Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126621
We heard $100,000 for the Supercross title. Yes, and with that kind of money it's going to drive the price up for all teams. When the other riders hear that they're going to want a bonus like that too. If (Donnie) Hansen hangs on and wins the Supercross Series, he's looking at as much as $300,000 this year. I don't think he has that high a salary yet because before this year he never won an overall and he didn't have that much to go on. You can bet his salary will be up there in the six figures next year. You have to win races before you can get a high salary. You have a fighter attitude on the track, you're aggressive around girls and you seem to get what you want in public. Do you live in the same manner that you race? That's the way it always is for me. Sometimes it's bad because I don 't the first race they came up and were talking to us like so many kids dothey were fairly young, about IS. They had saved every nickel they had-there were three or four of them-and they bought a pick-up with a camper that barely ran for 600 bucks. They ate canned beans for breakfast, lunch and dinner and LaPorte and I started talking about changing their diet. We thought they wouldn't be around that long otherwise. We took 'em to a restaurant-and bought them all a big steak dinner. I still see those guys around. One is a Suzuki mechanic at the Suzuki motocross school, and another one is a photoggrapher, I just saw him at Daytona. They like it here and decided not to go back. ' Did it make you feel good helping them out? Sure! I made some new friends if nothing else. Those guys were great, up wrecking his car. He ended up calling the cops and it ended up being a bad deal, we got some bad publicity out of it. You handled it differently than Wosick, He seemed to have lost his cool and you just went and talked it over with (Mark) Blackwell (Suzuki team manager at the time). · I just sort of asked him not to tell the Japanese. He told me if they found out it would be big trouble, and that's what happened (to Wosick) at Kawasaki. We learned a big lesson. After that we became a lot more professional. Traveling and racing fora living isn't all good times and getting in as much trouble as you can. Sometimes it takes a hard thing like that before you learn a lesson. It taught me to stick to business. I never saw that guy again so it was a $500 lesson. What are your views on the current recession? Has it affected you? I really can't see it. As far as my theory goes, no matter how bad off people get concerning money they 're still going to enjoy life, if nothing else. They'll buy their kid a new bike and go to the races every Sunday. There are just as many new bikes as ever, yet in the pits you hear guys talking about how they can barely afford to race. What good is life if you can't enjoy it with your family? You are now a high dollar MX star. Has it affected who your friends are? Not that _ uch because I can adapt m really well to any situation. I go home to Sacramento and hang around with my buddies, which isn't very · often anymore because I'm training all the time. When I have time off in the winter I go back up there and fit right in and have a ball racing at local races on the weekend. We go and have pizza and beer Sunday night after the motos. I drive my Porsche ' up there and pile in as many guys as I can and drive it to the local races . They don't think anything about it; it's just another shiny car. Sometimes I wonder if they even remember what I do for a living they're so cool about it. if anything ever happens to me I just hope I don't have too much money in the bank. I hope it's all spent!" always think ahead far enough. The main thing for me in life is fun, that's what I live for. In everything I do I try to have the most fun that I can and to have it my way. "I'd break every bone in my body to win a title." Unlike some other racers, you have made friends with many people across the country while on the race circuit. Why don't you tell the Cycle News readers about the Australians you and Danny LaPorte befriended? That was quite a case. Some Austral ians came over here for the TransUSA of '79. They were really into motocross and were following the'circuit. We'd seen them at all the tracks. At 18 we talked for hours. You made a bunch of friends, but two years ago you and Larry Wosick made a friend that caused you both a bunch of trouble, and it eventually cost Wosick his ride with Kawasaki, We met this guy in Atlanta, he was pretty funny and kept us rollin' fcir hours with his Steve Martin imitations and stuff. We hung around him quite a bit because he was a real crack-up. He told us he was in a rock band, and I never had any reason to doubt him. He wanted to come to the Sears Point (California) Trans-USA race , and he got out there and he was short on money so I lent him 500 bucks. He never sent me the money so when I was in Atlanta the next year I gave him a call and asked him about the money. He started feeding me a line. So Larry and I went over thereI don't know if this story should be printed or not-but anyway, we ended How about the threat of war? Has the thought of having to quit racing and going to war ever crossed your mind? I think of it in more drastic terms. To me, if that time ever comes, there are · going to be two buttons pushed and it's all going to be over. I fly every weekend, but if I thought about a plane crashing all the time I'd be a wreck. What can you do? It's in the back of your mind, but I just figure I'm going to have as much fun as I can 24 hours a day, and if anything ever happens to me Ijust hope I don't have too much money in the bank. I hope it's all spentl Some top riders, such as Mark Bar- nett, enjoy that time of year when they can kick back and party a bit. How much do you party? Is it possible for a winning rider today to take time off from training to party? It depends on if you want to win the first races of the season or not. The last two years I haven't partied, and I've been really strong at the beginningof the year. Before that I'd take a week, maybe even 'a month, after the Trans-USA and be at (Lake) Tahoe all the time with beer flowing out my ears! I really can't do it anymore because it's getting harder and harder to train with my bad knee. It takes a lot longer to get in top shape. I may not ride for a month, but I don't get out of shape anymore the way you do from drinking beer. I may have two or three beers after a local race, but as far as full-on partyin ' for a month straight I couldn't do it again•. You've had four knee operations, all on the same knee. By now you must realize you can't keep getting hurt and remain competitive. No, I can't. I jammed my knee once this season and once last season, and both times it was the worst time it could be at-in the middle of a series when I was leading. It's bound to happen once a year, you're bound to plant that leg in the wrong spot and you're going to sprain it. "I've never been scared of anything before, and I don't plan to start now." How long can you stay on top as a National rider? I feel like four more years would be tops. At WOTsl it could be the end of this contract. I think I have enough speed that I can stay as fast or faster than anybody as long asI keep riding a motorcycle. It all depends if I can stay uninjured. I'm going to get a knee brace now which might be able to help the situation a bit. I'll probably be done at the end of 'S4. After an injury you can come back and win at any given race. How do you stay on top mentally after suffering constant setbacks? Most top riders have a lot of confidence. I know all these guys are good, and some are remarkable, but I always figure that on sheer speed alone I can beat anybody. If I can practice two or three weeks before a race and I'm still in good shape I figure I can beat anybody. If the track is rough enough I know I can win because most of the guys aren't strong enough-to go that fast. I know, it's a fact. Aren't you scared of being hurt again? No, I've never really been afraid of anything and I don't plan on starting now. I'vealready been hurt so many times I can't even count 'em. I have a pretty good list of injuries: I've had four operations on my bad knee, two injuries to my good knee, a separated shoulder, a broken sternum, torn ligaments in my ankle, a sprained neck at least three times, a sprained back, a broken wrist, a broken finger, and a few other thi ngs, and they were all separate injuries. The way I used to ride it was pretty much one a week, depending on how good of an endo I did. . That's it Darrell. Anything you'd like to add? I'm real happy about the way things are going with Honda. They're even better than I thought they'd be. I think I made the right move, and I hope to finish my career on Honda. I'm going to put in another two or three seasons, and I want to win a title worse than anything else in the world. To me, everything I've done would be worth it if I took a title. I'd break every bone in my body to win a title. If I take that title, then I could rest. If I finish my career with just wins, then it would seem like nothing. I wouldn't have met my goal. That's honestly the only thing I care about in life. •