Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Tire engineer Peter Ingley shifted f rom Dunlop to Pirelli and is working closely with the Cagiva team . "It's an incredible challenge," says Ingley. 24 But wh en I take off, I hav e my portable telephone wit h me. If th ey want to get a ho ld of me the y ca n get ahold of me. But it gives me two a nd-a -half hours of d rivin g alo ne, three times a week - 680 rig h t through to Co ncor d, so it's a ni ce dr ive, qu iet." . Besid es raci ng m o torcycl es for more th an half h is life, (his first race was a d irt tra ck a t H ollister H ills in hom e-stat e Cali forn ia ), Randy Mam o la is a sworn car 'n ut. He ow ns Por sch es, immacu la te stree t rods, Mercedeses. Ca rs to him are priva te and special things, neat little rooms in which to escape to you r ow n min d. J im Doyle's p recisely the sam e way . And if we tru ck o ur make-beli eve movie ca mera and sound gear over fr om Ma m ol a ' s mo to r ho me to Doyle's Mercedes, we'll find Jim on the phone weari ng hi s "Top Gun " Un ited Airl ine's CdP , just finis h ing a ca ll across some ocea n. ' J am es Doyle, who ' with Ra nd y Ma mo la head s R.M. Promot ions Incorpo r ated , h a s a fa scina tin g h istory. F-84 figh ter pilot. Motorcycle road racer. 747 in ternat ional pilot for Pan American . P racti call y a father to you ng Kenny Rob ert s a nd , later, to th e beginning Randy Mam o la. Now a " very senior" cap tain for United , flyin g one of the hottest new passenge r jets in our dom estic skies - Boein g' s 737-300 " G lass Cockpit " shi p with co ur se-findi ng o n-board com p uter. Basicall y, Doyle's a sh arpas-they-co me gentlema n wh o lead s two non-stop lives, each as vital , each feeding th e ot her with a bal an ce of utter ent h us ias m. But you reall y go ua hear it from Jim Doyle himself. Cam era a nd sound rolling. Act ion ! " I used to race with Ron Grant in the 250 class," says Do yle. " Ro n used to bu ild th e bikes a nd we would go racing in th e AFM, and we went racing in the AMA. I was prep a rin g for th e Daytona race, a nd we went u p to Vacavill e. The track now is j ust a housin g com plex , bu t th ere used to be a little tra ck up th ere, a nd I wanted to chec k th e 250 Suzuki o ut - and we had some tir es up th ere for testing, a nd we were getting o ur ac t together, fini shing up th e afternoon. And I sa id, 'Well - I'll tak e five mor e laps." And he said, 'This tire is reall y worn out here, you better change it. ' I said, 'I can ge t five more la ps on it, just let me get going.' Mark Brelsford had just pulled in , a nd I sa id , 'J ust let me get five mor e laps th en we'll go hom e.' Well, I came off real hard in a sweeping turn up th ere, and in fact it's led me to always tell all th e rid ers - I told Kenny wh en he was a young boy , I told Randy when he was young - bikes.' So I went over a nd wa tched h im ride and I was rea lly impressed at how well th is kid rode. And he sa id h is nam e was Kenny Rob erts. " So I watc hed hi m and thought , gee, I' d li ke 'to p ut th is kid on my bik es and let him ride some fla t track a nd just help him ou t a littl e bit. Because I was to ld h is paren ts didn 't ha ve very much . So I went over and met them, a nd I sa id, 'Yo u can see that I ca n 't ride. Well , I' ve got a lot of motorcycles, I've go t some n ice stu ff, and I'll pa y th e way and tak e your boy and we'll go rac ing. We'll go see wha t kin d of a job he can do.' I wasn't flyin g th en because of my in juries, and I had 14 months off of flight, and in tha t ti me I worked wi th Ken ny on a full tim e bas is. I'd take him dow n o n Wednesday or T h urs da y to LA,-we'd hit Gardena, we'd run the TT and then we'd also ru n a s h o rt tr a ck eve r y Friday and Saturday a t Ascot. And th en we h it a few races o n th e way back. We ca ugh t all theeven ts we could. And , ( A member of the Cagiva team, Monean Sawyier is described as "an indispensable secretary, bookkeeper and exhilarating breath of spring." I said whe n you fall down, I suggest you stay still. Lay still until someo ne comes ,up a nd raps on your helm et , and see how last you' re runn in g .or if you 're stand ing still before you try and ge t up. Because I tri ed to ge t up, a nd in racing your m ind is go ing so fast, m y mi nd said I had stopped - a nd I stuck my left foot out to sta nd up and sna pped it ri gh t a t th e a nkle. I was still slidi ng !" After hi s Vaca vill e cras h he head ed - wh ere else wo uld Jim Doyle go?! - to th e big track a t Daytona. "A very important pe rso n went to Daytona with me that a lot of people in motorcycling kn ow , a nd th at was a you ng kid called Kenny Roberts. And I was running aro und in a wh eelchair right after I go t o ut of th e 'hospital, in 1969. I wa s go ing to races, of course, watching races, becau se I had a stable of mo torcycles but I could n' t rid e th em a nd th ey were just sitti ng a nd ru stin g away. And some friend said, 'Ji m why don 't you spo nsor som ebod y?' Well , I'd never given that a th ought. The fart hes t thing from my mind was to sponsor some kid o n rid ing m y mot orcycle. I want to ride th e mo torcycle, I didn 't wan t somebody else to rid e it. But I kn ew I co u ld n 't. So, wh at th e heck, I'll find some body and let him rid e for a while. And I don't even know wh o, some body just in conversa tion said, 'T he re's a little kid over in Mod esto th at all he does is ride a little