Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

·eINTERVIEW ~ 22 : " L. Scott Russell lost my brakes. Regardless of whether I would hav e pitted or not, if I would have stayed out I wouldn't have beat him. I just didn't have any brakes." Although he may have inherited th e Kan sas vi cto ry wh en DuHamel crashed, the rest of Russell 's wins were earne d. But his victory in iffy weather condit ions at th e New Hampshire International Speed way (Loudo n) is the o ne that he's most proud of. " Com ing into · Loudon, after the World Superbike weekend at Brain erd and fin ishing second to the best guys in the world, I was pumped," he said. " Whe n I got to Loudon it was just clockwork, just lik e th e year before wh en Doug (Cha ndler) and I won everyt hi ng th ere. I was fortuna te en ough to have a bike that didn 't call for mu ch change and I was able to get around a little quicker than the rest. That race stands out in my mind as being my best performance of the year." Although he didn't win the Superbike titl e, Russell did capture his second successive 750cc Supersport Championship, winning each and every race along the way. The com - down here (to Monterey, where Russell has been staying with an aunt) and hav e ridden with Doug (Cha ndler) some and with th ose g uys u p at Kenn y's. Just the few da ys tha t I'v e been up there have helped. I go t me a (Honda) XRIOO - thos e guys ride those things hard. I didn 't do very good, but I th ink I' ll be better when I go back." . Ironicall y, Russell will be joined in the Muzzy team this year by his rival of last year, Tho ma s Steven s. The two weren 't th e best of friends last seaso n, and man y are expec ting fireworks once the season hea ts up in 1992. Russell says that Muzzy's hirin g of Stevens didn't surprise h im. . " No t a t all. Rob and I had talked about this guy and that guy and I kind of kn ew what he wanted. At that po int most of the other guys had decided where they wanted to go and T ho mas was still out there, and that's wh o he go t. I think Rob felt that he was th e best guy for the job. I expec ted it and I'm happy he got a good rider. " T here were som e th ings said last year. H e (Steve ns) fee ls lik e th e Yamaha might not have been as good thin gs go the way he plans, Muzzy and Kawasaki may be forced into keeping him there. " If I ha ppened to be leading the World Cha mp io nship after the first three rounds and it co mes tim e for an AMA race, th en Rob 's go t a big decisi on," Rus sell said. " H e may wan t to stay in World Su perbike with me and maybe ho pe that Thom as can p u ll another o ne off here. That's kin d of wh at I'm shooti ng for - I'd lik e to be there after the first three races and hope he ma kes the decision for us to go to Europe. That's wh at I wa n t. " Maybe th is way is best. We can get our feet wet and see how it is. I th ink it would be hard to win a World Ch ampi onship th ere. P robabl y th e main guy to beat would be (Doug) Polen, an d I th ink I can beat h im under th e right circumstances. H e's been riding well , but I'd like to be the guy to knock him down from the top. Who knows what will happen? " Russell 's mind already seems to be a t the World Championship level. Wh en he talks ab out racing th is year he' only mentions winning races, and getti ng faster in th e process. have.for the 200. I'm sure I can run faster than I did at the test. " I enjoy being in Daytona. The whol e week is a lot of fun . It has a good atmosphere. But as far as getting out there and racing for 200 miles, I like the way it used to be - without the pace car. I think it's something they brou ght in for the spectators to close it back up if som ebody happens to get a big lead. Whatever it's there for, I don 't think its purpose is good. It' s not fair the way the pa ce car exits the track. You 've got 70 or 80 ride rs sna ked through the infield and you're no t allowed to start racing until you've turned that last come r on the infield. The first five guys are thr ou gh the chica ne before you can start racing if you 're not at the front. If they can' t see that, then they're blind. I don't know why they don 't ju st exit like in NASCAR - just pull off into pit road. It 's not like they're go ing to have 80 guys going into tum on e side-by-side. I just don't agree with