Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Scoll Russell and the Muzzy Kawasaki team, includ ing teammate Aaron Slight (left of Russell), celebrate their World Championship following the announcement in Mexico City that the race would be cancelled. Russell has signed on for three more years with Kawasaki. Slight, on the other hand, has since inked a contract to race factory Honda RC4Ss in next year's World Superbike Championship. still had their problems, so I was happy to see him win at Sears Point. Did you have any problems with your World Superbike teammate Aaron Slight? At Monza he passed me and won the race when everybody thought he should have sta yed behind. When it firs t happened I was real happy for him, because he hadn't won a ra ce all ye a r and he races good. I was very happy to see him win. He d idn't win easily, I made him work for it. We talked it out and everything was kosher and I told him I was real happy for him. Then everybody started in on h im , people from other teams and, come to find out, some pe0ple on our team were not real happy about it. I never said anything about it. It's just one of those deals - he's a racer and he wanted to win and he felt at that time, with the point spread over Fogarty, that it was okay. In the end it all worked out okay, but it could have backfired and I could have lo st the championship by two points. He had to catch some heat from that, but me, I never said an ything to him about it; it never bothered me. Aaron was the best teammate I've ever had. We got along really welL He's very easy-going. We did ma ny th in gs togethe r off the track and it was jus t a good rela tionship. I'm happy now tha t he's going to Honda and tha t he'll be the number one gu y the re. The parties that follow the final round of the World Championship are legendary. What was your party like in Mexico? Saturday night, af ter th e Me xicans call ed off th e race, we didn't plan too mu ch. The people at the Hard Rock Cafe had something to d o w ith the race and they asked us if we would like to have the party there, and about 30 or 40 of my friends came with us. They gave us the run of the place and we wen t out to the disco all night. Even w ith my hurt leg I wasn't feeling too much pain that night. And then we d id it again Sunday night. Then we took off for Acapulco to kick back on the beach for a few days. It was very relaxing. We crashed up some golf carts and had a good old time. You were linked to Ducati for a brief period this season with the talk being that you might join their World Superbike team. What can you tell us about that? Ducati came to me after Monza. I toured the factory with Mr. Castiglioni; he was at Monza and Roche brought him over and we met. He said he wanted to have me come by and ha ve a look at his place and I did - tha t was with Mr. Bordi, who kind of runs that place. They showed me the new bike and ev ery th ing. That sa me day I went down to Cagiva, which is a couple of hours away, and toured that factory. We talked and they wanted me to stay overnight and continue the talks. They really wanted me to ride for them; they sounded pretty sincere about it and at the time we had to talk to them. I didn't have a contract for the next year at that time and definitely we were talking w ith them. To begin things, they didn't offer me what I wanted. We hit them with a big money offer an d they came back say ing that we we re p retty far apa rt, so we haggled wi th them back and forth. My manager Tom Sheehy d id all of that; he and my mothe r we nt over and had a meeting with them just before Monza. It tu rned out that the d ollars that we were looking fo r eventually came up to where we wanted to be. At th a t time, I knew I had to start talking to Kawasa k i because lowed them tha t much at least. Certainly I was sti ll very happ y w ith where I was, though I'm not happy about bein g beaten by a Ducati every weekend. But, you know what? Deep down inside, instead of joining them I'd rather beat them. Something different. I got to thinking about it and we did a three-year deal with Kawasaki and pretty much got everything we were looking for. To me, that was all I needed. Even if the money was the sa m e, or even if Ducati offered me a little bit more, I wa sn't going to go because Kawasaki has been too good to me in the past. Rob (Muzzy) has been good and I feel that there is something in be ing loyal to a company. I kept thinking of the Jeff Ward th ing - he was a Kawasaki rider for 13 years. I was perfectly happy with Kawasaki and I wasn't ge t ting GP o ffers, so I w as n't a bo u t to lea ve Ka w asa ki because they ha ve done everything I've asked for. So in the end, I had to call Ducati bac k and tell them thanks, but no thanks. Another reason I didn't go to Duca ti is that they already have a Doug Polen, a (Gia nca rlo) Falappa, a Ca rl Fogarty. They don't need a Scott Russell. They've got t h a t co vered . If I .we r e to le a ve Kaw asaki, I'm not sa ying th ey don't have anybody, but they'd have to go ou t and try and hire another top guy. I don't wa nt to leave a happy family to go into a d eal th at I don' t know anything about. 1 know you are ve ry content with your champ ionship, but I have a feeling that you would be happier if you'd beaten Doug Polen to win the crown. Is that true? I want to b eat ev erybod y anytime I'm on the track. As far a s Doug goes, he has always succeeded in whatever he 's ' done an d that's wowed a lot o f people. He 's proved a lot of points. He's ta lked a lot, but he 's always backed it up . So fo r me to beat Doug, it' s really just another guy out there. As far as talent, Carl and some of the other guys I raced against this year are every bit as good as Doug w ill e ve r be; ...every bit as fast as Doug will ever be. So for me to have not beaten Doug for the World Championship, it's not a valid point because I worked as hard to win th is championship as I would have if Wayne Ra iney had been there. But, yeah, honestly, I do get a big kick out of beating Doug Polen . I really like beating him, especially when he 's been beating up on everybody else. You spent some time in California and have now moved back to Georgia, Did you " tired of the California environget ment? Yeah, California was neat and all, and it was good because I wa s out training with Kenny (Roberts) and that crew, but not as much as I had hoped because not 19

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