Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

C\J 00 0') Steve ise Da~tona refleetions "I'm a raeer. I've won motoeross raees, and I'm sure I'm going to win a TT, and I'm sure I'll win a road raee," By Tom Mueller Photo by Gary Van Voorhis St eve Wise w ent to Dayto na to pr ove h imself as a road racer, an d even th e m ost skeptic al cam e away from Cycle Week know in g tha t W ise can run w ith so me of the fastest riders A m erica has today. Wi se ran in th e top five for th e first nin e lap s of the Superbike event in h is fi rst-ever road race, took an off-track exc u rsio n, and fi nished an eve ntua l eighth with a tw isted . fro nt en d. H e th en put in a surp rise en try for th e 200 on th e in -line four cy lin der Honda w h ich had been prepa red for Mar co Lucch in elli. O nce again, Wise rode up front th e en ti re race and carded a seven th, pu tting himself in to th e Wi ns ton Pro Series poin ts lead. W ise was one of th e most talked about riders at Daytona. For m ost spec tato rs it was watch th e leader and wat ch for W ise, becau se no on e reall y knew w hat he was capable of, at least unt il the S uperbike and Daytona 200 races w ent off. We gave Steve a few days to clear h is head and get his th ou gh ts togeth er con cerning th e fi rst tw o road races in h is n ew career. H ere are th e th ou ghts he reflected. 18 Steve, in yo u r last interview with Cycle News, you said you wanted to break into the top five at Daytona's Superbike race, but you fini shed eighth. What are yo u r thoughts now, and do you feel you've m et yo u r goals anywa y? After a few detou rs off th e co u rse I too k eigh th . and I learn ed a wh ol e bunch and met m y goals . I di ced with Roberto P ietri and Eddie Lawson for ten laps. Right before the Superbike race you knelt down on the grid and said a prayer. What sort of th ough ts were in your head? I'm a Christi an a nd I thi n k it's important to pray. My thoughts were abo ut ot her people, not just myself, just hoping it would be a safe race, a nd trying to mak e my self beli eve it would be safe. I was hopin g that no one would do anythi n g stu pid. Also , I was hoping I wouldn 't lose my mind ou t the re, j ust ride m y own race and stay within my own limits. Those are th e th ings I pray abo ut, to gi ve me confidence an d mind contro l so I won't go in over my head . I need to race my race a n d no one else's. There may be g uys out there who can beat me, an d the re may be guys wh o can' t. Are you more conservative road racing than you were motocrossing? Oh, no doubt. I'll tell yo u wh at, the th ird lap (o f the Superbike race) I a lmost got off reall y bad. The back wheel got off th e track on th e gr a ss a nd the front wh eel was on the paveme n t. It was in a little left hand joga bou t 115 m iles per hour-and I went into a slide. Roberto was ri g ht behind me and he told me la ter he co u ld' t bel ieve I saved it. It 's a good thin g it wasn't mudd y where I went off. It was muddy for Brauneck (Doug Brauneck, rid er in the Daytona 200 who flipped end over end when he went off th e trac k). You ran heads up with Pietri and Lawson in your first road race. What's it like running at that pace? Actually : it was a little too fast for me. I sho u ld h ave mellow ed out and ridden beh ind th em for a longer period of tim e, but in a motocross yo u pass when you can , and I have to learn that when you road race you have to take your time. I tried to pass Roberto, I did pass h im, and that's when I ran off the track. Money in racing was a well covered subject at Daytona, especially concerninK Honda. Is your salary as a IT rider/road racer higher or lower than when you were motocrossing? My salary is exactly the same as it was last year. I have sort of a weird deal, I -only signed for six months. At first Honda didn 't know if I was go ing to be good enough, and I told them I didn't know either. The money I'm making isn 't a whole bunch. I didn 't make a ton motocrossing like some of the guys. I made good money, but not a whole bunch. In six months I'll know if I'm any good at th is stuff, and if I'm not I'll want to quit anyway. This whole thing is going to work out for my benefit. It looks real good right now. What does Honda put more emphasis on, road racing or MX? I think it 's about the same. Motocross is different. The works bikes are easier to make, but those road racers cost , a ton, a million and a half dollars for each bike Spencer and Baldwin rode (in the 200, the FWS I,OOOcc V-4). Honda can afford to make more motocross bikes. I think you 're going to find more of an effort put into road racing here in the next year. The R&D people were very pleased with the results at Daytona, and 'when they're pl eased th ey'r e going to spend more money, and there will be more development. Now that you have proven yourself as a road racer, do you ever feel like snubbing those who thought you'd never make it? No , no . Those people will get sn ubbed in th e long run . I'm not going to sn u b anyone with words because words can't do an yth ing anyway. Of cou rse, that wou ld go against my beli efs in C od, because it says in the bible not to do things like that. There's no reason for me to say bad things to an yone, ever. What sort of reactions have you reo ceived from people aher Daytona? There's been a lot o f people really happy wi th how I did. I guess I better get a speedwa y an d a trials bik e next! There's a lot of diff erent ways I can go right now . I' ve been tal king with Udo (Geitl, H onda 's roa d racing team manager ) a nd the re's a lot of things th at m igh t happen. I'm leading the Win ston Pro Ser ies po ints righ t now , a nd I'm wondering wh at I shou ld do . Bob Hannah paid close attention to your performance at Daytona. What were his reactions? Would he ever try road racing? Bob ca me into the pits right after the 200. H e won fifty bucks betting som ebody I'd finish in the top ten . Hannah is really pumped, an d I think all th e MX gu ys sho u ld be pumped because th ey m ight be seeing so me of this later in th eir careers. At first H annah told me I was cra zy, and th e first time I went aro u nd the banked part a t Dayton a I was telling myself I was crazy. I'm not say in g I'm not going to get off, because there's a lwa ys tha t possibil it y, b ut as long as you keep it in perspe cti ve yo u won 't get yourself into as much trouble ro ad racing as you think you will , un less there's some mech ani cal problem. At first Hannah to ld me I wa s nuts, but I talked to h im Tuesday night-I have to talk to h im again tonight because we have some lan d together we're trying to sell -an d as ked him when he was going to try th is stuff, At fir st he said no way , bu t this ti me he said maybe so, maybe he'd give it a try after motocrossing. How is your wife reacting to road racing? She doesn 't say much, she's just 100 .

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