Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

power advantage over our machines, which translates into virtua lly nothing in outri ght speed at Day tona . I d o believe that Doug's rear suspension was slightly different than ours because they were going through some revisions in the suspension. That was only marginally better, so I think the real difference was seat-time and marginal setup. The word was that someone from your team clocked Polen with a radar gun at 190 mph during a practice session. True? I didn't see that, and (on) the only lapspeed cha rt I looked at - I'm not prepared to reveal the numbers - there was only one to two miles per hour difference between Doug's bike-and our bike. He was much more consistent in his speed than o u r rid ers were - a ga in that's traceable back to his familiarity with the bike and a slightly more complian t suspension - but even he was sufferin g severe traction problems. Regarding 190 mph, I didn't see it. Somebod y did say something about 305 kph and, to be completely candid with you, I'm not sure who it was . We don 't have a speed gun that shoots in kilometers so I have no idea who that was, or where they shot that speed. Where we shot, there was nothing at all near 190 mph. Who were your earliest racing heroes? For my money, the greatest motorcyclist will always be Mike Hailwood. He did things on a motorbike that nobody had ever seen anyone do . He's probably' a little before the time of most motorcyclists these days, but he was just simply outstanding. He was the Wayne Rainey of his age . I saw Hailwood at Watkins Glen many times. I would go up to the Glen and watch the F-1 cars race. I'm afraid I never became fortunate enough to meet him or shake his hand - I was too much a fawning admirer to approach so great a man. I so admire people who come back from adversity and bring that tenaciousness and that desire and triumph of the will to the fore. You see that in the very best - Scott Russell, for example, coming back from 6O-whatever position at Daytona . My other heroes would be Wayne Gardner and Wayne Rainey. In the case of Gardner, the guy is such a tiger and is so tenacious and he just never quits. The man has no stop in him. That's what always appeals to me about anybody the relentless pursuit of their objective. But at the same time, for my money, a person who is too consumed with what they do to see the broader picture can be a big problem in racing - people that fb linker themselves down too much and become too focused on the immediacy of their racing program. Gardner was , certainly focused, but he was a broader fellow - the same way with Rainey . f Rainey had a life other than racing, although I'm sure he'd say it wasn't much, but he's articulate and he has a personality - more so than just the , fumes of gasoline. The personality, to me as a race team owner, is very important because we have a sponsored race b team - we enjoy a corporate sponsor. To < enjoy a corporate sponsorship, you have to entertain clients and you ha ve to interact with people. To ride at the highest levels of this sport, one is going to ha ve to deal with sponsors and their requests. You visited the Suzuka Eight Hou r for th e first time in 1993, and from that M ik e Smith glea ned a rid e o n an NSRSOO in the Japanese F· 1 serie s. Ho w did that come about? Tha t's a very good question. (The) '93 Suzuka was my firsttrip to Japan and myfirst chance to view racing in Japan. l I had always heard peop le speak in reverential tones about how profess ional and how well organized the racing is in Japan and, further, how dedicated the fans are. Seeing it first-hand underlined all those past statement s, and und erlined it with a vengeance. It is tru ly a major sport - it approaches baseball or football here in America. I don't think that racing motorcycles in America will ever come to that particular level. Neverth eless, it's an exciting opportunity to go somewhere an d see what you love and what you do at such a high level. We went over there with cooperation from Hond a Raci ng Corpora tion and were riding last year's RVF sp onsored by the Nissan food company, and it was a top team. We did a lot of testing before the race. I believe that Ray (Plumb) and Mike (Smith ) wen t over there twice befor e the race and then did the race its elf. It w as certa in ly th e wa y yo u should go racing - all that effort was just in place to do the Suzuka Eight Hou r event. Whilst at the Eight Hour, I met man y dignitarie s and many p eop le in the Japa nese san ctioning body and o ther team own ers, and it was a very ed ucational experience. One of the persons I met was Hiroshi Okumura, who was running one of Honda's NSRSOO in the s All-Japan Championship Series. Hiroshi had run Freddie Spencer the year before at the Eight Hour, but he was not participating in the 1993 Suzu ka Eight Hour race , Hiroshi is a personal frien d of Yoshi Gokan of HRC, so when Hiroshi and I met we d id so as fr iends of a friend. In talk ing to him, he indicated that he needed and wanted to build some relations w it h Americans, and how he would like to make some overtures to RJ Reynolds Japan. I was in a position to call some of the people back here in Winston Salem and ask them. to make some co n tac ts wi th the RJ Reynolds Japan staff, and they did so. The people in Japan welcomed us and actually encou rage d us to do what we did. Unfortunately, it didn't pan out (for the) long term, but we did the last three races with Camel, on a 500 effort. The experience on the 500 is something that is quite soberin g. Those bikes are very much different than superbikes ~

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