Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ INTERVIEW World Sup.::.:erb:..:::ike:...:C=:ha:=AmPc.::io.::....:nF:.::.::red:.=. .::M=.::er::.:.:. :ke=--.1 ~ _ Gunning for title number three o O'l O'l then laughs in a self-deprecating way like a man embarrassed at his past sins. " Everyo ne grows up sometime." . So what made Fred Merkel grow up? "After three good years in America riding the best eq u ipment and getting paid lots of money, I came over to Europe and got humbled a lot because I didn't get the same equipment that I used to get," he explains. " I used to get in credible equipment - bikes that mon ey could n 't bu y - lik e Grand Prix riders. "When I came here it was like ' Whoa, I really hav e to ride hard and make do a nd be humble because I don 't have that big sponsor anymore and I'm among privateers again,' and that' ll humble you real quick." Merkel mad e the shift to Europe because there was nothing left for him at home. American Honda didn 't want him anymore despite winning three supe rbike titl es. Merkel had already mad e an impact in Europe in the 1986 match races aboard a Horida VF750F superbike and it was from that he gained cont act with It ali an bus in essman O scar Rumi. They're still together, with Merkel having won both World Superbi ke cha mp io nsh ips o n H onda RC30s for th e Bergamo-based T eam Rumi / RCM. " O scar invited me over to ride some Italian Championship races and everything I rode I won, and then the World Superbike Championship was starting in 1988 so we started gearing up halfway through '87 for that. " Oscar loves to have his own team. He's been around motorcycles his whole life ...I've been doing a good . job for him and he 's been real good with taking care of the whole team and taking care of me and helping me with my career. I'm indebted to the man. " ....... appeared to be in the frame for a GP ride, and he spent a lot of time thinking about that rather than the job at hand - a mistake he admits freely. " It hurt me towards the end of the year and it kind of upset my mechanics a little bit .. . and when I did ride a GP bike it was a disaster. I rode junk - the one (Wayne) Gardner couldn't get around a race track . They gave it to me and I co u ldn' t get it around a race track either. Since then I've grown up a lot and I'm just thinking about the job at hand. We've got a third World Superbike Championship to win." If the call to the G Ps never does come, Merkel is happy to stay in World Superbike until the end of his career. He enjoys the class, the racing and the people - the only drawback is the lack of money wh en compared to Grand Prix racing. " We don 't have the nice semis {tra nspo rte rs) and all the parts coming out of our ears ," he said. "None of thos e gu ys just have to make do. Well. we hav e to make do a lot. We have to do a lot of compensating. Salary money is not there, everyo ne has to find money to pa y for their racing effort and if there is anything left over then that 's wh at they live on, so that's the tough part." The crux for World Superbike is television: " If we had the exact same TV as Grand Prix - live and direct - the same show, then all of us could get a lot more sponsor money and we could sell the space on our bikes for. a lot more money than we are now. "We get to these races and there are 100 entries - 100! Then when they narrow it down to 40, pole position down to last place is maybe two seconds. In GP racing it 's probably 10 seconds between pole and the last guy With Merkel as rider a nd New Zealanders Norris Farrow and Chris Johnson turning the wrenches, Rumi developed an efficient team: "Our motto is 'No attitudes.' The team gets along or you don 't work here . There's no attitudes. there's no jumping up and down, there's no excuses." Not that Merkel hasn't considered leaving. Grand Prix racing remains his ultimate goal and in 1989 he had a couple of rides for Robert Gallina's team on a 1988 Honda NSR500 without much success. As the year drew to an end he ' and they just get enough to fill the grid. You go to Grand Prix and you're guaranteed you 're going to qualify. "They're the best people at what they do in 500cc Grand Prix and they put on a show for the people and they 're definitely spectacular to watch! but something has to change . . . I think the GP teams have to make it more like superbike where the manufacturers make competitive GP bikes accessible for a reasonable amount of money, where you don't have to have millionaire backing - they have to - - - - - - Continued on page 29 By Bruce Newton f th ere wa s o ne in cident that typifi ed th e ch a nges th a t Fred Merkel has undergone in th e last few years it came at Jerez in Spain immediately after th e second leg of th e firs t ro und of the World Superbike Ch amp ionshi p . Red-faced , sho ut ing and gesticu lat in g , J ean Mertens co n fro nted th e Ame rica n and accu sed h im of caus ing the near-di sastrous bashing match wi th son Stephane in the sprint to th e flag. . Merkel went through a gamut of em otions in a mill i-second, Ange r, sh ock , disbelief. Then calm descended and he defended himself with dignity rather than with fists. It would not ha ve been that way just a few years ago. " I would hav e knocked him out," Merkel said. " I wouldn't have said anything. I would have let him have it and that's pretty immature . .. common sense took over , thank God." At age 27, Fred Merkel deserves respect - something h e has not necessarily received in the past. These da ys the blonde Californian is much . more than a pretty boy with high school quarterback looks and a big mouth. Three AMA Superbike Champion- I 18 After winning three AMA Superbike Championships, Californian Fred Merkel is trying to win his third successive World Superbike Championship in 1990. After four rounds the Team Rumi/RCM Honda rider is leading the championship chase. sh ips and two worl d titles testify to the fact that Merkel has a lways been able to ride, th e trouble was he used to let everyone know it too. He was th e brash lo u d-m o uth , boasting of his own abilities, a person many people found difficult to like . But just as the move to Europe in 1987 introduced a new phase in the riding career of Fred Merkel, so it has brought changes in his personality. "The last few years has calmed me down a lot personality-wise. I've got a lot more respect for a lot of the riders and I'm not so' arrogant," he says and

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