Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ INTERVIEW Doohan Michael ~ Aussie stara g risin O"l O"l ........ By Michael Scott Photos by Paul Carruthers ichael Doohan may be the ultimate no-worries Australian. The lack of co nsternatio n pervades every o utward aspect of his life. Fame and adu la tio n? " Doesn' t mean much . We're all more or less the sam e at th e end of the day." U nd re a med of inco me ? " I got lucky." A unique riding style and natural ability? " I just enjo y riding bikes and winning races." The World Ch ampionsh ip? " It's only a Number One that you stick o n the front of your bike." In a paddock full of leatherclad weirdos (why else would there be an ever-growing number of team shrinks), and among a preponderance of men M _ 16 le " whose talent has driven their egos to ou tgro w their personalities, to find such a do wn- to-earth approach from the man curren tly lead ing the 500cc Worl d Championship is - well, refreshing, certa inly, bu t also ra ther confusing . Can it all be as simple as th is? Are the mainsprin gs of th is generous talent just a matter of having a fun Sunday aft ern oon rid e? . Surely there must be mo re - somethi ng that drove Doohan (in 1989, as a GP roo kie) to str ip a dressi ng off a raw-to-the-bones fin ger, peel o n a surgical glove as his gauntlet, and go out and race his Rothmans Honda; and dri ves him to challe nge aga in and again at the Ameri can bulwark of 500cc class .GP talent. Something that draws his face tight, and m ak es hi s eyes look too big, as if he's just had a fright. Well, sure ly so, but it's not something that Michael Doo han com m u nicat es to the wor ld at large, whet her by desig n, or because he on ly partia lly understands it himse lf. Even his mother, a cheery paddock presence at all GPs (she and Mich ael' s stepfa the r dri ve hi s motorhome to th e tracks), remarks o n his solita ry natur e. She 's learn ed how and when to steer clear. Certa inl y, he's good at tu rn ing asid e probing q ues tio ns. H e set the scene earl y in hi s GP career, after tumbl in g off his bike in Spa in. I asked what had happened, ex pecting to hear abo ut losi ng the front wheel, or the rear tir e goi ng off, or some such . He replied: " T he .bike went on e way, and I went the o ther." Ever since, he's made a droll art of public appearances with simila r terse and matter-of-fact ans wers. When he ran wide at this year' s Japanese GP on the last lap, handing victory to Kevin Schwantz, som eone ask ed him if he had run into the corn er too fast. " I think so," quoth Doohan. One shou ld no t dr aw from th is th e co ncl us ion that Doo han is a big-head, or putting up some sort of a show. He's perfectly genu ine, lai d back an d easy to get alo ng with, o nce you pen etrate the bar ri er of reserve and shyness and certai n ly in no way eager to court pu b licity. There 's nothin g of th e superstar a bout him , excep t when he climbs o n a mot orcycle. " I don't reall y like th e high profile side of it. I'm not tryi ng to sound cocky, saying th at I'll put up wi th it." That mean s not o nly the mon ey and the fans , but also the more onero us side, making publicity a ppeara nces a nd a ttend ing regular press co nfere nces for hi s spo nsor s Rothmans. He once met a colleague wh o had arranged through Rothmans to visi t hi s Gold Coast house for an " at-home-with Michael-Doohan " feature with the words: " I didn 't reall y want to do this, you kn ow." But he does his best. " Ro thmans are here for co mmercia l reasons, so it's fair enough , and I try and co operate. It 's good to hav e a sponsor like them. and we have to work to keep them in ." His view of life is admirably modest and workman like. "I don't think I' m ' different or special just because I race motorcycles. At th e end of the day , we're all the same. Some people write books, some race cars, I race bikes . The only time I am different is at the track. Then I like to concentrate on what I'm doing. "At home, I'm pretty much the same as I've always been. I still hang around with the sam e guys - though some of myoid friends are probably pissed off that I kind of got lucky." This attitude makes a sharp contrast with that of his fellow-Australian and now Monaco resident Wayne Gardner, whose courting of fam e and its commercial benefits has been both astute and assiduous. Doohan believes this was partly a matter of opportunity. " H e has a high profi le in Austral ia, and that is when winning the World Championship com es into its own. " But he will seek no such celebration himself , sho uld it co me to pas s. At first, the two Ro thmans teammates made bad bed-fellows, but they have learned to accept each other's differences':" an easier job for Doohan than Gardner, since the younger man is on the ascendant. "I'd never met him before coming over here . We're a lo t different in terms of personality. His is stro ng, and I'm real quiet. We didn't get along at first, but we're fine now." I spoke to Honda's new leading man shortly before the mid-point of the 1991 season, wh en he was ahead on po ints (net and gross ) after two wins in Spain and Ital y, and a perfectly co nsistent fini shing record , never off the rostrum. It seemed he was merely fulfilling th e prophecies of a string of GP pundits wh o had tipped him before . th e season as the man most likel y to. This was some thi ng else he declined to tak e seriously. "A lot of papers did say th at , but 1 wasn 't too confident before the seaso n. 1 kn ew the Honda was better than befor e from o ur preseason tests, but 1 didn 't know wh at th e o ther teams would bring. 1 just hoped I'd be abl e to race those guys. And th ough I'm leading now , I've just been lucky. " I don 't feel an y pressure from that sort of stuff. It doesn't worry me at all. I'm out th ere to rid e for myself - I'v e given up trying to im press people. In 1989, 1 pushed m yself , to try a nd do wh at peopl e expec ted of me. 1 screwed up (with a string of injuries). Last year, 1 decided just to go ou t and do what I co uld." Naturall y, he wants to win th e World Ch ampionship title. "T hat' s

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