Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127272
eINTERVIEW eL Motocrosser Donny Schmi_ t By Alex H odgkinson " ast year Suzuki made a full-scale comeback to the World Championship 125cc MX Series, which o they had won for 10 consecutive O"l seasons from 1975 to 1984. Bu t when O"l team leader Dave Strijbos got injured ........ last year, Suzuki could only stand by ., a nd wat ch as the titl e went to KTM 00 and a little-kn own American named .... Trampas Park er. en When Strijbos q uit the Lu ongo;:l (Sylvain) C ebo ers -Bieffe T eam last autu mn, the team went look ing for a ;:l rider to repl ace him. And with all the ~ established GP stars alrea dy comm itted elsewhere, th ey loo ked to America. Donny Schm it had finish ed fifth and second in the 125cc Nati on als during hi s two years, 1987 and '88, on factor y Suzukis, th en last year he rod e a pr iva teer Honda to fourth in th e final sta n d i ngs . Suzuki in japan and Europe decided that the 23-year -old from Bloomington , Minnesota, was th eir man and Schmit has headed the 125cc Wor ld Championship from the first race. Our European motocross correspo n dend Alex Hodgkinson recently talked to Schmi t about hi s move to Eu rope and early races. eo ••••• 16 Why did you decide to race in Eu rope an d how did your ride with Bieffe Suzuki team come about? Last year I was a privateer in the U.S . Due to the fact tha t I didn 't have a factor y ride, I went and bought some bikes a nd my girlfriend and I drove the Nation al circu it. T owa rds the end of last seaso n I go t vibrati ons that there were no ope ni ngs in any of the teams in America, even tho ugh I had finis hed fo urth in the 125cc Nationa ls as a pri vateer. Plu s it has always been a goal of mi ne, a kind of dream, to rid e the G Ps, so I called Mitch Payton at Pro Circu it and Dave Zampierin at Bieffe H elmets (two of Schmit's sponsors last year). I knew they bo th h ad con tacts and I asked .the m if th ey knew an ybody in E urope w ho 'wo u ld be interested in me or if there were any ope n ings. Dave finally called me back and said he though t he migh t have some thi ng for me. He said there were a couple of different opportunities, and th is one came abo ut on the Bieffe Suzu ki team . To cut a lo n g story short , we su mmed up everything at th e Bologn a a nd Gen ova Supercross races. I was already contracted to come over to those races, and I sign ed the team contract at Gen ova. I had alrea dy been independently to j apan to test the new Suzukis. Actuall y it was a t the T okyo a irport th at I met m y ne w tea m man age r, Sylvain C eboers, for the first time. . T hese gu ys kind of took a gam ble on me, and it has been a great boo st that th ey showed suc h confidence in me. T he y did call aro und to as k wha t kind of a rid er I was and wha t kind of a person I was to work with. I guess th ey got good answers, so we met in japan, tested the bike s and here I am in Europe! Wh ere are you based in Europe? I am based at Mol in Belgiu m. T hat is the hometown of Syvain and Eric Gebo ers. The race shop is rea l close to Tielen, an d we have a n ice apartment which was fixed up for us. It was all part of the deal. I think bot h the team and myself knew that the y needed to help me out wi th a lot ofthese things this year since I am new in Europe. I had heard from a lot of people that it was hard adjusting over here, but aft er a year as a priva teer I didn 't feel it could get much harder. An ewlife I had just spent a year driving from race to race by myself and working on my own bikes, so I had little time for practicin g. It is very different over here bu t I th ink tha t this is the right tea m for me. Sylvain has been excellent, such a help . I mean , I arrived here and didn 't know what you have to do when get to the borders. I wou ldn 't have known for wh ich count ries I wou ld need a visa. Sylvain is like a second dad to me, keepi ng me headed in th e right direction. My mech an ic Harry Nol te also has a wealt h of experience. He was with j ohn Van den Berk when he was 125cc Wor ld Champion (1987) and kn ows all of the trac ks rea l 'well. He can even tell me wh ere to start on the gat e. I mi ght look at a start and th ink a certain p lace loo ks good, but every track ha s its own littl e peculiarities