homemad e bike and he runs around and he's riding all these tra cks , but he's beating some of the older guys in th e Sportsman class . He 's just doing a heck of a job, so maybe you can put him on th e as a ma tter of fact, we caugh t enough th a t Kenn y was in content io n for th e No vice N ational Cham p ions h ip . Then we go t ser io us a nd . rea ll y work ed hard a t it. And we got h im th e Novice Na tio na l Championship o n my motorcycles. That was in th e AMA No vice division in flat track a nd TT." . Do yle keep s ri~h t on talking, even th ough my in visibl e camera has ru n ou t of film by now . But he's great to listen to because he was th ere with these legends! " We didn 't do much roa d racin g with Kenn y a t that tim e. It was easier to get to the flat tra ck events and the TTs. But going back just a little o n that, I asked Kenny if he'd lik e to try a little road racing, a nd he th ought th at was kind of neat, so I said, 'Why don't yo u go to Daytona with me? I'm going to ra ce D aytona a nd you can rid e ou t with me. And I'v e go t two bikes.' So we went there and we p ract iced and we had problems, mechanically, and my bike seized o n th e hi gh banking and I ca me through the pack a nd ca me down and rolled into th e infield and p ut it up aga inst th e chain-lin k fen ce in th e cent er of Daytona. And I said, 'Someone is tell in g me I had bett er q ui t racin g. I was looking to stop rig ht th en and th ere! So I thought, th is lit tle kid ri des well , he's do in g a good job . So, in essence, for years I'v e said th at about Kenny, and now I say it about Randy - wh en I manage th ese gu ys, I get so involved a nd engrossed in th e thing for th e simp le reason that it's really m e that's racing. " And a t Laguna Seca here, on th e old co urse - a month ago now, before Suzuki a nd hi s DNF th ere Randy is o ut runn in g on the GP Cag iva, th a t two-strok e engi ne winding so exq uisi tely a nd echoing up the bac k straight and onto the hill, the so und going away, then com ing back again off th e Co rkscrew a nd th e bi ke flying th rough the downhills and ou t of o ld T urn Nine, and th en Randy is up o n hi s rear whee l a nd screami ng over th e top a nd o n to a nother lap again . Pirelli's Peter Ingl ey had Ma mo la o n hi s wa tch . Sure, a couple of seco nds off the trac k record. Bu t this is testi ng, testin g, testi ng. T esti ng end urance a nd tires. It' s Peter In gley's turn to talk. " Pin gley" to the team and hi s frie nds is a fa m iliar and valuabl e ' side kick to Rand y a nd J im ,an d George. T hey' ve been doing this raci ng scene together for years. And now Peter has stepped over fro m Du n lop to Pi rell i fo r his fir st season with this new mo torcycle race trac k radia l tire, that ha s th e whole G P . cro wd watching., " It 's a bi g cu lture shoc k!" Pirelli 's In gl ey tell s me - my om ni p resent ca mera ! my curio us glass eye and oxide ear! - betw een Randy Marno la's and Ra ymond Roche's T eam Cagiva test lap go- bys, " G P mo torcycle racing ha s been dominated for so long now by Japanese manufacturers th at it will crea te a lot of in terest. It 's an incredible cha lle nge. That's' th e most interesting part of th e whol e project for myself. I enjoy a challe nge, and thi s is it." I q uery Peter if runn i ~ th e new Pirell i o n o nly one team might be consi dered a limiting hindrance to development. " I' ve heard th at said recentl y," Peter answers in hi s measu red British ca lm. " Bu t I was in exactly th e sa me situa tio n last year with Dunlop and T eam Luck y Str ike Roberts. We -d idn "t h av e too m uc h p ro bl em the re." Wa s th at th e o nl y team that carried Dunlop ? - I wa nt to kn ow. "The o n ly top tea m ," says In gl ey Pingley now , wit h Cagiva and P irelli now, with the Italians now . " I do n' t consi der it to be a negative. To me it's positiv e. It enables us to conce ntrate 100-percent - resources, tests, men tal ability, everyth ing. We don 't have a ny distractio ns. We don 't hav e ot he r co mm it me nts. We don't have 15 team s wh o wa nt th e latest development tire. All we have to do is work wi th Cagiva . And th ese people are very professio na l. There's no drama , there's no panic around th is organiza tio n. Everybody jus t ge ts on and does th e work. I have a lot of resp ect for George Vukman ovich. And I'v e kn own and worked wi th Jim as long ·as I' ve kn own and worked with Randy. Tha t goes back many, many years." Peter thinks for a minute, thinking ab out people - because this Ingley i s a phil o sophical person . He extracts their values a nd holds th em clo se to what he o bvio usly rega rds as purpose in life. And th en through th a t measured tone of hi s he finish es what he has to say - " Ra ndy is professional in everything he does. H e's very genero us, a very caring human being. H e's a Ta re man, really." Both Cagivas a re in, the n ou t again; and back in, all morning it goes this way. Luigi Bernardon i, a remarkable a na lyst, wh o 's moved over from Formula One race cars, as ks and listen s a nd writes down feedback from both team riders , while Peter adds to h is clipboard with th e same inquiring co nsistency. And George mov es around and over th e bikes in a wa y that appears absolutely effo rt les s, no t a step wasted, nothing hurried, nothing lagging. Then - Heads up! Randy is ba ck in on his bike, not even

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