the n H onda hires someone new. Well , tha t's life. 1hope peop le won 't hold it against me personally. because everyone with talent doesn't always get the chance; that's the way it is. Do you have any p lans to ride Supercross or other MX events this year? I was going to ride the Daytona Supercross, but I talked it over with my team manager and he asked me if I've been training hard enough lO do well and not get tired and crash. He put things into perspective. If I crash MXing I might ruin my road racing career. I think I'll pass on Daytona, and) don 't have any other plans in that direction this year. Now that yo u're experiencing different forms of racing. wh ich takes th e most skill? Motocross requires conditioning and agility. You ride in the mud , in the sand, in clay , in dirt , in different kinds of terrain, we even cross p..ve,· rnent at the Daytona Supercross. Motocross requires the most all around work, th e hardest work, and the most determination. Road racing requires perfection a nd serio us mind control. In motocross you don't have lO worry about getting off a t 160. I'm rea lly happy I've tasted all the different forms of raci ng. After The Superbikers las t year, wh ich is q u ite a bit like road racing, I was mentally whipped. P h ysicall y I felt fine, but that night I was asleep instant ly. After a good motocross race, like Unadilla. I was too sore to sleep well for three days . •

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