Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

~ ~ ri des Tt that makes i•• ppear so unrideable? - He rides it differently than th e other Honda riders. (Nia ll ) Mack enzie has a smoother throttle hand th an Gardner , but he co u ld n' t get it O"l aro u nd a race track like Gardner. 50 00 I -ih m C wlth ' the Honda O"l power is you have to ride it the wa y ...... Gardner did last year. I think he did "' a ll he could and I think he rode the ..... Honda the best. I can see Edali imiIing it work to U his style. The Honda seems like it 's ~ real abrupt from 8-11,000 whe n th e pow er co mes in. That's 'so meth ing ~ the Yamaha doesn 't do - I don 't think it has as much torq ue in that rpm ra nge. I thin k Eddie will have to adj us t th e bike and its power to suit his sty le. But I don 't think Edd ie ca n ride it the way Wayne rode it last' year - not with tha t kind of style. What are Gardner's strong points? What makes him difficult to beat? Ga rd n er is real determined - he doesn ' t. let up. I don' t think he sets th e bike up real well , lo ok ing at it. But he rides it that wa y - he rides it real good. I think his actua l riding is his stro ng point and I think his bike setu p is his weak point. It look s like th e Honda doesn 't turn as good as th e Yamaha - he has to use a lot o C!>rakes going in' and ' then a-lot of th rottle com ing ou t. He can' t keep -as' m uc h cornering speed with th e H onda . It looks aliule mor e difficu lt to ge t around a corner. What about Lawson? What are his strong and weak points? Eddie has a lot of strong poi n ts. The way he sets hi s bike up and hi s riding in gen eral. His on ly weak point might be adjusting to a new team this year. And Schwantz? . Kevin's stro ng point is hi s ability to get th e bike arou nd the race tra ck fast. Bu t I think hi s weak points ar e gett ing it arou nd th e track fast for the whole race. I think he'll have a better bike thi s year, so tha t weak point co uld be better. , Every season there are GPs run in th e rain. Do you feel confiden t racing in the wet? Dunlop has a good ra in tire. At quite a few of the races in th e ra in I was a t the top of the qualifying chart s if no t th e quickest. I feel confident in th e rain. I don' t like to race in th e rain. Racing is d an g erous en ough without not being able to see. It 's not fun , but everybod y's got to do it so I' ll make the best of it. What abo ut the new Du n lops yo u tested in Brazil? 'O ur tires' have improved quite a bit. We're still not there yet, but our, grip's better - we've got a little more side grip. We've been testing at Brazil and that was o ur wo rst race tra ck last year - we're a lo t better there now th an we were last year. We got under Gardner 's record - we did a lot o f la ps in th e 27s and a few laps in th e 26s. That's not too bad cons idering it was ou r firsttime o u t on th e new bike - th e bike was new and the tir es were new. You can get stuc k in a rut do ing a lo t o f laps o n one tra ck, so consideri ng it was just testing I th ink th ose times were ok ay. At the beg in ning of the '88 season, Kevin Magee seemed destined to reach the top level of the 500cc class based on his infrequent, Yet imp res. sive , 1987 resu lts. He came in with an edge over you in the fact that he / was thought of as the number one ri der. Did that gi ve yo u added incen tive? Yeah ; it did ma ke me want to work harder. Kevin was the ,top g uy - he 20 was here to take ove r. I wasn't ge tt ing wayth -e ..c:: ro Wayne Rainey (inside) has been training all winter with Kenny Roberts (out side) at the three-time World Champion 's northern Cal ifornia ranch . (Below) Rainey at work du ring a wet practice session in Japan last year. much good press, so 1 think it lit a fire in me to go out the re and do th e best I could. I' d let the results speak for th em selves. Wh en I beat Kevin a t th e first race, I thought, 'well , he's struggli ng lik e 1 am.' 50 1 d idn 't th in k he was going to be much better than I was. Wh en he won Spain, at J arama, I had problem s th ere but I was happy for h im a nd the team . But wh en there's a guy o n your team do in g bett er, on th e sa me bike, you gotta go o u t a nd do somet hing abo u t it. At the next race I was right there a nd the n I did p retty much better than hi m the rest of th e seaso n. H e had a pretty bad seaso n. You d o , however , have a goo d relationship with Magee off the track. How do you manage to be su ch fierce competitors, yet remain friendly? Kevin and I are pretty different. I've never seen a guy that's so la id bac k - it's a lways " no wor ries." We p retty much left o ur busin ess o u t on th e race track a nd o ff the race tra ck it worked out gr ea t for us. Wh en we went riding toge the r o u t here las t year it was run - it wasn't a knockdown, drag-a u t-type thing. H e's the perfect teamma te a nd 1 th ink he' ll do a lot bett er this year. If he gets a lo ng with th e Dunlops he could be rig h t in th ere with th e o ther three guys . What does Ken n y Roberts do as the team owner to hel p you on the race track? . Wh a t Kenny did th e most was doing a lo t of R&D on th e bikes. We tested a lot betw een GPs - he helps me by ma king the bikes th e best we ca n mak e 'em . H e'll hire more guys, get Steve Si mo ns (fro m Ohlins) over th ere to ge t th e chatter problem worked o u t. Kenny wants to hav e th e best tea m just lik e wh en he was raci ng he wa nted to be the best rider. For this year he's hired mor e guys, because la st year we didn't have th e ti me to do th e th ings we wanted to do. Now we have the man power to do that stu ff thi s seaso n. Kenn y onl y hel ps yo u if you as k for it. H e'll go out to a corner a nd wa tch a nd see what the ti res a re doin g a nd wh a t the sus pen sio n is doing - and see what everybody else is doing. Rand y Mamola has said that Kenny in timidated him, caus ing him to lose confidenc e. Do yo u find th at to be tr ue in you r relationship with him? He'll intimidat e you if you let him. • Yo u've got to prove to Ken ny th at, ' H ey, I' m Wayne Ra iney and I'm not .Kenny Roberts, a nd I'm not going to do everything that Kenny Robert s wants because it do esn't a lwa ys work for Wayne Ra iney.' Kenny intimidates a lot of people - maybe th at's his intention, I don 't know. H e's gotten a lot better with me, and he realizes what makes me tick a nd what doesn 't. You don 't want someone a lwa ys telling you to do it his way , or you're slo w or you 're do ing it wrong. 1 think if you're o u t there do ing the best that you can do , he likes that. I think he likes people that go o u t and dedi cate th eir lives 'to racing. I'm no t ou t putting makeup on m y face - wal king around like a girl or blowing bombs o ff in the paddock. I'm serio us ab out my job , a nd Kenn y cons iders , that professio nal. I think he treat s me'differently than how he treated Randy. At the end of 1989 your contract wi th Team Lucky Strike Roberts will en d. Do you see yourself on the same team in I990? I'm happy where I'm a t. I see our team gettin g bett er. They are thinking of down th e road, so I think we'll get bett er and better. Wh en I ride for Kenny I've got a lot of benefits - I've go this p lace to ride at. I don't foresee any changes right now, but I don't kn ow . You wen t to Europe to race 250s in 1984. How m uch has changed? Did . the experience help you th is year?' The racing has cha nged a lot since 1 984. There are a lot more teams now that ar e tak en care o f real well. When I was th ere before it was Eddie's (La wso n) team and Freddie's (Spe nce r) team and tha t was basi cally , it. Now th ere ar e a lo t better teams - it just seems like everybo dy is.a lo t more orga nized now . It 's gone up a few notches. Going there helped me tho u~h. I kn ew a bo u t th e trav el so that d idn't . bother me, and th e food didn 't bother me. I'd been to some o f th e race tracks, so it definitely helps. You and Kevin Magee tea med up to win the Suzuka 8-Hou r in Japan this year . What was that like compared . to the GP? 5uzuka was m y first endurance race. It was a lo t of fun - I didn't realize th a t it was suc h a big race. It was definitely a big race to win - it 's o ne of th e biggest of the year. It 's different becau se it 's suc h a tea m effort. The pi t stops ar e real critical - every thing we did that da y was perfect. Every tir e change, every gas stop, every rid er cha nge. We made no mi stakes that day. T he bike's (Yamaha' s four- stroke 750) a lot lazier th an the 500. It doesn't have as much power. The old H onda superb ike had a bit more torque, but thi s one seems tobe all rpms. Wh en it sp ins it' s li ke it just keep s sp in ning a nd th ere's no jump to it. I didn't like it a wh ole lot. It was a fun race and we didn 't have to go real fast on it , so it was ok ay. This year's season starts again with the J apanese G P. How important is the opener? I'd like to win th e Japanese G rand Prix this year. Top three is reaso nable there, but I want to win it. It 's a go od one to win because it starts you off real positive. But to p three would be o kay there- you don't kn ow how everyth ing is going to be th ere. It wi ll be th e tea m th at' s best prepa red tha t will wi n that race. I know the track (Suzu ka) well. It seems like a ll the to p guys know th e track. T hey've a ll ridd en th ere quite a bit. It's going to be u p to th e tea ms to make th eir bike the best on th at day a t thai race trac k. It's a hard track to get set up' for , really. '.

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