Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Randy Mamola, seen here with manager Jim Doyle and the Cagiva V588 500cc GP bike, is the Italian manufacturer's number one"rider. Family racing: Cagiva style By William Edgar In this movie I am making up beneath these California palms there are three Americans at a table outside a cafe by a lake in Italy. Lake Varese near Milano. It is morning, and vapors ri se fro m its still wa ters, making th e scene mi sty and d i h f hi f compo~e . In t e as IOn 0 a rare pamtmg. The men - who refer LO the mse lves as Randy, J im , a nd George - speak in a vern acula r that now an d then portrays, well , certai n life pro cedures. T he topic, th ough not nearly all of what is sa id can be heard, has some thi ng LO do with the art and enterprise of motorcycle roa d racin g. R andy Mamol a . J i m Do yl e. George Vukmanovich. Half of th e pl ayers in th is six -character film of mine - names indelibly kn own LO th e sport . Mamola : bulletproof fourtim e World Cha mpio nsh ip runnerup, Grand Prix road race star since 1979. Doyle: U.S. Air Force fighter pilo t turned airli ne ca p tai n , mentorman ager of first Kenny Rob ert s an d th en RandyMamola. Vukman ovich : inc u ra ble race lo ver a n d master mech anic, vowe d to tune the new 500cc Cagi va V4 to sing th e blues for J apan . And now, my imaginary camera"pans to see th ree more enter th is la keside scene . Raymond Roche: th e q uiet Fre nchman,. Ca giva ' s number two G~ team nder. Peter Ingl ey: th e Brit. former Dunlop wizard and now Pi relli motorcycle race ti re 'en gin eer. And Mo n ean Sawyier : the Ame rican 'Mo m and ind ispe nsable secre tary, bookkeeper a nd exhilara tin g breath of spring. Five guys and a ga l o u t to cha nge a more or less pre-announced road racin g hi sto ry. And, mak ing it quite exp licit at the o u tset of th is movie, these slices of reality within a frame of theater , there will be two statemen ts herewith - a nd th ese two on ly - concern ing last fall's dramatic breach betw een Kenny a nd Randy that saw n ot o nly a longtim e friendsh ip disintegrate , bu t also th e end of a potent coa lition , The firs t sta teme nt was voiced to me by Mamola him self early last month: " My pe rso na l feeling ab out Kenny Rober ts is that the ma n is unbelievable LO wat ch a nd to race agai nst, but he needs some expe rie nce as far as runn ing a team. " T he o ther observa tio n was also mad e recentl y, by Ji m Do yl e: " Yo u don 't tell some body that's been three times narrator, a nd whe n he spea ks, it's as number two in th e world, just abo u t to becom e the fou rth tim e number if he were livin g it a ll over agai n right there in front of you. two in th e wor ld - and, a t th at po int " Ra ndy said LO me," Doyle begins, in time, th e possib ility of bein g " 'J i m , G ianfran co Ca srig li on i ' • World Ch ampion - ho w LO ride hi s offered me a rid e o n Cagiva motormotorcycle wh en you 've been retired cycles.' Randy said, 'Wha t do you for four years. No way on God 's think?' H e just pl anted that seed for gwen ea rth wo uld Ran dy Mam ola a wh ile, a nd I said, 'I don 't, Randy. accept tha t! And he didn 't, So th at I rea lly don't kn ow a ny th ing abo u t was destined LO fail , th at p rogram ." And now' th at th at co mmentary is Cagiva.' I sa id, 'What do you think?' And Randy said, 'I'd like LO think over-and-o u t, so to sp eak , we'll get rig h t to the point of my sixfold a bou t it , I'd lik e LO cons ider it.' So, I was talking LO Suzuki, I was talking profile flick - that is, to tak e a fresh to Rothmans Honda, I had a lot of from-the-box look at th e 1988-89 things going on. I had a lot of good Cagiva FI T eam and see wh a t sh ak es offers that peo p le will never know with thi s sta rring sextet. Or - H ow a bo u t. Randy Mamol a was not this H alfdozen a nd th eir mat es pl an to hammer their bri ght new Itali an .despera te. Quite the co n tra ry. I saw h alfl it er swo r d i n to so m e thi ng a n opportunity for Randy a nd me awesome. to have more co n tro l over our destinies, wh ether we had th e LOp Im agine, if yo u will, that th e Honda bike , Yam aha bike, or Suzuki camera, th is device of mine, now bike, or whate ver. With the Cagiva focu ses on Monean Saw yier as -she begins to spea k. "It's suc h a chal- _ bike - we co u ld co ntro l our own ' destiny for the year or two years. And len ge, " she says, in actuality , we co uld make out of it as much as " beca use everything is so new. But cou ld be made out of it. Not mon eybeca use it is so new, a nd because wise, I'm talking ab out careenaise. th ere is so lillie con fidence from th e I'm ta lking about .riding, and I'm media in wha t Cagiva ca n do a nd talking about finishing, a nd I'm wha t Pirelli ca n do, is what makes talk ing ab out winning, and losing. it exci ting - and that' s why everybody 's pulling together and gi ving it And being in charge - that's wh at eve ryt h in g ' th ey' ve go t to s how I'm really talking abo u t - is being everyo ne we can do it." in cha rge. And we are in charge. " Randy Mamola - composed and T he ca mera swings LO J im Doyle bright ,a nd alive with objectives again now, as heexplain s th e gen esis says: " Ano the r way it made me look of th e Cagiva deal. Jim is an amazing

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