Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127681
In Decembe r. That wayI can get settl ed in , do som e testin g a n d ge t 'used to things. Then -I will go back to South Africa for the holidays and then back to America to start racing. Are you bringing anyo n e else over with yo u? My mec ha nic Ian Harre lso n and I are inseparable. We used to race mini bikes toge th er in South Af rica, but then I moved to Europe to race for a couple of year s. I invited him to wo rk for me in '92 and tha t's the year I won my first world cha mpio nship (125 class). He's been with me ever since. And hop efull y this yea r we will win our third world championship in a row togeth er. How does your BieffeJ ohnson Suzuki team manager Sylvain Geboers feel about your leaving? He knew that I was only ri di ng with a one- year deal for '94 but he 's st ill p re tty upset tha t I a m going. We'v e really had a gre at, great season together. You ca nnot ask for a mor e professiona l, honest, st raig h t, help fu l team manager than Sylvain has been this year. He ha s been absolutely fan tastic a nd ha s helped me in every way that he possibly can. But I think that with my more fri endly, op en attit ude I' ve helped open the Johns on team up a little. In the past they've had a reputation of being pr etty much closed d own to everyo ne else with people not allowed in the pits and th ings like th a t. N o w we've begu n to open the te am up a lot. We 're always joking and bein g more friend ly with everyone and. tha t's h elp ed mak e us get mor e public support. What, exactly, is the Johnson company? I don' t want to tell you. Oh, come on! It' s a cig arette com pa ny. But I d on't like promoting cigarettes - I'm a clean-cut guy! Think of it this way: You a ren' t tellin g peopl e to sm o k e, yo u' r e te ll i ng them t h at, s h o u l d th ey choose to s m oke, then choose Johnson. I guess that's true . . . I can live with myself like tha t. Who contacted who first, you or the Am erican team managers? I'm really not sure. I had always expressed an interest in com ing to the States and I told quite a few pe0ple abo ut it, peop le who work for the magazines and stuff like that. I' m no t sure if Dave (Arnold of Team Ho nda) contacted me originally or what it was, but they did show interest last summer. H ow e ve r, th e d eal did n 't co me-off becaus e Honda in Japan was really giving me grief abo ut stayi ng in Europe and winning a world championship, but still not paying me a cent. They wanted that, instead of me coming to America , because they didn't have to pay me. So, I stayed in Europe to race another wo rld ch a m p ions h ip ser ies, b u t n ot on a Ho nda. What happened .when it came time to tal k about Ameri ca this summer? Who made the first phone call? I ma de the initial contact to each team just to let them know for sure that I'm coming, a n d to wa rn them that they shou ld sche d ule ti me to ge t an offe r ready for us if they had any int erest at all. Have the offers that you have received been fairly close to what you th in k you are worth? Are you gettin g full market value out of your wo rld championship titles? capable of competing in su percross, too. How much experience do you have racing against the to p Americans in the intern ati onal su percrosses? 1 always do a few of the end-of-the-year supercrosses in Europe but that's abo ut it before I take a break. What does a two-time world champion ra te w hen dis cus s in g s how m o n e y with those European promot ers? I can as k for and get ten a night, U.S. That's what I normally ask for and the big ones pa y that. Th e Mick ey Mouse I don' t kno w. I'm kind of wei rd about thin gs like that. I am like (Iean-Michel) Bayle from the point that I want a challenge but as soon as 1 achieve tha t challenge I like to move on. So wh o knows? Maybe after three or four years in the States I might possibly get into road racing or car racing . . . prob ably car racing. How do your p ar ents b ack in Sou th African feel about your next move? My dad unde rs ta nds th e w ay that I think and hi s ch aracter is similar to mine. They both support me in anything I do . Didn't he fly to Europe earlier this year to give you a kick in the butt? . (Laughs.) Yes he did, actually . He came o ver and kicked my butt and got me mo tiv ated and just reall y worked me over! After that - act u a lly ri g h t there in France - I started winning races. That w as th e first grand prix he ever saw me win. Yes. Last year I was offered a certain figure and it wasn ' t even close to what I expec ted. I mean, I stayed in Europe and got double that. I understand it's a gam ble takin g me because I've got no real supercross track-record . But I am twotimes wo rld champion and that counts for something. ' What are your goa ls for next year? Well, I defmitely want to win the outdoor national championship and I am confident that I can get top-five in the supercross ... Who knows, maybe topthree. Do you feel like a hired-gun to beat the Kawasakis (LaRocco and Kiedrowski) in the outdoor races? . Sure. But I kn ow tha t I'm goi ng to be o nes ba ttle to no t p a y yo u that, but that' s what I get. Do you ha ve an age n t or do you do your own deals? I've always done my ow n deal s. I'm doi ng them for myself in the States as well. I do have a manager in Europe for the international supercrosses so that I don' t have to bo ther, but I do the rest myself. Where will you be living? Probably in or near L.A. Do you know a lot of people there? I know the guys at FMF pretty well, and Roger (DeCoster) has been helping me a bit as well. And I kn ow quite a few South African guys over ther e. How long do you thi nk you will stay? But you've been winning world championship races for three years. He was with me in 1991 but then in 1992 he only came to Europe for one race. Last yea r he d id n' t go to any. He ge ts ove r when he can but he ' s al ways pre tty busy. It's a lO-ho ur flig ht fro m Sou th Afric a to Belgium, you know. You wo u l d hav e been much furthe r ah ead of Stefan Evert s than just eight poin ts had you not ru n ou t of gas in both motos at the Belg ian G P. Ho wcou fd your team let that hap pen? Good questio n with a long, long s to ry behind it. (Laug hs.) But here goes the short ve rsi on: We were testing earlier in the year at the track in Lo m mel , which is deep , deep sand, and finished the length of a mo to with no prob le m . When we came back for the GP the track was softer or som ethin g, a nd the p ac e was much faster. In the first moto 1 didn't have a great start. We had been battling with th e bi ke the w hole . wee ke nd ; it just wasn ' t working right. Th e th in g just wasn't pulling. I mean , 1 was getting passed down the straights by a bunch of clowns . Eventually, I just ran ou t of gas but my teammates (Werner DeWit and Marnicq Bervoets) did not. We changed motors between races and figured that that was the problem. We even changed the igni tion. Whe n I got on the bike it felt so much better so I thought the prob lem was solved - I ran ou t of fuel because I had to ride the bike so much ha r d e r than I ex p ected to, much harder than no rmal because it wasn't working normal. We topped the fuel off and we nt out fo r th e second race, but I had a crash in the first tum and had to come back from la st to fourth. But not even 200 meters from the end I ran out of gas again. Unbelievable! What Was going through your mind the second time the bike stopped? Man, I wa s SO an gry . I had fought the w hole race through and then to have that happen. I wasn't angry at anybody on the team because it wasn't anyone's