the pace car thing and I don 't enjoy the race as mu ch because of it." . Ru ssell recentl y spe n t two days at Laguna Seca International Raceway, testing th e new 1992 Kawasaki petition isn 't on par wi th what he faces in the superbike cla ss, and sometimes he appears bored - even aft er just ste pp i n g o ff th e super sport bik e foll o wing a victory. " It 's fu n," Russell says, without so u nding too convinci ng. "T o ride a bike like tha t yo u' ve got to be sliding it all over th e pla ce.' I still enjo y it o r I wouldn 't do it. Sometimes it seem s to hav e helped me on the superbike. Times when I wasn't quite in the race mood yet, I would feel better after riding it. But the bikes are so much different it doesn't really help other than that." This off-season Russell has adopted ' the now in-fashion training methods for road racers - he's been up at Kenny Roberts' ranch in northern California riding dirt bikes. " I haven't been up there as much as I'd like, ""he said. "First I went to Oregon (where Rob Muzzy has moved his race headquarters) and started focusing on racing more than I did last year. I had a couple of guys to ride with - mostly desert riding. I came as our bike, and he'll find out this year. I'm kind o f g lad we're o n eq u a l eq uip ment becau se he says he can beat me - now we'll find ou t. I th in k it will be a good year. " Su rprisingl y, Ru ssell doesn 't look towar d his new tea mmate as his main com pe tition for the coming seaso n. " I do n 't think of hi m as bein g my toug hest com petitor going in . For the AMA series I think Freddie (Spencer), J am ie (Jam es) and Thom as wi ll be there. As far as those th ree guy s go, it'll be a toss-up. " When Freddi e is on I wo uld think he would be th e tou gh est o ne to beat. H e's a real smart rider and doesn 't make very many mi stakes. I'm not saying Jamie or Thom as will , but maybe . I think Freddie has definitely got an experience edge o n everybody out there, so I would look at him as being the toughest g uy on a given weekend." Muzzy's plans for Russ ell include seven or eight rounds of the World Championship Superbike Series , including the first three rounds. If ' 'I' m go ing to go . o ut and win as many ra ces as I ca n," he sa id. :'1 want to improve my riding rath er th an lay ba ck and try a nd win a cha m p io n sh i p. T he big thing to me is th at I ge t better , and I do n' t feel th a t riding co ns ervat ively will do th at for me. I th ink I' ve sma rte ne d up a lot over th e past cou p le of years o n th e tra ck . I wouldn 't say I'm in a rut , but it' s tim e to step up to th e next level. I'm go in g to wi n as many races as I ca n , not do any thi ng dumb and if th e ch am pi o nsh ip co mes inthe end, th en th at wi ll be grea t." T he first step must be taken a t Daytona. Pol en ha s already made a sta temen t by circulating at well under the track record during tire tests, bu t Ru ssell isn' t worried. "No, not at all," he said. " Fast laps are hard to run for two hours. Ever yb od y knows that anything can happen and it usually does at Daytona. He ran fast times, but I heard that Freddie (Spe ncer) ran pretty fast times, too . We ran low '52s on a bike that's definitely not as good as what we will ZXR 750R. Although he was the fastest of those testing at the race track in th e hills above Monterey, California, he wasn 't pa rt icu larl y p leased with th e new bike. "The engine th at's in th at bike is prob abl y not the best setu p, " he said. " It 's not the best way for th e eng ine to be, at least for me. It 's go t a narrow powerba nd whi ch makes it a little hard to deal wit h off some corne rs wh en th e revs might want to d rop down ju st a tou ch . The motor we ran most of last year was a little wider in the range I'm sure of it. I think we'll get back to that. I don 't believe they will put me on something I'm not happy with. Although , I was able to get around there fairly good. But I think I can go two seconds faster than that. We just basically ran out of time." Although he has missed out on the superbike championship by the natrowest of margins the past two years, Scott Russell is confident that it will be his competition counting their point deficit at the end of the '92 campaign.

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