Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

INT RVIEW E O d ecided at Loretta Lynn's, in Ma rch, tha t I would walk the track the day before the race. Four and a half hours later, I still hadn't fini shed and it was getting dark. The next da y when I woke up I was so sore that I could hard ly move, and it ended up being the worst race I had all year, but at least I knew the track. So from there on out, I started coming in on Fridays to walk the track, and then just spend Saturday relaxing at the hotel or watching the quadcycle races or whatever. I think that walking the track is extremely importan t in woods racing. You might not think that after walking something that takes four hours you would remember any of it, but you' d be surprised at what comes back to you on that first lap. You remember so many little lines here and there that help you. With the talent level we have now, I think I need every ad vantage I can get. Even though you gu ys are so com peti tive, you seem to get along well off the track. How does that com pare to your motocross da ys? The top woo ds guys are friendly with each other, but I don't think that the top motocross guys could ever hang out together. I think they would all just as soon kill each other! There's too much money involved for the motocrossers. In our sport we don't make that much money, so there's reall y nothing between us but pride. In motocross everyone is worried about losing the ir job, o r losing money, o r whatever. Woods racing is more like a hobb y or a recreational sport. There's not all that big money and pressure. We just go out there to do the best we can. But . ~'metimes it does lead to contact. Didn't you and Scott Summers have a few battles this year that involved some banging? Yeah, w e had a prett y famous run-in tow ards the end of the series. I got the AMA Grand NationalCross Conn brunt of the blam e for that because the MotoWorid cameras were at the part of the track where I hit h im. Then he brake-checked me and I went down, so it looked like I was the bad gu y. But believe me, Scott was ev ery bit as aggressive that day as I w as. That's what happens when you have a couple of guys who want to win as badly as Scott and I want to - but it's not nearly as bad as it is in motocross. Anyway, I like to thin k that that's all behind us now. Next year we have to start all over again and we are both going to be out there to win every race, just like we were this year; so are Scott Plessin ger and Jan Hrehor and Doug Blackwell and everyone else. You've already proven yourself as a capable cross cou ntry and hare scrambl es co m pe titor. D o you 'h a ve any plans of b ran ching out into other forms of off-roa d, like endu ro or desert racing, or ma ybe even the ISDE? I would have tried the Six Days thi s year, but I just didn't think that the help was there to make it worth my while. I really didn't have any commitments for help this year, but next year I'm going to do it no matter what, even if I hav e to do it on my own. The ISDE is going to be in Oklah oma, and that m eans it won't be as expensive or difficult to get to as the ones on the other side of the world. Do you know how to time-k eep for enduros? Nop e. Bu t I think I know enough guys w ho've done it, eno ug h people in th e ind ustry w ho are good at it, that cou ld teach me. That's another thing abou t the off-road scene - I'm sure just abo ut anyone in th is sport would be willing to help anyon e else out. I bet that I could go up to Ran dy Hawkins, ask him for advice and he would gi ve it to me. I barely know him, but that's just the way people are in thi s sport. I'm sure that nobody wants to give awa y all of their secrets, bu t if I ask ed someone about the basics of time-keeping I think that they would be more than glad to help me. I'd hav e to learn the rest on my own. Have you begun training f or next year's titl e defense yet? I go to Florida in December every year to ride and train and hang ou t, spe nding Christmas, New Years, and most -of the winter down there. I've been competing in the Florida Winter-AMA MX Series every year since 1982, and I plan on riding it again this year. I won the series in '88 in the 500 class, and in '87 I lost the 125 title by one point when they said I jumped the starting gate. It was a backwards-falling gate. How can you jump that? It was a guy from Florida who protested me, too. Did you ride any woods nati onals before this yea r? I rode one, ma ybe three or four years ago. I'm not .s u re where it was, but I remember not doing too well. My brother Joel rode the Grand Nat ional Cross Country Series last year , and I think he shocked a lot of people by doing so well . I mean, he ca m e out of nowhere to almost w in a few races, including the Blackwater 100. In fact, one of the reason s that I got into cross country this year was becaus e he hurt his knee again and couldn't ride this year. I know Joel wishes tha t he could be out there, so if it ma kes him feel better when I compete in the woods and do well , then it's worth giving it a shot. After I won the Blackwater this summer, I kind of dedicated the w in to him and my dad, because they had both come close to winning that rac e. My dad was second overall back in 1977, and Joel was third last year . I think it was really gratifying to them that an Andrews finally wo n it this year . Each one of my wins is really more of a family accomp lis h men t than a n individual win. Ho w did your sponsors feel wh en you chan ged your mind ea rly in the year, d eciding to spend the season riding in t h e w oods ra t h er than on th e pro motocross tour? To tell you the truth, most of them now tell me that I'm finally worth something to them. It's more important to them to have a guy who wins a cross country national than it is to ha ve a guy who gets eighth or ten t h in a motocross national. Everyone of my sponsors stayed with me through the transition and I really believe that th ey are happier with me now than th e y ever were, because I'm finally getting my picture in the magazines and giving them something to brag about when I win races. I would hardly ge t any publicity for a sixth or seventh in a national, but my sponsors still helped me. I guess now's my chance to pay them all back . You started the 1993 se rie s out w ith a win in Florida, on a track that was fairly rough and open. Did you expect to win that first day? After I saw the track, yes, I thought I could win . I was more worried about ho lding on for three hours than I was about going as fast as Summers and Larry Roeseler and those guys. I mean, that was really a sandy track, probably th e roughest we would see a ll year. Three hours was a long time to be going that fast on that kind of a track, but once I got out there I kind of got a good drive going and I kept it going the whole time. That first week in Florida was really busy for me. I raced on Sunday in the 250 MX na tional at Gainesville and put in two har d motos. (Andrews finished nin th in the first mota but crashed out of th e second mota while running in the top 10). The cross country national was on the following Tuesday and I pretty mu ch destroyed my body, especially my hands. Then I rode the Daytona Supercross on Saturday and I made the main event. (Andrews finished 24th) . I have to admit I wa s pretty worn out by the time we went home. One thing that really stands out about that week was tha t first mota at Gainesville. I was ~;really hard the who:le time and towaids the end I saw thatDamon Bradshaw WlllI coming up behind me. We were Iiack in ninth and tenth and it was late in the race, but he never did catch up with me. For a guy like him to be riding back in tenth had to be a real let -down, but I felt really good about be ing in that position. He gave up that day. I guess it was a sign of things to come . . Scott Summers turned out to be your biggest rival this year. Is the hype that su rro unds him and his big XR600 justified, or d o you think he's over-rated? There's no hype there - he's definitely as fast as people say. I personally didn't think that it was possible for someone to go that fast on tha t 600, but he definitely gets the job done. There's no way you can take anything away from the guy. He's a good rider. Maybe he has a weird style, but he just keeps that Honda going the whole time. Scott's got a really big heart, too. He wants to win badly. Now that you and Rod ney Smith and T y D a v is h a ve pro ve n that fo rm e r motocrossers can succeed off-road , d o you feel like mo re motocrossers w ill foll ow? I feel that going into the woods is getting to be more of an option for old motocrossers than it used to be, bu t I can't see someone like McGrath or Bradshaw or any of those guys really getting into it. I don't think that guys like that would want to because the money is no t ther e and that's what th ey're used to. Bu t I think tha t Gu y Coope r w ill d o good. He's out there to have fun, no matter what kind of motorcycle he's on, or what ki nd of race he's entered in. Last yea r he and I rod e together in the woods for a couple of weeks and he was pretty good. He bounces off a lot of things, but that's just Coop. I think he'll be really good for our sport and he'll help us grow . You keep referri ng to woods ,racing as Hour sp o rt ." Do yo u now con s ider you rself a woods racer rather than a motocrosser? Yes, I'm a woods racer now. Woods racing is what I do now; it's what Yamaha has h ired me to do. I'll s till do some m o tocrosses but my focus is no w in woods racing. I was going to ride more mo tocross races than just that first national las t year, but on ce I got in to woods racing, I did n't want to mess up my chances at the title because I crashed in a supercross or something. I also had plan s to ride the 500 nationals. I was talking to Yamaha abou t using some of Da m on ' s old parts from a coup le of years ago, but at the last min u te that deal fell through. Your wi nning in Florida was a sign of things to com e, b u t you had a lot of skep tics at fi rst, didn't you? I'm sure that a lot of people thought it was a fluke and that I wouldn't do any good after that. The guy who really gave it to me the worst was Art Eckman from MotoWorld. After I won in Florida he sa id something like, " Do n ' t worry, they'll be in the woods next week." He made it sound like I couldn't do anything in the woods, and that really upset me. I ended up winning races on every kind of terrain. The race I won in Ohio was tight and dusty; the High Point race was abou t as muddy a race as I've ever seen; and Blackwater was, well, Blackwater. I ' d lo ve to ask him what he thinks of me now. (N

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