Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eINTERVIEW RoadracerTomKi Miguel DuHamel and his Muzzy Kawasaki. Any predictions? The Dunlop tire test at Daytona was reai positive for us. Tom Walsch and the guys at Dunlop worked real hard developing a new front tire that would eliminate the small chatter problem that we experienced at times during the 1992 season. They developed a tire tha t worked real well. It has good grip and stability and has the turning capabilities much like those slicks on my Superbike. By Dean Adams Photo by Henny Ray Abrams om Kipp entered the big time in 1992. After years of flogging around the race tracks of America on a privateer Yamaha tuned by his father Tom Sr., Kipp landed himself a ride on what is arguably the most visible team in AMA Superb ike racing Camel Honda. The 23-year-old from Mentor, Ohio, struggled along early in the season before finally getting the Honda RC30 Superbike adjusted to suit him. By then, though, he was well on his way to winning the AMA/CCS 600cc Supersport title, on a more familiar Honda CBR6oo. Still, he still managed to finish strong enough on the Superbike to earn a sixthplace finish in the overall Superb ike Championship point standings. We caught up with Kipp during the off-season to talk about the season past and the one that lies ahead for the talented Ohioan. After spending years on your privateer Superbike and Supersport bikes, what were the first few races like riding for the factory Honda team? This will sound silly, but one of the hardest changes I had to get used to was learning to keep my hands off everything. At Daytona last year I was trying to work on my RC30 with my leathers and gloves s lill on, then I realized I should just leave that to the pros. I had to learn to put 100% trust in my mechanic AI Ludington and ~w chief Ray Plumb. Those guys are a couple of the best in the business. When they took complete responsibility for the equipment I was able to concentrate fully on my riding. Honda's suspension guru Ron Heben was also getting my chassis sorted out. What 'is the relationship like between your teammate Mike Smith and yourself? Some have said that you two were not close before becoming teammates. It is true that Mike and I were not close coming up through the ranks. I barely knew him when we showed up at the first test at Laguna last spring. I think that it was primarily due to the fact that we were from two different organizations. Mike had run the WERA thing and I had run AMA - that's what it came down to. We really didn't mix too much. The relationship now is good. We keep to ourselves a little bit more on race day, but that is when things are the busiest. We rap on the phone and now that Mike is out in San Diego, I want to go out to see him and do some riding. How do your riding styles differ? EarlY'in the season, at the first few events, Mike was able to make an early break in Supersport and get out front real quick. I was not getting quite the jump that he was in the first few laps and it made all the difference in the world. Laguna is a perfect example and Daytona, too, races like that. Like I said, it made all the difference in the world for him and it wasn't until about halfway through the season where I was able to put that together and make that a priority. Knowing that it was what it took, to keep from banging bars with the rest of these guys and slowing your laps down. When everyone else is banging bars, you can just get out and go. So T 22 about halfway through the seaSon I was able to take the same approach and it helped me out a lot. In Supersport I don't think the difference is quite as big as it is in Superbike. I don't know if Mike had more confidence in the bike (RC30) or had a better feel for it in the beginning, but he definitely hung it out, way more than I did. I was not going to do something that I wasn't comfortable doing. I think he just pushed it harder and hung it out a little bit more than I did. I don't think our styles differ too much more than that. Mike had been with Yoshimura for a season and I think that it just took me a half a season or so to really know what to expect, and what was expected of me on a factory Superbike team. I was tiptoeing through the first half of that season. Your 600cc Supersport season had some ups and downs, what were the memorable moments for you? The only low was the opener at Daytona. On the last lap I got tangled up in traffic in the chicane and finished a real disappointing fourth place. Everything else was a high. Al Ludington and I had a game plan for each race, as well as the whole season. Everything went perfect. 1 didn't need to win at Texas, but I raced real hard and led from start to finish. That was, more or less, to show why I'm going to be wearing the number one plate next year. I didn't have to do that, but I wanted to go out winning that last round. Plus, I hadn't beaten Mike (Smith) in a heads up race until that point. That is as far as me finishing the whole race or he doing the same. That was an important race. We won when we could do it and not too much risk involved and we sat back in second when we had to. I did not drop that bike one single time all season. I didn't want to get hurt, that is one of the things that really worries me about this Supersport class is getling hurt for my main priority, which is the Superbike class. I kept that in mind all season. I didn't ride over my head and I did what it took to win the championship and nothing more. It wouldn't be good if I got hurt in that class and wouldn't be able to race my Superbike. I think you have every bit as much a chance of getting hurt in a Supersport class as you do in Superbike, not more, but every bit as much. It is a lot worse out there than you can see from the side of the track. I come off the track after almost every race with tire marks on my leathers or my bike. There is plenty of times that I came in with cracked fairings, the Camel decals scrubbed right off the fairing and black marks on my leathers and bodywork. Not that anybody does it intentionally, but to stay out front or to stay ahead of whoever you're racing, the bikes are so close, almost the same across the board, that you have to ride like that. These Supersport bikes, it is real easy to feel comfortable on them and the mile per hour is down a bit from the Superbikes, so when you get out there. you're going to see some more banging and more aggressive riding. Nobody is really trying to hurt each other or to put anybody's life in danger, but you can get away with more. It is a serious clasS. It really is. 1don't think that people realize how much we put into that class in preparation and hard work. It's not just something that we go out there and ride for a warm up for the Superbike race. It's very competitive and we work real, real hard at staying on top. Now that you have won the championship, your next obstacle will be The Honda needed something to help it turn quicker and I think with this new development I will be able to run quicker at most tracks on my Supersport Honda than in 1992. I don't think there was anything alarming about how fast the Kawasaki went at Daytona. It had top end on us which, I think, is due to a very efficient ram air system that would work well at a track like Daytona. I doubt if they can get the Kawasaki to handle as well as my Honda F2. And as far as the championship goes, I think r have every bit as good a chance this year as r did last year. My goal from last year was the championship, 1 went into the season with that as my goal. How do you mentally prepare for a Superbike race? By the time we go to the grid I already know what my game plan is. It does not do me any good to stew about it for those few short minutes before I go out on the track. The warm-up lap is plenty of time for me to put it all together and get re-focused. Ray Plumb, with the help of HRC Japan, has been working really hard to come up with a solution for the clutch problem that has been a weakness in the RC30 for some time. It seems to be working well in recent races, so when I come back to the grid I am thinking first lap strategy and what is the safest and quickest way to smoke everyone off the line. What really works well for me is to get as relaxed as possible, joke around with my mechanic, whatever. I just try to stay loose because you should already have it worked out in your mind as to what you're going to do, what your strategy is. There is no sense sitting there on the line just getting yourself all worked up, it's not going to do you any good. I come back

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