Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

INTERVIEW By Dean Adams Photos by Henny Ray Abrams he events that transpired at Daytona in 1985 would end up shap. ing World Championship road racing for years to come - in more ways than one. Freddie Spencer was a this unbeatable best, blitzing across the finish line to win the Daytona 200 as well as the Formula One and International 250cc' race. It was an awesome display of Fast Freddie's talent, and one that would carry him onward to Europe where his career would continue to skyrocket towards three World Championships. Amongst the witnessing masses that day in March was a 22-year old Southerner. He had come to Daytona to watch his hero Spencer, and to mingle with the never-ending stream of college students T 18 who share Daytona Beach with motorcycle enthusiasts each March. Other than youth, intelligence and enthusiasm, the young man had nothing in common with the college students. Students, when they weren't enjoying Spring Break, had direction in their lives. They had futures. Back home in Georgia, this guy had very little in the way of a future. His parents were divorced, he'd left high school early and was earning a living swea ting in a factory . But he dreamed of more constantly. He looked around at his older co-workers and he didn't like wha t he saw. It was his future staring back at him. He didn't like the thought that he might spend his entire life in that factory, never fulfilling his potential. At Daytona, he stood and cheered Spencer on. From his seat he could faintly see the ceremony in Victory Lane. Separated by only 500 feet, he and Spencer may as well have been on different continents. If he only knew the similarities they shared. Spencer, too, had fo ught his way to the top of the world from his own dirt-poor southern obscurity. Then something happened. After seeing Spencer spray champagne on the podium, the young man decided then and there that he would become a road racer. His racing experience prior to that had been minimal - motocross and some wild street riding. He decided that motorcycle racing would become the focus of his life. Now he had direction. That young man with th e lofty dreams was none other than Scott Russell, who has remained a Freddie Spencer fan . Now, seven years after watching his hero win at Daytona, Russell has become America's newest World Superbike Champion. He's achieved the dream that began seven short years ago. As Russell went about moving into his new apartment in Atlanta, Georgia, we sat down for a talk, tape recorder humming. Doningto n Park looked to be the cru cial race of th e season ...Was it? . World Su erbike Cham ion Scott Russell Donington was a pivotal weekend. Going into that race a lot of people thought for sure that Carl (Fogarty) would walk off (with the race) because we were in England and he was on such a roll - even I expected him to do really good there. In practice he was quick, right off the bat. We were struggling with a front-end chatter problem that I didn't really expect from Donington, it . being such a smooth race track. But it gave us our fair share of problems. We were behind the game a bit, and I wasn't very happy with what was going on : We were struggling. Then, in the last qualifying session, we were third fastest and about a second off what he (FogarI ty) was doing. I put a qualifying tire on and went out to see if I could get a good . 1 lap in. I didn't give the tire enough time to scuff in on the left side and when I went down through Kraner Curve, a fourth-gear left hander, I flicked it in and it stepped way out. I knew right away I was in big trouble. That's probably the hardest crash I've ever had . Yeah, there wasn't anything to hit, but I hit the ground so hard on my tailbone. Instant pain. Normally you don't feel it until you stop rolling and sliding, but I knew as soon as I hit that I was hurt. When I stopped and laid in the gravel trap, I thought that was it... I laid there for a minute to see if could move everything. I tried to get up and my tailsection, my ass, was hurt bad. I thought that I was done - my ankle started to , hurt and my knee started to hurt, so I thought "This is the end of the season right here." I thought for sure that I broke my leg. They hauled me back to the hospital there and X-rayed everything, and everything was a go . They wheeled me back from the hospital to my motorhome in a wheelchair - I wasn't about to walk. I wanted no part of that. I was just praying that I'd be able to move the next day. That was a rough night, trying to sleep and then trying to get ready and everything for the next day . I knew I'd be doing good to get fifth in either of the races. On race day we lowered the footpeg on the right side because I'd done some damage to my knee so I couldn't sit on the bike very comfortably. I borrowed one of Tripp Nobles' boots, a size 10, and fit my ankle in it. I went out the next morning with a pad on the seat to jack me up a little bit. We were second fastest behind Aaron (Slight) in the morning warm-up. I thought, "Hey, this ain 't too bad." It hurt