Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Dale Q arterle u y By Paul Carruthers Photos by Henny Ray Abrams he Dale Quarterle y success story of 1993 is a rema rkabl e one. Not on ly did the New Eng lander's consistent season result in a second -place fini sh in the final AMA Superbike National Championship , po int standings, but he went out and won the Mid-Ohio National on his Team Mirage-backed Kawasaki - after 10 yea rs of trying. What a difference a decade makes. Quarterley is no longer h is own mechanic, team manager and ga rage sweeper. Tha n ks to his sp o nsors hip from Mirage - the studio that created the astou nd ingly popular animated movie and television show, Tee na ge Mutant Ninja Turtles - Quarterley now runs what could be the model program for aspiring p rivateers. Finally, at age 33, the likeable red-head was able to concentrate on the job at hand - racing his motorcycle - and the result made Quarterley the bigg est success story of the year. . T Last year you put together the id eal pri vateer supe rbike team. Can we expect the same for 1994? Yes, it's the same deal as last year. We' re going to lease th e m otorcycle for the season . We' ll maintain the chassis and Rob (Mu zzy) will build the motors. What happened last year was tha t I had one chassis and two motors . The motors are on an exchange program. We put one in when we get to each race, run it and then at the end of each race we give it back to Muzzy and put the other motor in. It worked out great last year. We didn't have one engine problem all year long - it ran perfectly every time . We'll have a brand new bike at Daytona. Have you becom e a faster ri der, or is your re ce nt success due more to th e fa ct that y o u've been a bl e to p u t together such a solid program? It's definitely a combination of things. The first thing is that I finally hired a mechanic because we had the money to hire somebod y decen t - like Ron Barrick las t yea r and John McKenna this seaso n. What tha t did was take a major load off me at the races. Instead o f worr yin g ab out getting the mo tor running rig ht because I built it, worrying if everything was done - I'd have to change the shock ...yo u know, the lis t is endless. I can basically jump off the motorcycle now and explain to them what I would like to see changed and they will do it. Tha t gave me a lot more time to focus on my riding. The bike that we finished ninth on at Laguna was the sa me motorcycle tha t we won Mid-Ohio on. Definitely as the season went on, I learn ed how to ride again. It ha d been so long since I'd been on somethin g compet itive and ha d to ride 100%; physically, I had to learn to ride again . I think tha t showed as the year went on - I definitely got faster and more consistent; we qualified further up front. Is Mira ge pleased with the exposure . they've rec eived from backing your team, and fro m their pa rt icipation in motorcycle racing in gen eral? The a nswer is y es . Mainly they are pleased beca use our team owner, Peter Laird, is a real avid motorcycle enthusias t. What has made him super excited about the whole deal is that he set out to 'pick two local New England ride rs. He did just that and then we ended up second best in the country last yea r and seventh the year before; an d my teammate Tommy Norton finished fifth last year in the GNCC (Grand N ational Cross Country) Series. So he went from not hav ing a team and n ot kn owing what motorcycle racing was abou t, to having two of the best privateers in the country. He 's also excited bec ause the press has been with us, fo r the most p art, all yea r long. Th ey' ve given us high marks, and we've also done a ton of P.R. for the tra cks. All those people . w rite to the studio and tell them how nice it was to ha ve their rider there for the wee kend. That's helped a ton . Do you thi n k you are at the p oint whe re you can actually win th e championship? I think this year I stand as good a chance as any to win the championship - if not even a little more - for two reasons. One is tha t I've been in the States year after year and I've run all these tracks. And I've run those tracks on the same equipment. I've als o run my own race team fo r the last five yea rs wi th no t hin g changing . The ot hers guys d on 't have tha t. Merkel is co m ing in wi th new bikes, new mechanics - he's got to ge t used to the ra cetracks aga in . Pa scal (Picotte) an d some of those guys still have to keep from falling d own. Luckily, that hasn't been my problem. I think I stan d as good a chance as anybody. Based on w hat you achieved last year, were you surprised that you d idn't ge t any offers for a factory ride for 1994? Yes and no. Suzuki is still Suzuki. They are looking for the young lions that are going to hold it wi de op en until they cras h it. Ka w asa ki w as und e r the im p r ession ... well, Rob (Muzzy) was under t he imp ression that since I already talked to him about leasing a , bike again that I was all set. By the time we brought up that I would be interested in doing something, he already had verbal commitments from rid er s. Th e Honda team only ha d two spots. Mike Smith had a second year on his contract and (Kevin) Magee was Honda Japan's pick. They wanted a GP guy. U you look at it that way, no I wasn't surprised. A lot of peopl e th ought you would hav e been at the top of Ha rl ey -Davi dson's shoppi ng list when they were looking for a rider to d evelop the VR1000. Did you think you'd hear from them?

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