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/127413
a pr oblem getting used to the Kawasaki. I' ll get on it and feel it out. I'll do what T h omas Stevens does best use my head. When I'm ready to go, . watch outl There has been numerous rider/ team changes during this off-season. Mike Smith has gone to Commonwealth; Dave Sadowski has returned to race with Yoshimura. Who do you see as your main compe tition for the coming year? I look at everyone as being my main competi tio n. I don ' t eliminate anybody u nt il the end of the year. (Miguel) DuHam el had a chance even at the last . you to Muzzy's team. Did you try? I really wanted Jim to go with me, but he had to look at it from a bu siness standpoint and he felt .he was in better pos ition to stay with Vance &: H in es. You've ridden for many quali ty teams. Team Suzuki Endurance, Kenny Roberts'. 250cc teams , and Vance &: Hines•. Is there a time in your career that you can look back on an d really appreciate it as a learnin g experie nce? Naturally, I'm learning fro m everybody I work with . Bu t I really can't put a price on what I learned from riding I can be pulling in some 15-pound fish. I'also ha ve fun riding my dirt bi ke and I really enj oy exercising. I feel fortunate that I ha ve the time to ' work on my running and go to the gym . A lot of people th ink of working out as work, I th ink of it as fun. It helps keep me focused on my goals. The weather here helps a lot - it 's go ing to be 81 degrees toda y (December 10). Doug Polen went to the Dunlop tire tests at Daytona in March, and blistered the lap record by some two secon ds. Does that con cern you ? Anyone who looks at those lap times has to be impressed, but we'll see what ra ce; h e sti ll wa s in th e hunt: I definitely consider them all 'to be my main competition. I think all the rider a n d team cha nges are great for the sport. In years past , riders weren't in th e positi on to bargain from team to team . to make more money. The spo rt is catchi ng up again. But American road racers racing in the United States still don't make the money the motocross racers are making. I don't know if we'll ever make the money the mo tocross gu ys make. It depends on how th e sport goes and what the AMA does. I think the manufacturers are doing th eir part to ma ke the spo rt grow. I don't know all the answers, but I th ink ou r sport is just as spectacular to the guy that rides a street bike as motocross is to the guy who rides a dirt bike. for Kenny Rob erts. Riding his bike and workin g with h is people has helped me a great deal. A lot of the th ings h e taught I wasn 't able to put to use right away; it comes with getting up to speed and gai ni ng expe rience. I went from riding stree t bikes th at you cou ldn' t reall y do much to, to riding Grand Prix mac hi nes that you cou ld make a lot of changes to. My , first year with Ken ny's team I used mostly the ' sa me setu ps that John (Kocinski) used. But in my second year I was able to start makin g changes to the motorcycle, and I've used that experience in 'se tt in g up my superbikes . What does T homas Stevens do in Sanibel Island, Flo rida, when he isn't racing? . I do a lot of what they call back -country fishin g on the grass fla ts here in Florida. Five minutes fro m my house he does come Mar ch. I' ve been in the position where you set a lap record in . qualifying at Daytona, but it 's a long race and it's usually the gu y wi th the mos t luck who wins. I'm not certain, bu t I th ink Doug had his World Su perbike bike there and there's really no compar in g the two motorcycles. If we had used our Formula One bike I thin k our times would hav e been a lo t better. Bu t there's no doubt that Doug ride s very well and the bike works well. Loo k at what he did to the World Superbike guys this year. Is your ultimate goal to go Grand Prix road racing? Any racer 's ultimate go al is to go Grand Prix racing, but right now I'm in a good pqsi rion to go World Su p er b ike racing with .Kawasaki. Whe n I sho w them that I can do the business, I think I can get a shot at Many th ought. you'd take your Vance &: Hines mechanic J im Leonard with a World Superbike racing possi bly in 1993. Sure, I'd give a lot of tho ught to it if a G P offer came up, but rig ht now I have to stay focused on what I'm doing here and stay within myself. What were your goals wh en you started th e 199I season? Basically when we came into this thing - you could tell ·a lot about my direction of thinkin g by watching the Daytona 200 - my only goal was to wi n the champion ship. It wasn't race wi ns or how fast I could go - it was only winning the championship. I just p layed off what the others guys did. That meant a lot of other guys got the glory, but I was consisten tly fast and I didn 't fall off the motorcycle on ce. I thi nk 'if you ask any of the m if they'd trade their race wins for a championship, they 'd say yes. Are your goals for 1992 any different? Will you go about your business in the same manner? Win.ning the champ ionship is a great goal to achieve. I finally got a title under my belt so there is nq longer any doubt tha t I can do it. I th ink you 'll see a differen t Thomas Stevens ' next year. You 'Ilsee me hang it ou t a litt le mo re and you'll see me winning mo re races. There were some things said during the year by my compe tition that kind of hurt, but I can see where they were coming from . But right now they 're ea ting cro w and I'm the champion. I'm looking forward to wi nning a lot of races next year and goi ng to Europe in 1993. l:I'I 9