Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

00 00 O"l ........ BIKE WEEK '88 VISIT AMI OPEN HOUSE FREE REFRESHMENTS FREE BIKE WEEK SCHEDULE TOUR THE FACILITIES OF THE WORLD'S LEADING MOTOCYCLE MECHANICS TRAINING CENTER. LOCATED AT EAST BANK OF SPEEDWAY· ACCESS BY AIRPORT ENTRANCE 9 AM 5 PM MON·SAT AMERICAN MOTORCYCLE INSTITU TE 1445Skytl'Ooper Road Daytona Beach, FL 1·800·874·0645 IN FL. 904·255·0295 Renfrow will continue his association with sponsor Vance & Hines; in 1988 they will race superbikes exclusively. '88 YZ2S0 U's in stock Call f or ad price Parts Sh ipped Daily (71 4) 536-7555 1 9 7 21 Beac h Blvd. H unt ingt o n Bea c h. CA 92648 EURO ':TECH =- T.IE:!!!J~'" s:;;;;t ts P &c~/ SERVICE and SPECIAL PARTS DUCATI RACE PARTS 12 9 9- C STATE AVENUE HOLLY HI LL. FL 32017 ~ (DAYTONA) 904-677-1506 Just off US-1. one light north of 11th Street . tu rn west on Walker Street. one block. ~ mmmA (519) 254-2565 motorcycle road racing. Formula .One doesn't allow certain ou tside sponsors to come in and (may be) th e manufacturers can't afford to spo n sor racing at the Formula One level. If outside sponsors do get into road racing and provide a nd a ura of legitimacy and up th e le vel o f com pe titio n so people are racing closer and we ha ve better rac ing, then that is po siti ve for the sport. " . Just as Renfrow a pprecia tes learning from past experie nces, he also values the many peop le who helped build hi s career. " It certai n ly hasn 't been a o ne-ma n effort," sa id Renfrow with a note of sincerity. " You can' t ge t this far withou t a lot of people working reall y ha rd for you. I started out with Burt Bigoney, a doctor from my hometown of Fredericksburg, Virginia , who put in a lot of his own money. H e's retired now but is certainly wi th us in spirit. Ron Barrick has been with us full time since '84 and does most of the machin e prep along with Tom Manchester. I respect all th e great guys at Honda, especially Udo Gietl, Brian Uchida and Mitsu Kanata, During my Formula One championship season in '86 Honda mad e th e same eq uip ment available to me as they did to Wayne (Ra iney). I rea lly a pp recia ted that. Stanley Chan was th e Dunlop distributor wh o worked real hard for me alo ng with J im Allen in more recent years. My '85 a nd '86 seasons were backed by Star fire Racing with Larry Dod ge, Wes Cooley and T odd Brubak er. In '87 I hooked up with Van ce & H in es which resulted in a good relati onsh ip. I also owe sp ecial thanks to Sh oei Helmets, Bob MacLean, ND Sp arkplugs, T subaki Ch ain, Cam 2 Fuel, a nd Bel-Ray Lubricants. You co u ld n' t ask for a harder working bunch of people. " Renfrow also has a great deal of respect for his fellow co mpetitors. "The equipment was so close (in last year's 250 competition) that th e finishing positions were not determined by who had the fastest bike but who did th e best job of prep, pi cking o ut the right combinations; and riding. " The person who did that the best was the Castrol250 GP champ John Kocinski of Team Nordica Roberts. "J oh n remained consistent all season a nd he went fast," said Renfrow. " O ne of his strengths is his ability to ge t going fast right a way." Wh at about the strengths of the runner-up in th e 250cc GP cla ss, Kork Ballington? "Kork's streng ths in clude hi s trem endous amoun t of experience (Balli ng ton is a four-time World Ch ampi on ) a nd hi s a bility to go very, very fast lat e in the race. Wh en Kork has a shot at it he goes very hard a t th e end, far exceed ing my expec tat io ns of bein g able to speed up over wh at had alrea dy been a fast pace." And Renfrow's op in io n of th e third-pl ace finisher, Don Green e? "Donnie is very co nsis tent; he's always fast and he's always th ere." Who is th e one rid er Renfrow resp ects th e mos t? "Kenny Roberts. I haven 't had th e opportunity to rid e on th e same tra ck with him often but at Daytona, Lagu na Seca and at 'Suzuka in Japan we were together a cou ple of times. he doesn't do a nyth ing that other riders don't do . He just appears to use all of his time, all of the track, and all of th e bike's potential to go faster. He's also had . a long successful career and he didn't fall off excessivelv ." It became very obvious wh en talking to Renfrow that he th oro ughly enjoys ra cing. H e o nce sa id tha t you ca n 't impro ve as a rid er unless you enjoy wh at you're doing. Does he stil beli eve th at today? " Yes, I believe you have to enjoy it. If you don' t enjoy it , I don't believe you co uld wo rk as hard as you have to work. You may not even enjoy raci ng motorcycles but yo u have to enjoy some part of it , like th e winning or th e feeling of doing som ething that well. There has to be som ething th ere that you enjoy so much that you 're willing to work really hard for it. " I really enjoy doing it well ," continued Renfrow. "When you're riding well, when things are clicking and you 're learning and exploring the lim its on a fairly steady basis in all aspects - braking, cornering and going q uicker - it's just a fantastic feeling: There's nothing else like it. I love win ni ng, but winning is the resu lt of bei ng ab le to do all of the other things well." Are good racers born with the necessary ingredients or can th ey be taught? " I really don't know. Part of it can be taught like Keith Code says, but th e actual ingredients I don 't believe can be taught. They come from within, and what makes (N BA basketball pla yer ) Julius Erving great also makes Kenn y Roberts great, a nd th ose th ings can't be taugh t." Wh at does it tak e to win races? " It's determination , it 's th e feelin g that you deserve it," Renfrow said with convictio n. " It 's a whole co mbina tion of things. It 's th inking you can win alt ho ugh you don't ha ve to beli eve you will. In o the r words, you don't have to be conce ited or cocky and yo u don't hav e to beli eve you're better than everybody else. You just have to beli eve you ca n win and you hav e to want it very bad. There's no doubt about that because th e other guys wan t it badly too. " What advice do es Renfrow have for those j ust starting out in road racing? "Entering the sport today you should start out on a 250 or 400 beca use today 's bikes are very fast , not like it was five to seven years ago. If you want to make it to the top , just be prepared to make a lo t of sacrifices and to work very hard. Because those who hav e made it to th e top hav e worked very hard. At times it ma y appear th at they didn 't, but at some point th ey did." Does Renfro w have aspirations to co m pe te on th e Grand Prix circuits in Europe? "Everyo ne asp ires to go to Europe; most Ameri cans do a nd I would certainly like to . It 's th e ultimate racing. Everybody wants to tak e th e next step up. Everybody wants to prove that th ey ca n do it even if it's just proving it to yo urself. I'd like to do th e same th ing. I'd like to race against th e people that are absolutely th e best. Certainly we produce great rid ers, but let 's face it, we're competing against the rest of the wor ld for that top elite a nd we don 't produce all the best. Racers always want to go where the best are. The money and the highest level of competition is in Europe." Is there one question Ren fro w wishes; someone wo u ld ask him? "Yes there is. I wish someone would ask me if I'd go to Europe and ride a fu lly sponsored 500cc works bike for them." An d what would his answer be? "When do you want me to go?" •

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