and Harry will kno w where th e best sta rts have come fro m in previous years. He kn ows wha t sort of tra ck we will travel to and can sug gest somewhere to pra ctice the week before the even t. And of course he is a rea lly good mech an ic so I don't h av e worri es about m echani cal troub le. Is the racing so different in Europe than in the States? I thi nk the biggest difference is paci ng yours elf becau se the races in Europe are lon ger, I thi nk I had the physical conditioni ng, bu t there're always times when it ca n be useful to find just that little bit extra whic h wi ll give you another place at the fin ish. You hurt your wrist at the beginning of March while practicing. Wha t happened? I was testing in Ita ly. The japanese technicia ns from Showa had been over and I had just finis hed my race bik e. I decided to try out a 45-minute rnoto, and 30 minutes into it I came down a hill. It had been muddy two weeks before for a race and th ey hadn 't tou ch ed the track and there were two mud ruts go ing off a j ump, but they were packed after two weeks of sunshi ne. My front wheel too k one rut, I hit some braki ng bumps coming down the hill and th e back end kicked over into the other rut. It really pitched me sideways right off the jump and I came down hard. Actu all y I didn 't know tha t I had broken the scap hoid until I got to the ho spital. It felt at first as though it was my thumb wh ich had been h urt the most. There aren 't a lot of nerv es to the scap ho id and not a very big blood su pp ly. I had to have a full arm cast but I was back on a bi ke five weeks later. A lot of people are in a cast much lon ger. My teammat e Pedro Tragter bro ke his last year, had som e cornp lication s wi th the heal in g and mi ssed most of the seaso n. I had been in th e Stat es while I cou ldn' t ride. I have a rea lly good health club there and a good doctor. It was also good to be ab le to go training wit h some friends to keep my conditio n up. Th at made the time go quicker. The Ita lian G P was my first race after the cra sh so it was lu cky for me tha t th e South American G Ps were canceled . Presumably you didn't expect to ~in th e Italian GP then? No , I had on ly been ab le to rid e a bik e again fou r days ear lier. I took it fairl y easy the first da y, and then rode each day to bui ld myself up enough to take a few points. I wou ld have been really happy with fifth p lace a nd that was m y goa l wh en I a rrive d a t Montevarch i. I just found myself leading. In fact, if I had needed it, I even had a little b it of reserve. . Then you were sick before th e second round in Holland. . I had a stomach viru s. It had started on the Saturday a week before the GP . I had been out ridin g that day and then I ate some th ing in th e evening, a nd I had pl anned to go ou t aga in Sunday. I drov e to th e track and just told H arry to load up th e bik e again because I didn 't feel well eno ug h. I didn't eat any thi ng all week, and I couldn' t ru n or train. I felt a little better on Friday. T he only n utrition I had all week was soup an d water. I saved my en ergy througho ut Saturda y and Su nday mo rni ng . I only did two laps to qua lify on Sat urday and th en on Sunday morning I also did th e m inimum of five laps so I would have a little ene rgy for the first race. I go t a good start and actua lly star ted to pull away a little the first two laps. Then T ragter caug h t up and I let h im past. I pl anned to just sit behind him but he didn 't j ump the step jump and I landed right next to him, so I decided it was bett er for me to stay in front aga in for a while. The two lap board just never seemed to appear, and I was getting tired so I let him past again. I was hot an d dehydrating and I knew I had a big lead over the rest of the pa ck so I let him go. lt was only thr ee"laps in to th e second mota before I felt th e same again. I was run ning down the leaderboard, but I was rea l close beh ind two other riders wh en the two-lap board came out. I told myself I was goi ng to get them , and I passed them both fairl y q uickly, bu t tha t was wh at reall y . fin ished me off. I was go ing mu ch har der th ose last two lap s th an I should've been , and I j ust fell over at the fin ish after I leaned my bike up against a fence.