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/127607
What do you fi n d is most attrac tive about this team? They're a World Cha m ion s h ip team. There's no attitudes - which I've known from being around them for the last couple years. They're the most professional team I've seen. I've never ridden a Kawasaki in my life, until Wednesday. They broke me in right. They sent me out on a Supersport bike with street tires. They wanted me to get used to what I was in for all year. It was kind of a good chuckle between me and Rob . When he offered me the position there was a "but" a t the end of it when he said: "We want you to ride Supersport," There was a long silence and all of a sudden Rob says, "Fred, hello." And then, with a chuckle, he explained it was quite a good racebike. It was not the ni ghtmare I w as imagining it was going to be. And I found ou t tha t it isn't. It' s actually going to be fu n to ride. As far as the Superbike goes, I've ridden three of them. On e of them works really well; th e other two are pretty ba d. It's the end of th e .season and the parts are pretty limited; they're just worn-out motorcycles. But I'm happy with the time I did. Is the track much different from when you ro d e here in 1986? I don't every remember it being so slippery. The last time I rode here I went two minutes (lap times). I'm going n ine s econds faster now. The bikes are so po werfu l th e se days they just spin the tires, especially on this place h ere. This is where you need all the horsepower in the w orld; it's America' s version o f Hocken heim . The bike wasn't as intimidating as I thought it was going to be coming off the standard 888 Ducati that I'd been racing this year. That's why it was really good to get me on the Supersport bike first - to show me the way that it's going to handle, to kind of prepare me for the Superbike. The y' re quite d ifferent, but the y're similar in some ways. It was w on derful. It was really good. I'm really, really happy. Do you have any lasting first impression of go ing out there? I've never slid a motorcycle as much in my life n ever, ever in m y whole life - all the infield and goin g u p onto the banking. But it's never been a mor e con t rolled s lid e . The fru strating thing was th at I was trying to se t m y bike up -all morning, which was comp letely wrong. The harder I tried, t h e m ore I'd slid e and just went backwards in time. It was like, I got on Sco tt ' s b ike an d all of a sudd en here we go . An d, o f co u r s e , Sco t t' s b een with the team three years and h e ' s only 'r idden these bikes . I've rid d en everythin g n ow; all o f them - even the Su zu ki way back w hen . And every bike is different. Every bike lakes its own tender loving care to go fast. Definitely, here you have to be smooth to go fast. How many of the tracks that you'l l be go ing to this year have you ridden on? (At this point Merkel calls to Rob Muzzy, who's working n ea rby ) What tracks haven't I ridden on, Rob? Pomona and what else? Muzzy: The new Loudon . The n ew Laguna, too. Laguna's changed. Phoenix; you haven't ridden there. That's almost half of them. That's a lot of tracks to learn. Tracks are easy to learn. Tracks are tracks. It's trying to get a motorcycle to go around the race tracks that's the hard part. Muzzy: Guys with a lot of experi- ence ...a lot of people said, 'What are you goin g to do this year? Scott hasn't ridden on half the race tracks: How long did it take hi m? Half the time he was on the pole. Merkel: I remember it laking four laps for him to get on the pole. Muzzy: It's lik e y ou said, it's really how quick can you get the bike set up rather than how quick you can learn the race track - unless you have something like Elkhart wher e you have 14 comers. Merkel: Yeah, and you have to put them all toge ther. Or Suz uka - going to Suzuka for the first time. Those are the exceptions . Muzzy: Most of Laguna he's ridden. The part that's hard a t Laguna, h e' s already ridden. You got going this afternoon. What made it click? One of the other bikes tha t I rod e. On e of Scott's bikes that I rode has a light crank in it, like a light switch. Sohwa 's bike that I rod e ha d a heavier crank in it; it was just more my style. It made it easier for me to ride. It's just more similar to the things that I've been riding this year. I'm not saying that I couldn't rid e the lightcrank stuff. But I'm going to need some time to learn how to ride that. Hopefully, I won't have to rid e that stuff. Daytona's the only kind of race track where you need th at kin d of speed. All the other racetracks tha t I can remember you just need consistent speed, not light-switch speed . What abou t the PR asp ect of the job? Do you think the fan s remember you? I've though t ab out that. Seven y ea r s is a long tim e to be away. I hope so. I'm really looking forward to coming back and racing for the fans . Returning two-time Wo rl d Champio n means some thing to me . I h ope it means something to them. I was out there represe n ti n g u s (Ameri ca) . What about the slate of racing in America? Did yo u keep in touch w ith what was happening? Zero. Nothing. You find out when you live in Europe, and you're racing full-time, you don't have a lot of time to d o anything but keep your head above water. Between training, traveling, racing, fa mil y life, baby boy - you're busy. My boy, he's two and a h alf. Trav is . We just ·b ou gh t a motorhome and me and Lo rr ai n e and Travis are going to drive to everyone of them (the races). Why? We have time to do it . My w ife would love to see America; I'd love to show h er America. I can' t th ink of a better way. There's so much time to travel to the races . You get used to it. That's how we travelled in Europe. What sort of results will you be happy with at the end of the year? FIrst That's it? Yeah. I came here to win. I came here for nothing else. Have you gotten a feel ing for who the competition is going to be? I know Kev in (Ma gee). Kev in' s a w o rld-cl ass rider. As for as the rest of the guys, I don 't know any o f them. But I' m sure they're all worldclass caliber ride rs. They wouldn' t be doing it if they weren't. Nothin g's going to be handed on a plate. That's fo r s u r e. Bu t I'm rid ing fo r a World Champ ionship team, I' m going to have a World Champions hip bike, I'm a World Champion. 1..-'; 51