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/126985
... t- ~ ..c .o ..., u o Winning the National Championship in 1986 gave Schwartz a reason to stay in southern California for the '87 season. < • can get wiped out by a rider or two. Handicap is good for the crowd and good for the up-and-coming riders out I don't have anything to prove after 13 or 14 years of racing speedway. Since Carlisle stopped producing motorcycle tires you guys are now on Barums. The Barum has caused a little bit of controversy. It is a different tire and it is hard to ride. It is just like anything else, we have to get used to it. Once we get the air pressures dialed in, the cuts we make on it and the gearing down, it will work out. Now it is hampering mo t of the riders but some of the riders' styles are doing better because of the tire change. It is definitely different, but whether it is good or bad, I just don't know yet. In World Championship qualifying you have had the absolute worst luck and you have never made it to the World Final. What gives? Whenever I have qualified through one round, it has been the next round that knocks me out of it. Whether it be when I am on the line and I knock the magic box off with my leg or something stupid. Anything can happen. This year, at the American Final, } had an en~ine prepared that Sam Ermolenko lied for first in the World Final with. The thing was ready to go. It had just been broken in and had three race meetings since everything inside of it had been brand new. The piston exploded in it. The piston wasn't tricked out, it was just a bad casting. The luck has been bad for me and I haven't made it but that's OK. It is not the be all and end all.of speedway to make the World Final. I would like to make the World Final and I still have a chance. I have been successful in every other part of speedway. I couldn't have gotten the education in school that I have gotten from speedway. } have J"dced in 15 or 16 countries allover the world. 1 have met families and friends everywhere and have had a great time. On October 3 you are going to defend your National Championship. Is there as much pressure in this meeting as there is in a World Qualifier? Oh yeah, there is a lot of pressUre on riders, especially me being the National Champion. } have been in as many important events as anybody in the National field. } know the feeling. Doing it on the one night is what makes speedway so special. } will be just as mentally prepared as anybody else. My first heat is a very tough heat. Probably the toughest heat of the night is the very first heat (Schwartz will face Bobby Ott, Mike Faria and Sam Ermolenko in the opening heat). I would rather race them at the beginrting of the night rather than the end. At the end of the night you are pretty much into your click of doing good or doing bad. The nerves get reduced quite a bit after you have your first ride. The pressure on the night is there but it is a situation where I can rise above it and try to make it work for me rather than against me. The younger guys are really going to feel the butterflies. I know how they feel and they are all aiming to knock me down. If it happens, it happens. There is no disgrace in losing the championship vmen you have had the year that} have had. } am hoping and planning to win it though. Right after the National, you are leaving for England to finish the season with your old team at King's Lynn. The question is, will you be back in southern California for the 1988 season? I think so. I am not going back there to decide if} want to race in England again. I don't see any reason why I shouldn't stay home again next year. Especially if 1 defend my title again. II I win it, } would definitely like to stay here. If not, I. could do anything. Really, in my heart, I would like to stay in southern California. I have once again established myself here with the fans. I had a good fan following in England but like } said earlier, } had a lot of people heckling me and,} didn't really enjoy that. It was hard to be' away from home for as long as } was. I really see myself staying in southern California and trying to help out as much as I can with the sport. } am having a school here real soon and if that becomes succesSful, I would like to continue with a few more next year. I want to put something back into the sport that I love so much. You are 31 now. How much lo~ger do you plan on racing and what are you going to do once you stop racing? I don't know exactly how long I will be racing. Right now I am pr~tty tired and I would like to take a break soon. Every time I do that I miss the sport so much. I may go another four, five, six years or longer. Maybe one or two more years. Who knows? Each year will tell. I will race for sure next year. } have been planning my future out pretty well as } have gone along. I am probably going to do whatever 1 want to do when the time comes. } don't want to be forced into a job just to survive. } know enough people in the sport and the industry. I should be able to get some kind of job that I can enjoy and hopefully it will be within speedway itself. Maybe one day I will promote my own track. I just don't know. Is there anything you would like to add? } just want to thank all my fans this year and all the spectators that have come out even if they are not my fans. They are all supporting speedway, period. I also want to thank my sponsors. They are one of the major reasons why I have had such a successful season. } would like 'to thank all the promoters and everybody involved in speedway. The people. who run the back gates, scorers and referees and ESPN for' putting us on television. • 13