Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

different pace than I wa s struggling at. Now if we go t my bike dialed in, then I was always struggling at the same pace that he was. But the problem is that we still struggled. So that' s the p oint. You sho uld n't have to struggle, not when the other guys aren't. Do you run a similar bike to Aaron? Yeah, for the most par t. But I real ized the re toward th e e n d of th e season, abo ut th e middle of the season to th e end , that I n e ed ed to 'm a k e so me chan ges to the bike to more offset so me of the way I rid e. It 's how I fit on the bi ke and wh at it d oes to the bike and how it reacts . Like wh en I sit u p go ing in to a corner, I get a lot of wi nd hi tting my bod y becau se of my size, and just the way I sit on the bike. So if that's the case, it offload s a lot of th e w ei ght o ff of th e fro nt e n d, th e n comes a p us h . Aa ro n's a lot shorter and his position on the bike is di fferent. He doesn't sit up as hig h when he bra kes, beca use he just isn 't that high. It wo rks out good for him. It keeps him lower, it keeps h im on th e bike. An d then, when he's in the corne r, his arms ' are sho rte r an d everythi ng' S shorter, pulls him closer to the front of the bike. So some of the thin gs tha t were a problem for me all yea r only cropped up for him two o r three times, dependi ng on the race track and depending on th esituation . At Sugo, he was ge tting a push that he wasn 't rea lly getting. But all year I was getting a pu sh . All the way to the end . So tha t' s o ne of th e th in gs that we 're right n ow w orking on . What' s interesting is t h a t th e Michelin front seems to .h ave taken care a lot o f that push already . The thing really holds the line, stays in on the turns. Th is is the fi rs t time that I've gotten to run o n them, and the problem is that there's not a lo t of g rip o n those tir es be cau s e they're in flated tire pressures. A lot of things just are not the sa me . Every th ing is dif feren t (at Daytona). So my first time back on Michelins fro m Dunl ops is at a place where the tires are go ing to absol u tely be th e wors t p erforming tires that I'll eve r be on all yea r. When we go to the next track and first ru n at Ph ill ip Is land , it's go in g to b e so me se r io us r u b be r d o wn th e re . Beca u s e w e wa tc hed t he g uys run . (Ca rl) Fogar ty just like banging off laps, n e ve r even m o v in g. Yo u co u ld see every thi ng . lt was u nrea l. So I'm looking forw ard to trying that and seeing if we get th e same re su lt s . I will h a v e ne we r engines, more power, and we 'll jus t see w hat co mes w hen we co me d own ther e. I think it'll be so me good resu lts, that's for sure. Are you confident that you can wi n the World Cham pi onsh ip aga in? It' s ve ry p ossib le n ow , especially wi th things be ing cha nged team-wi se, an d thi ngs also being ch an ged inside Hond a as far as reality actu ally settin g in and th e reali zat ion of really w he re the y're at and whe re th ey need to be. When yo u've go t th at underst ood, then y ou' re goin g to get so me w he re. It ' s whe n it' s there and you d on 't understand, there's no wa y they can solve it. Now the y h ave a pretty goo d id ea of wh e r e to g o and h o w to s o lv e th is th ing. Are you riding a s welI a s you 've ever ridden? Yeah, I'd s ay so. The th ing is, it's good to have a yea r on the bike. To ha ve go tten used to it and the characteristics of it and what it feels like and what it's not doin g for me. So now I kind of have an ide a of what I need to cha nge on the bike in or de r for it be able to allow me to do what I want to do . It' s still not doing that and I'm w o:king to try to get it to do that. As soo n as it gets to that point, then I'll be going considera bly faster. How much better was it at the en d of the year? The bike's much more stable - solid, smoother. Mor e traction, more power, different power cha racteristics, a whole lot of th in gs that are m u ch better. The overall bike is m uch mo re enjo yable to ride at the end of the year than it was at the beginning. What is it lacking still , top end? No, a lot of thin gs. Acceleration is the main thin g. We've got top end. Top end's not a problem. Getting from the chicane to here (start-finish) is where we lose it. That's wh ere we lose it. Becau se the b ike wasn't a winning motorcyle you were forced to ride it at only 95%. I ro de it as h a rd as Icou ld rid e it beca u se I n eed ed to so lve a p rob le m with the bike. If I di dn't rid e it as hard as I cou ld ride it, I wouldn't be ge tting a ny w here . So it wa s rea lly s t ra n g e . When the bike all of a sud den hi t on a d eal tha t wa s kind of workin g right , I was going by peopl e - like at Don ington and stu ff. And people like Simon Crafar sa id to on e of th e guys, "Ma n, I was g o ing off in t o the Me lbou rne Lo o p down the re. I was on the brakes deep, as ha rd as I was go ing , and I was go ing fas t, too, and all of a su d den frea kin' Polen came by me on the brakes - he just we nt righ t by me, went around the corner and was go ne." Wa s th at at th e secon d Don ington race in the rain ? 