Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

u rated the drag racing market to the po int where we could n' t d o much, promo tion-wise, to increase sal es by wi nning another race. So we tho ught road racing would be a good ven ue for that a nd a position fo r expansion for o u r company. We a li gned o u r se lv es w ith Da ve Schultz right after I reti red to keep our name in fron t of the people at the drag race level. That worked out wo nderfully as Dave won the championship in every o rga n iza tio n a nd th ings went rea lly weIl. And th en, once I got signed w ith Ya ma ha , af ter a co uple of years they were fee ling good about our relationshi p, they were in a position to trust us when we said that we wo uld do something, so we decided to build the Yamaha Pro Stock m ot o r cycl e that By r on wo uld rid e . That worked out to be a rea lly good p rogram, too . A problem was tha t the FJ12oo, as you know, was being phased out, so it kind of left that program w ith nowh ere to go. You never know for the future beca use there migh t be something that wo uld include us and d rag racing again. You were an ent h usi astic spectat or in Byron's racing. I und erstand that when you couldn't attend a race you would have someone stand by the line with a cellular phone while Byron made his runs so you could hear it. Yeah that's tru e. I really wanted to be as supportiv e as I could for Byron in the NHRA level. The probl em was, to be perfectly honest , m y enthusiasm was one thing but the commitmen t we could give him from the company was anothe r. We had e very a ve n ue basically tapped and Byron really did not get the su p port he needed from the company in tern ally . That was because we were being stre tche d so th in tr ying to d o a roa d racing program an d a drag racing p rogram. It was a good program, Byron ha d a lot o f fu n, he w o n the N H RA event at Topeka . I think Byron is a excellent rider. I'm frankly quite ha ppy I d idn't hav e to race against him myself, the place could ha ve been called Hines and Hines! Byro n's on to some new things and he's he lping me o ut with the roa d racing program, and things are going smoother because of that. He's not quite as stressed as he was (w hen he was racin g). And, like I said, you never know what might happen as far as our drag racing program. You retired as a champion and never made another run. Congratulations, you're one of about five guys at your level to ever do that. I h ke to th ink that my racing is just a p o r tio n of m y career and kind of a m eans to a n en d . We kn ew from th e very beginning that we wanted to be racers and to gain respect from our racing and winning. But we also had a bigger plan, and that was to have our business be in a very dominant position in the motorcycle market. Fortunately, we have achieved that. As that started to happen it was ap pa ren t that I couldn't do both successfully and give them both 100%. So I decided in 1988 to retire and that's what I did. I don't miss .the politics of the racing, the nagging and the crying that comes with it from othe racers. But I d o miss the sheer fun of ding a motorcycle to the env elope of If:rformance. That's a lot of fun and I . it, but I d on't miss what else we along w ith it . Fortunately, my busi ess has ke p t me ve ry busy and, to b honest with you , I've alwa ys been a oad race fan and that's why I love bemg in the road racing side of it so much. I really am a fan , I'm just fortunate enough to own a company tha t ha s a team tha t competes at the top level. Someone could look at your career and see quite a few similarities between yourself and drag racing king-pin Kenny Bernstein. Do you ag ree w it h that? I think so. I think that a lot of the stuff Kenny did was very impressive. He was the first gu y to have a big rig on th e NHRA tou r and the first one to ha ve a major spo nsor and to do a lot of professio nal things at that level. There a re a number of guys who have done that kind of stuff. I d on 't think tha t I could put a scratch into what Kenny's accomplished with the three teams he has going now NASCAR, NH RA and Indy. He's got a lot of stuff ha ppening. His thing is total pro motion, our thing is total involvement fo r p rom o tio n fo r our business and thing s th at a re re lated with it. What Kenny has done is very impressive. Let's move on to road racing. You actually road raced a few times didn't you? It was a painful sight. I was very poor at it and it scared me to death. It was very eas y to get out of real quick because I definitely didn't ha ve the talent for it, nor the pa tience. I try very hard to forget m y road racing career - it's not a good memory. But you were always the guy with the holeshot leading into tum one... Yeah, I was definitely that , but after one the y went by me so fast it sucked my helmet off! It wa sn't a fun experience after tum one. You 've been critical of the AMA in regard to the superb ike rules which you feel favor the V-twin Ducati. Now that Colin Edwards has won the last two AMA Superbike Nationals, has your opinion changed? I think that the Ducatis are a little short on spare parts and their performance is not what it has been in the early part of the season. I think we've picked up a little bit, but I don't think we've closed the gap as much as we'd like to. As far as the la s t two ra ces at Mid-Ohio and Brainerd, Mid-ohio wasn't a real good example because the Ducatis didn't finish so th ere ' s no te lling what would' have happened there. A t Bra in e rd , if that is the kind of racing tha t' s going to come in the next yea r or so, then I'd say the rules are pretty close. My cr iti cis m has been toward the AMA . I th in k they shoul d have acted sooner and faster, and it's their responsibility as a sanctioning body to ma ke sure the racing is competitive. When it's not, they have to take action. No matter who they have to step on . Whether it's m e, the Mu zz y te a m, the Comm onwealth team, whatever they hav e to do to make it competitive - tha t's wha t they ha ve to d o. I thi n k they're mo vin g in tha t direction. The wei ght change was a move in the right direction - and fortunat e ly they made it. In years p ast, I think they may have passed on it. Ha\1! the Yamahas made a major jump forward, or is what we've seen in the last two races more just the skills of Colin Edwards? I think it's a combination of both. I think Colin has gained his confid ence. I think he had a little bit of a struggle there because th e bike wasn't prepared as good as it could have been up to a certain point. He didn't really gain momentum. A rider, just like anything else, he has to ha ve momentum going into th e ne xt ra ce. If he's had a problem - a mech an ical failure or he's fallen off - that takes away a little of that momentum and it takes him a couple of races to get going. That's why you see guys win one, and then w in tw o or th ree. Th ey have that momentum. I think Colin's gained that kinetic energy and I think it will be real interesting to see wha t happens from now on . Are you confident that Colin will be back with Vance & Hines Yamaha next year? H is contract is up this year. He's at the end of a two-year con tract, and I hope that he's going to be back. I'm sure that th e re will be a lo t of pla yers at hi s dance, so we 'll just have to wait and see. I th ink if Colin looks around he 'll see th at th e Vance & Hines Yamaha guys have done every thing they can to give him the best equipm ent. As a ride r you ha ve to tak e that into consideration as much as you d o with monetary sup port. I think it's just a d ecision that Colin will have to arrive at, and I'm su re we're going to be in a p osition to want him back. There were quiet whispers towards the end of last season that Yamaha was considering pulling out of road racing altogether because of the unfair advantage of the Ducatis. Th e problem is that at ou r level, we're the people that follow racing and wo rk on the teams in the racing departments we're hard-core, We're not just going to grab our lunch pail and go home, we're going to stay involved and do the best that we can . But the decisions to spend the millions of dollars on racing doesn't come from guys like us, it comes from the top managers. And when they call in the people from the racing departments and ask, why aren't you winning? And they say, 'well, becau se the rules aren't fair: and the Japanese say, 'get the rules changed' and the peo ple say , 'we can't: then the mana g em en t at one of the Japanese firms d ecid es that they are going to exit this racing situ a tion and

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