to ride. It hurt to change directions, but we were comfortable with it. In the first leg, I pulled a holeshot and I was able to hold those guys off. Then on the restart, I didn't get such a good start and had to fight my way to the front, but I made it. That was a really good weekend. I had to dig deep to find out what I was all about. In the end I finished right behind Carl, and with the aggregate time it gave me the win. The second leg was a really good battle and he ended up falling down. I just kind of put it on cruise mode and then Aaron caught up and got by me. It was probably the best weekend I had all year, although it was a painful one. When did you find out that you'd actu ally broken your leg? I made it to Portugal without any doctors' help and raced there . Then I came back and got ready for Mexico and went there. We were supposed to race, but we didn't, and then I came home. When I got back , I found out my leg was broken right above my ankle. There's a small bone there that was broken at Donington. My con trol the track - the comer workers didn't even have communica tion from comer to comer - we were out of there. It was pretty hokey. We went around the track, Carl and I, and we were the only o nes who had a chance at the championship at that point. We looked a t one another and said, "We'll see each other next year." It was over. He had already been beaten before we even got there. He said in the press conference at Donington that he had lost the championship. What do you think of Fogarty as far as his riding is concerned? He's a good rider, but he has the best bike on the race track, no question about it . It's got the most acceleration and more top end than anything on the track. Before they weren't the fastest on the top-end, but now they are. They've done a lot of work to that thing and really have it running good. It makes it really hard to beat those guys. What was your motivation for going to Loudon this year for the AMA National? I'd won two Loudons in a row, the two seasons prior to this one. I really wanted to go back up there and I called Rob (Muzzy) from Japan where I was test ing . I called him and he said, "Yeah, call me back tomorrow." I did and he said "Yeah, let's do it, c'mon out. You'll doctor said it has healed pretty well, but my ankle is still as big as a baseball. My knee is still very sore; I've got some ligament damage.that we 're rehabbing now. If it doesn't come around, I'll have orthoscopic (surgery) done on it. I was hurt a little bit worse than I thought. I knew I was always in pain in real bad pain since the Donington weekend. The knee isn' t that good; it doesn't give me very good support, especially on the bike. I went to Mexico and it hurt worse than it has yet." Tell me ab o ut the Mexican round ... when d id yo u re a li ze that you'd won the cha mpionshi p? Mexico was a 'p ret ty wild weekend. I had a bunch of people go down there with me - my whole family and some friends went to watch me take it. I was looking forward to really riding and I was the quickest in both sessions; the bike was really, really slow in that altitude while the Ducati was really fast. I was pretty happy about being fastest. 1\ was a half a second faster than anybody out there, and we were looking good for the race. Saturday comes along, qualifying time, and they postponed it because of all the soccer games and stuff going on . We just kind of held on . An hour went by, and then another hour and another. Then all the riders got together and had a meeting, and then another hour went by and we all said, "This is crazy." If they were not willing to make the changes and stop the games and have to ride Takahiro Schwa's back-up bike ." So that was fine. I got on the bike and it wasn't very good - probably the slowest thing I've ever been on and it wasn't set up very good. We worked on it all night. The next day we put it on the pole immediately and bettered our ti me. Then it rained and it was just one of those deals - when it's right, it's right. No thing could stop us; that's basic ally what it was. I just missed AMA racing to be honest with you, and I'm happy tha t I won it. We'll see what's happening next year and maybe I'll come back and do it again. Miguel DuHamel, your AMA counte rpa rt o n the Kawasaki team, and yo u have never been cl ose. What was he like that wee kend? I walked in, got on the bike and did what I did - that was it. I talked to him a little bit about his bike and they seemed to have trouble all year struggling to find the set up of the bike. Me being on it for three years, I knew what made it work and what didn't. It wasn't a problem for me to come in and say, "Change this, this and this ." I went back out and the thing was almost perfect. As far as me and him getting along, there wasn't a rea l big problem. I don't think he was real happy that I came in there and did that; he was quite off the pace that day. Sorry, that's life. You deal with it or nolo. But I was just hoping that it lit a fire un de r him for the rest of the year. They

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