0, no, the day before the rain when it was dry. We ha d so me big problem s when it rained . We ha d so me b ig, b ig prob lems when it rained. In the rai n, I was in the ,top three or four in the rain as well as in qualification. But whe n it came to the race it was a who le d ifferen t ballgame. So you're as motivated to w in th is World Championshi p as you we re the first? Yeah. Everybody'S kind of like, "hey, h e k in d of ha d a wishy-wa shy yea r last year." If I came back and won it th is year then everybody wou ld say, "Okay, tha t was it. There were some things tha t we ren' t q u ite ri g ht. " It 's n ot a q u e s tio n o f whe ther it was my fau lt as to whether I d ecid ed to win it or not win it. lt was like, hey, jus t circumstances came back that we re keeping it from being ab le to d o w hat h e w a n te d to d o. So , if m y resu lts are better, even if I don 't win, if my resul ts are bett er, and I'm compe titive and I'm w inn ing some races next year, then I think th at th at will be th e answer to that qu estio n. In the off-season there were some rumors that you were going to race in the U.S. for a while, then that you were go ing back to World 5uperbike. What exactly is the tru th in all that? The thing is, th e b as ic id ea of th e who le situ atio n is I have a two-year con- tract - '94 and '95 - for HRC to do World Superb ike. That's always been that way, ever since the beginning. Because they ha d a reall y, really bad year in the Uni ted Sta tes and there was a lot of desi re by America n H ond a to tr y to get a fas t rider to run in the United States in '95, and talkin g wi th (HRC Director Heijiro) Yoshimu ra and the m, they requested to them, if it was possible if I could ride in ,the States. And we we re talking about it. Ob viously the American mark et is one of th e m o s t im po rta n t ma r kets fo r Honda, period; as far as motorcycles. So the y we re very keen on tryi ng to figure ou t h ow that co uld work o u t. Bu t nobody rea lly wan ted to come up to me an d say, "Hey, you wa nt to go ru n in Ame rica?" I more or less offe red it to th em , I sa id , "Hey, look, if thesituation 's right," and, of cou rse , if I rode over here th ey' d wan t me to ri de the ne w 600 as well , I said that's a w ho le , different ball ga me and to do 'a ll that, my contract is obvi ou sly going to have to be modified - financi ally as well as verba lly, And I sa id, "yeah, if those guys ~ re will ing to do some thing alon g the lines of my cu rrent contract that I have now and make it be tte r than that," becau se I'm doing other things like riding 600's, I sai d, "yeah, I woul d be in terested in talking to yo u guys about changing my contract and doin g tha t for America ." Because it'd be good to ha ve an Ame rica n running for Hon d a in America in the Am eri can Ch ampionshi p. For 'them to get another American a t the time, eve ry b ody'S a lrea dy s ig ned up w it h everybody else and I'm signed up with Ho nda so it wo uld ha ve been a little bit easier to try to get me if they coul d. As it wo rked out the y could n' t work it out. T h ey cou ld n ' t come up w it h the money? Yea h . And so , like I said , "O kay, fine. Th en, that' s it. I'm just goi ng to ru n my current cont rac t out and if you gu ys still wa n t me to rid e for yo u after '95,-fine." Then, as it turned out, all of a sudde n it was like tw o wee ks later a fter I'd a lready d ecid ed w it h Mr. Yos hi mu r a a n d e verybody , " h ey, okay, ju s t drop all th at , forge t it , ' we're just go ing to con tinue as we are ." Oka y , n o w every thi ng 's already been done and set u p. Two weeks later I'm getting a phone call fro m th ose guys and they're saying, like, "hey, we've negotiat ed with American Honda and we've got th em to ag ree to do a dea l." And I'm like, "hey, w hat are you talking about. We already decided tw o weeks ago that this whole deal is going to be this wa y and th at' s they way I want it to be. I'm not all of a su dden going to cha nge the whole deal again ." So I droppe d it r ight at that a n d tha t's the way it's been ever si n ce. It wasn 't any big dram a. I offered to put them in the kind of a situation that thev wa nted to be in, because I wan ted to to hel p o ut H o nd a as a co m p a ny because th a t' s wha t I' m there for. I' m there to ride, but I' m a lso there as an im age a nd . a repu tati on a n d a spokesperso n for a com pa ny, and a marke ti ng too l in order to rea lly ge t th e buck s out of what they pay me - to get the wo rth out of me. Because that's all tha t really racing is, ima ge and prestige for the compan y. . What did you think about people sa ying that Aaron didn't deserve to lead the World Championsh ip because he didn't win races ? Th at's just talk, sp ou ting o ff. Anybody who can amass, during a season, more points than any body else, deserves to wi n - period. That means the y are the try 27

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