Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

~ . " Interview: SOOcc World Champion :. - Wayne Gardner c- ~ ~ The Aussie who beat the Yanks 0") ,......; By M ichael Scott Photo by HennyRay Abra ms With the season all -but over, the World Champion and I sat on a low wall in the Buenos Aires paddock, constantly interrup ted by people 'wh o wanted autographs, photographs, or j u st to be there. It made talking difficul t. " I'd bett er tu rn my ticket ro u nd," sai d Wayne Gardner, 22 ' swivelling the IRT A pass clipped to his belt so his na me was no longer legible. " I th in k," I felt compelled to say, "they ' ll probab ly reco gn ize yo u anyw ay." " Yeah," he grinned. " Ken n y told me I wouldn't be abl e to do a nyth ing crazy in public a nymore." For a man whose a ll-round riding skills brought him II pole positions, seven wins, 12 rostrum places, poi nts in every race, a nd the ti tle in, o nly h is th ird full works-bi ke season, Gardner sometimes seems surprisin gl y naive. T hen again, per ha ps' not. After a year when Gardner ma de a few enemies by dedicating every fiber of his being towards winn ing races, perhaps one ca n allow a measure of social disorientation. Since then, th e one-time " Wo llongon Wild One" has had some time to get used to being the 500cc World Champion. Back home in .Australia, he's not merel y recognized without his IRT A pa ss, he's been lionized and feted, treat ed as a hero in his native city, appeared on TV, and a ll th e other thi ngs that attend upon a na tio na l hero . It 's not som ething he enjoys, though he recognizes it s financial va lu e, a nd th a t " It 's a oncein-a-lifetime experience." . And there's no th in g like adulation to he lp you grow up fast . Not exactl y a bo y from the outback, Gardner is some kind o f modern eq u iva lent... a kid from nowhere special in the industrial part of New South Wal es, he has done it a ll himself, developing no t only hi s ridi ng tal ent bu t his public image as well , self-groomed for stardom, via Sydney airport and a bed in the ba ck of a second-hand car. " I never ca me to Eu ro pe with a works ride , like the Americans did," he ha p pily reminds us . " When I arrived in Britain, I had no money; nothing really." Except a determinati on so fierce that he made an in stant a nd indelib le impression on th e cozy wo rld of British racing, rapid ly moving fro m his shoestri ng effort on a Moriwaki Kawasaki to his curre n t sta tu re as a GP star. H e did sha re some thing wi th th e Ameri cans he has now defeated aft er a lmost 10 years o f co m p lete domination - a dirt track ba ckground, as a teenage rac er on the Aus tra lian " short -trac ks," wh ere he first practiced th e ar t o f back-wheel steering a t an age when most European riders are lu cky if th ey're running a moped to school. . He too k to road raci ng a lmost on a whim - re moving the air filters fro m his Ya mah a because evervo ne else was do in g it , then seizing th e engine because he didn 't real ize you had to change the jets as wel l. H e raced o n weekends whi le serving an engineering apprenticeship - often qui ttin g' wo rk o n Fr iday to dri ve st ra ig h t thro ugh the night to a meetin g, a nd was spo tted by J apan ese ace tu ner Ma mo ru Mori wa ki giving a typically gritty performance o n a ba ld-tired H onda. T hat led to Da ytona and then to England in 1981 with a high -bar Form ul a One Kawasaki in the same blu e-and-yellow Moriwaki colors that had ea rlier brough t Da yto na winner Graeme Crosby to prominence. You ma y know his more recent history. Itching to go G P racing, he bullied ' H onda Bri ta in into taking him there - a t his own expense! H e made a disastrous debut in Assen in 1983, wh en he ra n into the fallen Fran co Unci ni, a nd almos t kill ed him. But he score d po ints nex t time o ut in Misano in 1984; a nd just one year la ter, on a works Ro thmans H onda tripl e, he harried an d chivvied Freddie Spencer severa l times during the American 's last cha m pionship year. Meantime, Gardner practi call y owned J apan 's Suzuka Eight-Hour race from 1982 to 1986. Bu t you ' may not be aware of th e vu lnerable human side th at lurks beneath the feisty ex terior - of the you ngster who wept as his parents and gi rlfriend Donna Forbes p us hed him th ro ugh the a irport ga tes at Syd ney the firs t time he left; who wep t again af ter the in cident with ' Uncin i. At Go ian ia in 1987 too he couldn 't fig ht bac k the tea rs of relief on the ros trum, after he'd concen trated so hard duri ng th e race that it gave him a headache. But these were different tears, for I Wayne has come a long way in the last 10 years it has taken him to realize his lifelong ambi tio n, and the achieveme nt has cha nged h im too confirmi ng th e maturi ty tha t has been hard won a lo ng th e way. Now, when his fell ow riders especially Ra nd y Mamola and Eddie Lawso n - cri ticize him for being unfriendly, and too proud when he wins , he can loo k back on it a nd say: " I think th ey're being a bit immature. I'm not here to be sociable. I came to win. We'll ha ve to see how I am wh en it's my turn to get beaten. I don 't think I'll kick up th e same fuss that they have." One hopes th e words wi ll no t return to haunt him. . Twenty-eight a week after th e season 's end, Gardner is a stubby a nd ra ther aggressive ch aracter, ra ther prone to take offense, who - like so many o ther self-mad e men - do esn 't suffer fool s gladly. His team techni ca l bo ss, fell ow-Au stralian J erry Burgess, has worked with Mamol a a nd Sp en cer in the past, and says: " Wayne is the most determine d rider I' ve ever met. Freddie did it on pure ability. Bu t" Wayn e does it on willpower too. " Aussie Wayne Gardner dominated the 500cc GPs in 1987. H e loo ks ba ck on 1987 with a great sense of sa tisfaction. " I