Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

that's all PRo We're going to Italy for the Bologna Motor Show and to accep t the Gold en Helmet Award there; then to London for a day, Paris for a Lucky Strike dinner and the World Championship p rize-giving. I think there are a cou ple of d ays, the 14th and 15th, that there's nothing to do; then to Greece for Arai on the 19th or 20th. A n d then horne. Wa s the reacti on what you th ought it wo uld be to yo ur winning th e championship? It was a little bit more than I expected especially with Wayne getting hurt, because from my side it took a little bit away from it. Not that I feel that we didn't deserve to win the championship, it's just that something real negative happened and there's always going to be somebody second-guessing it. Otherwise, it's pretty much what I expected. I think I'll realize it a lot more when I finally get to race with that number one plate. I think 111 feel a lot more of the pressure of it then, when the first Grand Prix rolls around. Have you talked to Wayne much? I've talked to him a couple of times. I've tried to get out and visit him on a couple of different occasions and didn't get to do it, because of the airline strike and stuff getting out of Texas. We didn't get out of Texas in time to get out to Los Angeles and get to see him. He definitely seems like he's in really good spirits. I talked to Neil Byrd, who works for IRTA, the other day when I was in Melbourne and he said that Wayne looks great. He doesn't look like somebody that's been flat on his back for however many months now. And he said that he's got a really positive attitude. He sounds like he's just going to go on with life; not letting it bother him. How much has it bothered you? It's something that's always going to be back there in the back of my head. Wayne and I have been fierce competitors since I started road racing. He and I go back to when I can remember I began road racing. To have somebody that's always been somebody that I could judge my performances by, at least to say whether I rode well, it's going to be tough not having him there. And at the same time, seeing somebody that's as good a friend as Wayne is get hurt like that makes you really think twice about it. Bu t at the same time, I realize that every time we get on the bike there's risk involved and it's just part of rae- . ing. I just try to do what I can to try to reduce the chances of something like that happening. You sai d th at you measured your performance by Wayne. Do you think it's goi ng to be hard to ge t motivated th is yea r? I really fell like it was, at the end of last season, and when we came testing now, but the team's done a good job. When we got here, the number one's on the bike and you realize you're testing for a reason. Now that we've got that number one plate we're not just going to hand it ove r and let somebody elsewear it for a year. We' re here with intentions of keeping it. They've done a good job getting me back to where I'm thinking, let's go racing, let's go defend this thing ins tead of, let's go racing and if we end up with it another year that'd be great. Once you're on th e track it'll be you and who else? Who do you think wi ll be the competition this year? I think Mick (Doohan) is going to be the main guy to beat. I think Daryl (Beattie) is going to go well at certain places on the Yamaha, but I think he's going to struggle a little bit getting to know the bike and know the team, and getting everything sorted ou t and working there. I expect Alex (Barros) to go well a lot of places. But I still think, consistency-wis e, he's got a little bit to learn. As far as the rest of the crew goes, there's a bunch of unknowns out there: (Alex) Criville, (Shinichi) Itoh, the new kid Abe, if he rides the Honda as Mick's teammate. Kocinski; I feel like if he's . en half a chance to have any sayso abo wha t they do with the Cagiva, or at least his Cagiva, I think he'll be doing the same type of thing with the other bikes that he's tried to develop, that is, get them headed in the wrong directio n. When you g e t to t h e track yo u 've always be en amo ng the most accessib le riders. Do you thin k there w ill be mo re and d o you thin k t here ca n be more tha n this yea r? go ing to be a little bit more. Carrying that number one plate around is going to be a burden. But at the same time, it's something that we've worked to get to. Any other attention or press that might be involved will make a littl e extra wo rk for myself, but I don't think that it will really affect, or at least I hope it won't affect, my performance at the track. How does th e 1994 sched ul e look as far as suiting the Suzuki? Looking at the schedule, there's really not anywhere that I've had any trouble with. I think probably the worst tracks for us will be Barcelona and Czechoslovakia; places that we struggled this year to be on terms with the Yamaha. Otherwise, Mugello, Donington, Le Mans will be good for us. Suzuka. Eastern Creek. Salzburg. All those are tracks are to our liking. I think the changes to ou r bike will improve things everywhere. I think with the bike's suspension working that little bit better it should just make things easier and better all over. We've got kind of a 1994 version, but it's not the exact ch as sis or exact swingarm . They've made some changes on the bike and they didn't have the time to get it here. We'll probably test our actual race bike when we come back here in January. How much longer are yo u going to race ? I'm just about to sign another contract for two more years and probably after that I'm going to try to find something else to do . The contract that we agreed to at Mugello in 1993; I just haven't signed it yet. It's all but do ne - just a few technicalities that we're going over. That'll make '94, '95, and at tha t stage of the game I'll be almost 32 years old. I will have been doing this flat ou t for 11 or 12 years. I think I'll need, if nothing else, at least some time off. It's just turned into such a year-round job instead of being really, really men tally and physically demanding for eight or nine months, and then having quite a bit of time off, With the testing schedule and t he PR, it 's just made it a lot tougher. I expect two more years, then I'll probably try and make a move. Is it tougher on you mentally or physically to be doing it year- round? I don't think it's one or the other. I think it's just a combination of the two. Mentally it's tough doing all the PR, all the travelling. And physically the travelling is again, bad. The testing schedule, everything in general, makes both sides of it just a complete drain on your body. That's really, really tough. If I hadn't gotten a little bit of time off this year, it would have been really hard to continue riding. And the only reason I got this time off was because I had to have surgery on my hand. They tested the first week of November in Je rez with Alex, and I would have had to be there if it weren't for the su rgery that I had. He just tiretested on one of my bikes from last year. Is th ere go ing to be a Suz uki 250 team this year? I haven't heard. We asked the Japanese and they said that (Garry) Taylor's trying to find sponsorship and, I guess, so is Herve (Poncharal - the 250 team manager). I guess Herve's fed up with the whole de al and he's thinking of running ]MB (lean-Michel Bayle) and just getting production Hondas. That's the las t rumor that I heard. For sure, Suzuki' s building bikes right now beca use they're going to race them in the Japanese Champi onship - no matter wha t. But I don't know if they're building bikes for the World Championship or not. IN 33

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