Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

fondly. "When the bike would finish we'd do okay. If we could've just kept the tires on it, I think we would have put it in the winner's circle a few times. " Tire problems cost the team three races, and provided each of the two riders with his most frightening moment. In the first endurance race at Daytona, Arnaiz had a rear slick explode on the banking, and Kress suffered a similar fate in the penultimate round at Talladega, Alabama. Fortunately, neither incident resulted in a crash. , Michelin promised they'd have a tire ready for the final race at Daytona, but when it rained the team opted to use DOT-approved HiSport radials (rain tires aren't approved for use on Daytona's 31degree high banks). This time, the rear tire slowly deflated, and Arnaiz retired the bike to the pits with a flat. In addition to the tire problems and mechanical difficulties (a dead battery at Brainerd, a cam failure at Topeka), there were other hurdles to overcome. "At Loudon , we just got outrun," admits Kress. "Dale (Quarterley, of eventual title-winners Dutchman Racing) was on the gas there, so we finished second. At ' Mid-Ohio, we finished third, but if Rich had stayed . on the gas we would've been second. Rich had passed Rueben McMurter (of the Rough Stock Racing AllStars), but then he let him back by because he thought we were a lap down and it didn't matter." T he race of the year for the team was Sears Point, where they finished second after leading most of the way. A soft compound rear tire had been mista kenly fitted, a n d 'w h i le it provided excellent traction early on, ' it was used up by the end. When Arnaiz pushed the bi ke across the finish line out of gas, it seemed fate had dea lt them a cruel blow. There were other near-milestones during the year , like when R.S. Taichi invited Arnaiz to team with ' Gra nd Prix veteran Rob McElnea on a Honda R C30 in the Suzuka 8-hour. "It went really well," Arnaiz says, in spite of the fact that he never actually got to race. "I was real happy with everything. I had a hell .of a time, except that Rob crashed and destroyed the bike on the fifth lap, and we weren't able to repair it." _ How did the Californian stack up against his world-class Br i ti sh teamma te? " He qua lified at a 2:20.50something and I did a 2:21.10, but in the .practice right before the race I did 2:20s, so we were pretty close. We had excellent times as far as being teammates. I think we would have done real well if we'd fin ished." " In retr ospect, Amaiz says 1989 was his best year yet: "I defin itely learned a lot abo ut racing. I' d really like to tha nk Malcolm - withou t him I wouldn't have acco mplished some of the thi ngs that I did. And Phil he was a good person to travel with, and he ma de a good teamm ate ." Kress is q uick to return Arnaiz' comp liment: " I lear ned a lo t ridi ng ' with R ich. We'd come into th e pits and he'd tell me what I was doi ng wrong, and I'd go ou t the .next session and drop two or three seconds a lap. J ust riding behind him was a n exp er ien ce in itself . . , j u st watching how he ' did it was pretty incredible. "You should see Rich race motocross .. . he's unreal. That Lodi ' Cycle Bowl Marathon, he lapped th e entire field (over 80 riders). H e beat (two-time 600cc Dirt Track National Champion) Chris Carr on this old relic, a Yamaha YZ490." expenses, and when we got ahead we'd slip him some money, but it was all we co uld do to keep our heads above water. We were really banking on some help from Yamaha." An unhappy ending The subject of help from Yamaha has been a bitter one for the members w_ Arnalz tile top Y . . . . . . pUot .D tile 1989 pro road r_ID' e lre" t . flal8It1a, tllird ID tile AMA Saperhlke I:h• •ploD8I11p. How does Kress rate ' the past season? "It was hard. There was a lot to do with just the three of us (Kress, Arnaiz, and mechanic Theo Lockwood) . Malcolm would show up at the track and handle the p.r., but it was all Theo cou ld do to prep the two superbikes and the endurance bike." What Motor Sport needed more than anything else were more Theos, so Arnaiz brough t in Sean Sage (who most recently worked with two -time World Superbike Champ io n Fred Merkel at th e Mexica n Int ern at ional) fo r th e final Su pe r b ik