Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Smokin 'Joe'sRacing team owner Martin Adams and, in my lim ited exposure to them, I'm not so sure th a t anyone is prepared to get off a superbike and ride a 500 and be anyw here nea r effecti ve in any reasonable period of time. It should take more than a year to be any kind of a contend er on a SOD. I think Scott Russell made the right d ecis ion st aying w ith su perbikes th is past year simply for tha t reason. Mike Smith had some difficulty with the throttle and the tires on the 500. He has had a career of riding for Dunlop, and Okamurua's team had a Michelin contract. So to thr ow him on a bike that po wer ful, w ith that acu te of a power delivery program, wi th a very unfamiliar tire patch underneath h im, I think sort of sabotaged the program before it started. Nevertheless, he rode very well. He posted some quite competitive times and broke the lap record at one Japanese track in testing, actually go ing faster than th e ultimate Jap an ese ch ampion had gone earlier - a fellow named (Nurifumi) Abe . Abe had test ed there earlier and Mik e went faster tha n he did. But whe n it came race time, an d he was on this un famili ar bike with th is unfamiliar rubber on unfamiliar tracks, the combination d id him in. A relatively sober ing situation for both of us, but I am proud that, for once, a team manager has fulfilled a p romise to an American rider to get him an opportunity to ride a 500. I've had man y riders call me over the years and say they have been o ffe red this or that and th ey too k it becau se they were told tha t they wo uld get an opportunity to ride a 500 at some point. That's really a pretty tall tale in most cases. Will we see Magee and Smith teamed together at the Eight Hour this s u mmer? The pl ans for Suzuka will be made in late Ap ril. It's too early to say , but rest assured tha t just as rust never sle eps, neither do our plans for Suz uka. Mr. Oguma, the head of Honda's racing department, was at Daytona, creating quite a stoic presence in the garage next to the Smokin' Joe's area. Did you have an opportun ity to speak with him, and what are your thoughts on Oguma-san? I met Oguma at a reception at Suzuka last year. Oguma is one of these people who is charismatic. He's one of these folks that if you had a shipwreck and a bunch of people swam ashore, I have no doubt that Oguma would end up being the leader in short order. He has a charismatic leader quality about him. He's a very forceful man, and his credentials precede him wherever he goes. He's probably the most powerful man in motorcycle racing in the world, and at heart he is really quite a gentle and decent fellow. But the job, being such a difficult and politically sensitive job, not to mention competitive, would require somebody to ha ve an iron-like constitution. I think he has mastered the art of the velve t glove and the iron fist. How was the contact an d negotiating initiated with Kevin Magee? At Suzuka, in what the Japanese refer to as early training, prior to timed practice, I stopped by his garage and met him. I shook his hand and said: 'Good job and good luck this week.' The very next thing I noticed was that th is man was out there doing 2:13 lap times at Suzuka - an amazing tum of speed at that point. That was faster than anybody - on a bike that he said was handling like a wheelbarrow. H e was an ab solute rocket. What impressed was not only his speed, but h is personality. Kev in is a ver y ord ina ry, humble guy - he 's open to anybod y. He had an ap proachability to him tha t impressed me as well . When th e op portunity came about post-season , that we were casting abo ut" for a high quality talen t to place one of these RC45s, I also knew, or had heard, that the All-Japan 500 series was taking a bail . That being the case, I knew tha t Kevin would be lookin g for some alternative and that sort of laun ched the initiative. I sho uld also say th at Ran dy Warren, my travel agent, sort of stoked my memory on this, too. I was bouncing names off of nearly anyone, and Randy 90088 CR tossed out Kevin mo re in just scrolling names - but it clicked w ith me because o f the circumsta nc es that I had been exposed to with Kevin before. I was off like a dog after the scen t. I'd like to run some names by you and get the first thing that comes through yo ur m ind regarding that person or en ti ty. Let's start with Randy Renfrow. The p ure definition of the person who comes back from ad versity, Randy has m ore heart tha n vi rtu ally any r ider I kn ow, and he is a quality individual to boot. Randy has had the ill luck to just miss some key oppo rtunities later in his career - we can 't forget that Randy was one of the most successful riders in the $7,625 900888P Ducali tradition ata more affordable price £-900 $8,600 ea rly and m id 1980s. Th is man is the wo rd tena cious pe rsonified . Freddie Spencer. My only experience with Freddie was in 1991 and '92 when he was racing over here and, to be honest, he was tossing it aw ay so often that I never got to know him. I know that at the end of 1992 when he raced with us, he w as ri d ing marvelously. I mean, he was taking an RC30, an uncompetitive RC30 at that point, to results that were far beyond the machine's ability. I think his hunger to get back to the top perhaps compromised his best judgment. I think had he stayed and raced either superbikes here in America, or gone World Superbike racing, Freddie would $9,750 Classic design with real world funcrionality M-900 $8,950 .T triple-purpose Paris-Dakar winner he Newsport cruising standard thoroughbred 888 LTD 916 $13,600 Racing heritage in street clothes $14,500 The ultimate in Style • Sophistication • Performance "M anufacturer's suggested retail prices (U.S. dollars) for 1994 Ducati models, excludingdestinationcharges. taxes . license. registration. dealer charges and options. Prices subjectto change. See dealer foravailability. Please ride responsibly - don't ride under theinfluence of drugs or alcohol. Always wear proper protectiveriding gear. <1:> 1994 C agiva NorthAmerica. Inc.

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