tried a ll year not to th ink of the championship. I honestly just tack led it race by rac e, a nd gave each race everythi ng I co uld. "Tha t was m y mistak e' in 1986. After I wo n in Sp a i n, and was leading on points, I a u tomatica lly ' started th inking o f the title, which made m e ten se; For exa mp le a t Monza, wh ere I couldn ' t sta rt th e bi ke. I still blame myself. Fir st I flooded it by lifti ng th e front (to get • more fue l in on th e lin e); but rea lly it was m y ow n fault beca use I was too nervous. "T h is year, l ' was determ ined not to fall into the same tra p. But th e pressure still got to me : a t J arama and at Misa no. I had a few ot her bad points, m ai n ly in bad weather, though I still came o ut of it fai rl y we ll. " But it was getti ng rea lly difficul t by the time I got to J arama. I cou ld have clinc hed th e titl e th ere, but I ha d engi ne tro uble." (H e finish ed fourth , wi th a m isfirin g, overhea ting bike with a radiator hol ed by a flyin g front wheel bal a nce weig h t.) "After that, I was real scared th a t m y run of luck had come to an end. " The next race was in Brazil , whe re Gardner needed on ly to tra il Ma mola - and to nip pas t h im -at th e end if the American was in the lead - to secure the crown . " Everybody - I mean peop le like Kenny and Randy a nd the m - expected me to cruise, b u t I th ough t that if I rode for a pl ace, I m ig h t lose conce ntratio n. The best way was to ride my own race , a nd I tri ed to repeat th e Czechoslovaki a n run, leading from start to fin ish ." As we kn ow, th e pl an worked to the lett er, a nd it was on ly in th e closing stages th at Gardner a llowed himself to think of th e ch ampionship . "They were the longest two laps of my career." After win ni ng the titl e, Wa yne co uld hav e followed the precedent set by Sp encer an d Sheene before him, and not bo thered wit h the fin al G P. Bu t he cited h is pres ence in Argentina as proof that he was still hungry. " If I didn 't want to win aga in, I wo uld n' t be on pole posi tio n. I'd be sick. I like racing and Llike winning. Fin an ciall y, I could ret ire now and be co mfortable for th e rest of m v li fe. But money's not the point." . Indeed, as th e paddock 's most co ns p ic u o u s Yu ppie, he - can obviously afford not to worry "too much. H i s m otorhom e ri vals Spen cer 's fo r sp le n d id appo intments, he is running the gamut of sma rt cars to park o u tside - Porsche Turbo and 928, a Mercedes Co upe on or der, and p la ns for a Ferarri T es ta rossa in 1988. H e a lso has th at ultimate sta tus symb ol - an apartment in the m illionai re's tax -haven of Monaco - but th e tra p p ings of success h ave never dist racted him from hi s task, and his a ll -ro u nd dedi cat ion has moved no less th an Kenny Roberts to the op inion that: " Wayne h as been do in g it right for a long tim e." Off the bike, h is app roach was doggedl y studio us, in th e motorhome, studying circuit maps and gearing charts, and maki ng volum inous no tes. Whe n he presented thi s bulging fil e to the H onda Racing Corporation a t th e end of 1986, they were a mazed a nd delighted. No rider in th eir long experience had ever done a nythi ng like th at . In reply, they built a brill ia n t new bike for 1987. ' Aside fro m th e deep p ersonal satisfac tio n at achieving the goal of 10 years , Wayn e says he is en joying bike rac ing mor e th an ever. " You do whe n you wi n." H e wi ll stay on two wheels as long as the enjo ymen t is there, " for a t least three or four more years, " th en he ma y go car raci ng, and already has a couple of to uri ng car drives lined up d u rin g th e off season. H e a lso sees a grea t im provement in his own ri ding. " I feel much mor e re la xed a nd safer - not so wil d. Though I do still have moments, th at 's becau se I'm trying hard. ! " In th e last three years I hav e learned to feel a t home on a two-, . stroke - to feel part o f th e bike. I used to feel like th at on big four-strokes ... as though I coul d do any thing with th em . Th is yea r has been the firs t time I'v e reall y felt li ke that on a 500cc two-strok e." H is next year's plans were still undecided in December, a nd he had been making carefu lly timed statm en ts that he may return on a Yamaha in 1988. " I want to weigh up all th e op tio ns. I haven't even spoken to H onda yet. I'll see the m wh en I go to Fu ji, bu t if they don 't fix me up the n, thev'Il have to come and see me. I ha ve been approached by o ne of th e Yamaha teams - I won' t say which one - and I wo uld love to try t he Yamaha, havin g raced against it." , As to Lawson 's comments du ring the year about the H onda 's su periorit y in accelera tion , he a llows himself a smug grin . " No w he knows how I felt in 1986. I th ink both the Yamaha and the H onda have their goo d poi nts - but the grass is a lways green~:. on th e o ther side of th e fen ce. ' If it was a ll .do wn o nly to being stu bborn , Gardner could sta y World Champion as lo ng as he lik es. Of course it 's a matter of riding the bikes, too. I n this sp he re, the re is li tt le comfort for his rivals. His riding has matured al o ng with h is personali ty, a nd by the end of th e year th e former ' " Wild One," who many said wo uld su rely soon have a massive crash, was goi ng faster ana look ing smoother th an ever. " O f co u rse, I've got th e grea test respect for Eddie and Randy," , he said. "They're still m y heroes , as far as ri d ing goes." Bu t neith er of the m slide th e rear with the sam e wilful ' a ba n do n a s G a rd n er ; a n d o n ly Spencer has ever done so before. Next year, Freddie will p robabl y be back, a nd the aggressive littl e Aus tra lia n is looking forward to it. An d he intends to wi n again. •

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