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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127607
eINTERVIEW 8 ~ 50 T wo-tim eWorld Su erbikeCham ion Fred Merkel You want to finish yoUr career in the U.S.? I'd love to. I've been away for seven years. I'm 31 years old. I can't see me racing till I'm 35, honestly. I know for the next two years I'm not going back. You have a two-year contract. Yeah. You won the World Championship in 19877 1988 and '89. I rode for Rumi Honda in 1990 and I was leading the championship halfway through and that's when I crashed and broke my neck at a test in Suzuka. And that's what started the downfall. In 1991, the Honda was very uncompetitive - we struggled and struggled and struggled. In 1992, I broke my foot on the Yamaha and spent the whole season recovering. This ('93) year it's just been three races with Yamaha and the rest of the year with Ducati. I think that one of the major determining factors (in deciding to come home) was that I knew the paychecks were on time and there were no lies. When you deal with Italian companies - I don't care what they say or what they do - you always are lied to, stolen from and not paid. You ran into that problem this year wit h your mechanics not getting paid? . Yeah, it's just one simple thing. Fortunately, I've been paid. Finally . The guy that paid my paychecks paid for his ride as well. And in the end, he ended up writing the team owner a hot check for $30,000. That just goes to show By Henny Ray Abrams red Merkel won the third of his three AMA National Superbike Championships in 1986 and then disappeared to Europe for the next seven years . He chased the World Superbike title, winning it in 1988 and '89 , and then it all went wrong. Injuries, bad rides, and unfuIfilIed promises convinced the 31-year-old from Stockton, California that it was time to come home. He'd gotten an offer to come home for the 1993 season, but waged one final World Superbike campaign, one that he would sooner forget. For the 1994 season' hell be riding in the lime green livery of the Muzzy Kawasaki team as a teammate of Steve Crevier and Takahiro 5ohwa. "A World Championship team with a World Championship bike," is how he describes it. He came home to win the AMA superbike title and will settle for nothing less. His first taste of home came during the first three days of December, when he rode the Kawasaki for the first time during a test at Daytona. It was his first trip to the banked oval since 1986. It took a while to get sorted out, but once the bike was right, Merkel was ready and turned in among the fastest times of the week. If he had any doubts that this was the right move and if he did, he didn't voice them - the test confirmed that he'd mad e the righ t choice. A t about the midpoint of the test, I asked him if we could talk. "Let's wait until tomorrow after the test is over. Then I'll have so mething to say," Merkel said, an d, true to his word, he had plen ty to say. How d id you arrive at the de cisio n to race in the U.S? The opportunity to win again. That's how I got here; that's why I'm here. Rob called me and offered me a package, and it was a fair package - with a World Championship team. To be quite frank, it' s the only package, I mean, the only package for me. I could have waited it out and gone back and gotten a factory Ducati ride; ridden a factory Honda in Europe again. There's just been too many political things that have turned me off to . the world scene. Me and my wife, Lorraine, both decided six months ago that if I was going to get a job in America, I was going to take it. We actually needed to get some normality back into our lives and control our own racing effort as far as my career goes. Riding for Italian tearns has been a real uphill battle. My whole European excursion, frankly, just kind of wore on us until we didn't care to do it any more: It wasn't any more fun. When did it stop being fun? A couple years ago. It stops being fun when you stop winning. Had you thought about coming back before this? I was actually offered this job last year for 1993, but I was contracted under Byrd Yamaha to contest the world series for the year. So I thanked Rob and wished him luck and stayed in the world circuit. I ended up parting ways with Yamaha three races into the season and going to Ducati. There was one major glitch with Yamaha. We didn't see eye to eye on a lot of things. They wanted the moon and were prepared to deliver nothing. 50 we parted ways, and it was for the better. The Ducati I rode was a very, very slow motorcycle, but I learned a lot on it. I enjoyed riding it because it was such a fun bike to ride. But I didn't enjoy finishing eighth, ninth, and 10th. We did have a couple of good finishes. We had a second and third, so tha t wasn't too bad. But it just wasn't our scene any more. Don't ge t me wrong . We love Europe. I wouldn't change all the years me and my wife travelled in Europe and raced in Europe. I'd never trade those for the world. It was just time for a change. Do you ever envision yourself going back? Hopefully not. you. We were lucky enough to finish with all the money that was owed us except (by) Ducati. Ducati still owes me fo r the Bol d'Or race that I rode. I'm patiently waiting for Cla udio Cas tigilione and Gianfranco - and you can write those boys names down there - to pay me. I've done my job. I did my part. Now they have to do their's. When you raced in Europe were you living there full-time? We did come back in the winters to see my family at Christmas for a month. What are you doing now? I moved back to my hometown of Stockton, California; back to my family and loved ones and friends, which is wonderful. It's wonderful and it's bad. I've gained so much weight over the last two weeks. I've got to stay out of the Mexican restaurants.