Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eINTERVIEW MotocrosserMike Fisher . • • wm IS In ~ ecar S finishes for both Fisher and KTM. After a one-week break in the series, Fisher added a sixt h place fini sh in Atla nta , th e last su pe rcross before Daytona. Another reason Fisher feels a to pthree finish is close to happening is his factory KTM wi th its Wh ite Po wer sus pension. " Wh ite Power is based in H oll and wh ere th ere's a lot of sand," says Fisher. " T hey' re really sharp and have i t together in the sand . They know wh at to use and have a lo t of pro ven thin gs. Th at will reall y be a n advantage." Fisher can also rely on White Power technicians to gi ve him som e sandriding tips. Although Fisher says he feels " li ke a nerd" wh en he returns to th e sand after being away for a whi le, he'll practice en ough a week or two before the event so he' ll be prepared for Daytona. Fisher find s the Daytona Supercross to be 'a lo t like an outdoor event since th ere's not as mu ch jumping. " In regular supe rcross you don 't have to bulldog th e bike through the corne rs," Fish er says. " Daytona is set up with wh oops and a lot of turns with natural whoops. The long wh oop sectio n in front of the grandsta nds gets rea l nasty." " Normally I would be dying to get away from the supercrosses. Now I can't wait to get to the next supercross and start riding" By Nate Rauba Photos by Ken Fa ught, Kin n ey Jones an d H en n y Ray Abrams ike Fisher has a goal of spraying champagne from the rostrum at a supercross race. H e's ge tt i n g closer to that goal. . and th e Daytona Supercro ss by H onda may provide the best o p po rtunity for the 23-year-old ra cer from Santee, Cal ifornia, to make hi s mark. It 's also pos sible that he co u ld pull off hi s and KTM 's fir st- ever su pe rcross victo ry. An yth in g can happen at Daytona. A little rain can help even out the field . M 18 Just ask Rick Ryan , th e privat eer who . won the event in 1988. There's also the dem anding Daytona Supercross course, a combination of supercross-typ e jumps, long strai gh ts and sweep ing turns that's like no other course on th e Camel Supercross Series circuit. Track designer Gary Bai ley purposel y makes long sec tions o f wh oops: the bik es add many mor e to the dark Florida sand. It 's not un common to see even the best on the ground. Just askRick Johnson, th e two-time Daytona Supercross winner who broke his hand there last year. ' Or ask Fisher how he feels about his chances to achieve hi s goal this year at Daytona. . " It 's defini tely in the cards, " says the fri endly , optimis tic so u th ern Californian. Tilting the cards in Fisher's favor is a new wave of confidence bolstered by two stra igh t fifth-place finishes in the Camel Supercross Seri es at Seattle and San Diego, th e best ever series In the past, Fisher preferred the outdoo r-type riding tha t Dayton a offers. Wh ile he's struggled in supe rcross events in past years, he's always done well in the 250 and 500cc Nat iona l events. " Nor ma ll y I would be dying to get' away from the su percrosses and start doing th e Nationa ls, " said Fisher. " Rig h t now I ca n' t wait to get to the next supercross and start riding ." The beginnin g of Fish er's '9 1 season looked a lot like last year. Fisher cons istent ly fin ished aro und lOth in the 1990 Camel Supercross Series races and ended up 12th in the fin al series poin t sta ndings . He finished II th in the '91 series o pener, im pro ved to ninth th e foll owing week th en finished last at the ,th ird ro und. But then his pair o f fifth-p la ce fin ish es turned things around. So what's th e diff erence between this year and the pa st? Fisher's not quite sure himself, but he knows. hili newfound confidence has something to do with it. " Every year I' ve been getting a little better in su percross," explains Fisher. " Before, I wasn 't very confident in a su percross race, but this year I feel real co nfident. I used to be a little bit leery of everything, I wasn ' t confident enough to jump everything right away. To go fast in supercross you have to jump stuff, and I was always a little nervous about that." It's taken a lo ng time to rep lace that nervo usness with confidence. As a child, Fisher was ra ised around mo tor' cycles: his father raced in the desert. Fisher remembers wanting a motorcycle when he was very, very young and he was given a Honda XR75 when he • was eight years old. "I raced that bike and pretty much got smoked by the two -strokes," recalls Fisher.

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