e race in Topeka, Kansas. Unfortu nately, a heat race engine failure . fo rced another start from the rear of the grid, and Amaiz came up short. " Rich really wanted someone else there beca use he was up for the ' Super bike Ch a m p io n sh ip ," says Kress. "He di dn't want to screw around. Theo did it for free, whereas Sean cost money. We'd pay Theo's of Team Motor Sport ever since Yamaha made the decision to align themselves with Vance & Hines. ''I'm not arguing Yamaha's decision to do the Vance & Hines deal ," Hill explains. "It's more than just racing. There's a distribution system there, and a warehousing system; there's something there that Motor Sport cou ldn't provide. "The on ly thing that was extremely disappointing and upsetting to me was th e way Yamaha dealt with Motor Sport during the time that decision was being made. The process took more than two months, and we were led to believe through the course of the seaso n tha t they were p leased with the way things weregoing, and that they wanted to do something wit h us in 1990. We . didn't hear anything (abo ut the Vance & Hines deal) until after it was out on the street, so to speak. " I spent a lot of time with a proposal, running around and positioning myself that we were going to be working with Yamaha. And Larry Griffiths knew that I was doing this because I would call him and keep him posted, but he didn't give me an inkling that they were about to do a deal (with Van ce & Hines). It made me look bad. "They knew what was happening. They could have at least raised the red flag. In real estate terms, I'd say they didn 't deal with us in good faith. " Griffiths refutes Hill 's claim: " I don't feel we led them on. What we have to look at is what will best work for Yam aha, and Vance & Hines opened .up a new avenue in high-performa nce development." " Maybe nobody has a right to be, but R ich is bitter," says Hill. "Larry came up to him at Suzuka and said they were definitely going to do something with him next year. I mean, here 's a guy that in 1986, when everybody else was riding Suzukis, went out and bought a Yamaha because he knew Bud Aksland and Kenny Roberts, and through dirt tracking he'd aligned himself with all these Yamaha guys up in the Stockton area. H e was patronizing Yamaha, and stuck with th at basic philosophy throughout his recent road race career . . . and has been, in my opinion, the fastest Yamaha pilot out there. "What's really upsetting is that he didn 't even get an opportunity to try out. If anything could have been salvaged out of Motor Sport, it should have been the furthering of Rich's and Phil's careers." Griffiths does feel some remorse at this, sayi ng, " I feel bad. I think 1989 showed what R ich Arnaiz could do , and in 1990 he wou ld certainly have to be considered a consistent threat to win in the Superbike class: " Some of Hill's detractors have pointed a finger at him, claiming that he had a good deal and blew ' it. How would Hill answer those accusations? " I 'd say, 'What wou ld you do differently?' And he would probably answer, 'I'd have a full-time crew, and I would have made sure that . .. ' (Pa uses) I know the way a road race team should be run, and it should not have been run the way Motor Sport was last year. But I knew the changes that were going to need to be made for 1990. The bottom line, as with anything else, comes down to dollars. If Yamaha had made a decision in 1989 - as they did for 1990 - in September, I wouldn 't have been fighting an uphill battle. " I think Yamaha got their money's worth if you look at the exposure they got at the racetrack. Look at the programs: the re were pages in there about Yamaha, about Motor Sport - and it was all about Yamaha. I wasn't selling Motor Sport - I was sell ing Yam aha. " Basically, Yamaha sai d, 'Here's a bi ke, here's a budget, and here's some Superbike parts - go be Team Yamaha. ' Well , that's what I trie d to do. We were essentially saying, 'Loo k, th is is the closest th in g Yamaha has to a road race team.' " In retrospect, considering how late we got started, I thi n k we developed very, very quick ly. We were trying to paint a big p icture wi th a small brush, and I think we accomplished that." (Continued to page 35)

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