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/127593
Ca giva team th ey're g re a t p e opl e and Claudio (Cas tig lione) is a fantastic guy and I only ha ve good things to say (ab out th em) . Unfortunately, the reality of it all is there was really no results and that br ings you down. So, I d idn't want to co n tin ue th at way. I know for su re tha t I can run wi th Ke v in (Sc h wa ntz) and Way ne (Rainey) and Mick (Doo ha n) a nd a nyone e lse, it's not a qu estion of that in my m ind . But w hen you're riding in th e back , e ve ry body sees that and the next thing you know yo u're d one a nd yo u 're all washed u p . '50, that was no fun as well . It was time to stop. It' s like now I could say w ha t co nfirms it is that all of a sud den Alex (Barros) is a fantastic r ider a nd Do ug (Chand ler) is not ? Not th e case. The facts are it's the eq uipme nt , unfo rtuna tely that's racing. That's the way it is. Your fi rst expe rience working with Erv Kanemoto was i n 1989, h ad y ou eve n spoke with h im before that? And why is it you two work so we ll toge ther? We'd talk, s u re. And I always had a ton of respect for him. Not lengthy conversati ons bu t we sure talked. I th in k w e w ork s o well together because o f our temperament. Th e way we go about racing and the way we think about things is very much the same. He d oesn't ever get worked up, he just tries to analyze the problem and go forward with that: I really like the way he goes about racing, I listen to him eve n more than I do .. . 1 ju st re lay to h im w hat I fee l a nd instead of tr yin g to fix the bike I just let him d eal wi th it. It jus t works. When was you r first ride at S uzu ka a n d what was it like? That was in 1980 on a Kawasaki. It was a lot of fun . It was my first time to Japan and it was my first factory ride and when you're at th at stage it's all brand new and exciting. I have a lot of great memories from my Kawasaki days. They really treated me well the three yea rs that I was there, fantastic really. We finished second that year. A guy on a Suzuki crashed in front of me and I h it him, launching me into the barrier. The bike was stuck in the barrier and I couldn't get it out and by the time I did the leaders - Wes Cooley and Graeme Crosby - w en t by and we ended up second. This year at Suzuka the Honda garage was d ivided in to two separate areas, Erv and yourself on one side, Doohan, Beattie and their squad on the other. You didn't seem to spend too much time talking to the Australians, some animosity perhaps? No, none at all, we talked quitea bit . I tal ked to Mick a bunch o f times, bu t, y o u know , he ' s busy an d I'm bus y, we' re a ll d o in g o u r th in g. I have no problem over th er e. We talk ed abo u t th e Honda NSR and stuff like that and h e told me that he w as havin g so me problems wi th brakin g on his foot: So they swap pe d the brakes so the re ar The Michelin 's were as 'a w es o m e as al ways . I cou ld g o in a n d just throttle that bike and it wou ld giv e me a n ice p red ictable s lide ever y tim e. Aga in I ca n' t say. enough a bo u t th e Michelins, the y worked .... great. 00 You were o n Du nl o p H tires at Daytona. Agai n Q) tw o different motorcycles, tw o diffe rent race tracks and p roba bly two Q) different style tires but can you make an y com0.pa risons? Q) The only d ifference I could tell was that the Mich e lin s tuck to th e grou nd real hard, lots of traction. (Laughs) You are a f o u r-t i m e World Champion. Is a fifth title a goal? Do y o u think you could throw one more grea t season together? I could ge t up for it if everything was right. If, like I sa id before, Erv put something toget her and everyth ing was r ig h t. But everything would have to be right and the chances of that are slim . Well, let's say someone pu t togethe r a grea t pac k a ge, bu t coul d n't a ffo rd to pay y o u t he b i g num b ers. Would yo u d o it? Would yo u race for free? I'd want market value. If someone else is getting that, then I'd want that, too . But you know I wou ldn't go to Su zuka thinking that I'd get top five and be happy with th a t, no way . I would neve r go to Su zu ka or any race for that ma tter, with tha t in m in d . I go the re thinki ng, I'm going th e r e to w in a nd it would n't matt er to me if it was for $1 or $1 mil lion, winn ing is the most impor ta n t thing . If everyone was getting no money then I wo uld, but if Kevin or Mick were getting paid and I wasn't...no. Which Grand Pri x victo ry stands out in your mind as th e best? Definitely the u.s, GP in 1988. There is nothing like winning a race in front of your home crowd. The win at H ungary was so me pretty special circu ms tances an d it mean t a lot to me to be the first to win on a Cagiva. I can always say that I was the first and that is pretty special, bu t I' m not as proud of tha t win as I am of ot hers . Bu t, hey, winn ing a GP, no matt er how you win it is nice. You won the World Championship for Rothmans i n 1989. Did thei r recent announcement that they were pulling out of the sport su rp rise you? Did you have prior knowledge of their in tention to do so? Not really. It's my unde rstand ing, and I don't know ho w m u ch mone y th e y wer e exac tly puttin g in the program, but I don't be lie ve it w as th at much mone y. I d id n't k no w be forehand, I fou nd out when everyone else found out. When look ing back at all you've accomplished, from your 250cc National Champ ionships to Super- ~ ..... en (brake lever) is on the handlebars but that was about it: Were you surpris ed at the serious li mp Doohan has one year aft er breaking h is leg? Yeah, it's not my place to say, but it is just unfortunate that he didn't fly back to the States to get tha t fixed . There is a n unreal su rgeon in San Francisco named Art Ting. He put my ankle back together after it was blown apart and I think if Dooha n had gone and seen him I don't think he would have had any problems at all. That is not to say that it was a bad move on Mick's part, decisio ns like those have to be made rela tively quickly. Your d ry qualifying times at Suzuka were a bit slower than Doohan's, What do you attribute that to? I don't think anything was too d ifferen t between the two bikes, it was jus t that Mick went for it. I think he was just on it that lap. I think 115 we re possible, we co uld have run them but at th e sa me time we kne w the race was going to be run in the I Ss, so it really did n' t matt er anyway. We weren 't that far off. Your qualifying times in the ra in were the fastest. The pole was obvi- ou s ly una tt ainab le , so wh y the fa st laps? I just went out and rod e around , everything was working an d it d id n' t really feel like I was p ushing that hard and when I came in I they told me that I was fastest. It's one of those things, it always seems to work that way w hen yo u're n o t trying. It a lso says a lot for the motorcycle, because that thing was really working well in the we t. The tires were incredible. How d id your wet weather se tup differ from the setup you ran when the track was dry? It wasn't a big d ifference. We softened everything up, a click on the rebound, compression and the spring rates are a little bit differen t but nothing too drastic. You hit your head pretty hard, what did you do after the race? (Lau gh s) I go t an ambulance ride back to th e hot el and a d octor came to the room and checked me out. I had a real bad migrain e and I wa nted to thr ow up, so I was a li ttl e b it concerned th at I wasn' t b le ed in g o r a n y thi ng o n th e inside of my head . The Michelins obviously worked well at Suzuka. 31