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road race rumors
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By Henny Ray Abrams
o
"Schwantz to Honda" blared the none-toosubtle, or accurate, headline in Britain's
motorcycling tabloid announcing a career
move that young Kevin wasn't aware of.
True, he'd admitted talking
with representatives from
'd 1
Ik d
H?n d a, b ut he a so ta e
with the people a t Yamaha as
0
22
well as his current employer, Suzuki,
and his mind was anything but made
up. Yet this is typical of Grand Prix
motorcycle racing where changes are
negotiated in the greatest secrecy and
announced well after the season
ends.
WJ:1at this does, ~n addition ~o
keeping ~he adulating pubhc in
suspense, IS breed enough rumors to
keep everyone constantly confused.
With that in mind, what we'll try
to do here is coalesce all those
rumors, half-truths, and lies gleaned
from the variety of ne 'erdowells, axe
grinders, and inside sources that you
normally find in the shadows of the
ubiquitous Grand Prix motorhomes.
But let's start with some facts.
0
World Champion for the next few
weeks Wayne Gardner will be back
as the number one rider at Honda
on a Rothmans-sponsored bike in
1989. Although this season has been
a great disappointment to him, he's
tried to keep the blame off himself,
instead incriminating everyone from
the Factory to the caterers. Hopefully,
this will aid in his self-absolvement
of the guilt he should feel from not
testing sufficiently in the off-season.
Finally, two weeks ago in Sweden,
he began to acknowledge that that
might be the case.
Always one to get the last word
in, Gardner added that the test riders
HRC employs back in Japan may
not be up to snuff and he would be
happy to see current teammate
Shunji Yatsushiro stay -there fulltime to test, and contest the Japanese
National races.
Yatsushiro, "Hachi" to his
friends, has never helped Gardner in
a G P, his best finish a fourth in a
race that Gardner won, After injuring himself at the Yugoslavian G P
in July, he gave up his bikes to
former R o th m a n s H onda pilo t
Roger Burnett who responded with
a ninth and an eighth after not racing
a 500 for close to a year. But Gard ner
doesn't think that's good enough a nd
would like some young blood on the
team, a feeling that H RC seems to
share.
The factory asked Gardner to
recommend the riders he would like
on the team, regardless of their
