Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

hai r. Now, I go t no h air an d they're all wearing earrin gs (laug hs). To be honest wi th yo u, th e ma jority of th em ha ve been spoiled, and their dads have sheltered them too long. A lot of them don 't even know how to load and un load the truck. The best advice I can give a kid is when you make an adjustment, record it, so you know what it feels like when you fix it. Don't just show u p, cruise the pits an d B.s. w ith everyone . You train pretty ha rd , b u t only in th e off-sea son. That's beca use I' m racin g al most every weekend during the seaso n . We eve n go to Daytona ea rly so that we can find a race track to ge t four, five hou rs of testing time and get ready for the half miles th a t co me up . Bu t physi call y, a main even t usually lasts abou t 15 minutes, so I'll spend 20 minutes on my stationary bike and another 20 on my stairstepper. Then I'll get d ow n an d do a bunch of situps an d then wo rk on to ni ng everythin g else with my Bowflex. I don' t want to get big an d strong. because in ou r situation a guy has got to try and stay little. But yo u have to be able to go the distan ce without falling ou t of the sad dle or running ove r yo ur tongue (lau ghs). That's what Parker 's deal is. Wh en it comes down to five lap s to go, you better be read y to pick up the pace, because he is. Looking at th e National schedule this year, 16 of the 25 events are hal f miles and that' s you r specialty. You ha ve to be excited. We' re levin' it. lf yo u look back thro ugh the years, we've had more differ ent win ners on the half miles than on an ything else. I mean, one year Shobert w ins all the mi les, the next yea r Park er wins all the miles. Then Parker and Carr win all the miles . What's ne w w ith your '95 program? This year we 've got a good motor combinati on, but we know we need a little mor e to get by Parker where, in case I do n' t ge t the perfect drive, I can still ca tch h im . We 're rea l close, and th is year we' re tryi ng to come up wit h more. Skip Eaken will be bu ildi ng my motors again. He's go t h is own shop and h is own dyno, but Gary Stolzenburg and I have take n the combination tha t we had las t ye ar and m ad e it fres h. We're not going to change that one . Bu t we've got two brand-new motors that we're wor king with Ph il Darcy on . Gary ' s d oi n g them in h is shop and Phil' s doi ng th e head s. We'v e also sent a set of head s to Hank Sco tt, and we've got so me n ew ca ms co ming so th a t we' ll h a ve two bran d -new mo tors to expe rimen t with . I've also got three fra mes that are identical, plus a Knight chassis and two 6OOs. Shit, I've got enough equ ipme nt to field a two- rider team. You' re goin g to promote a ra ce thi s year at Eldora, Ohio. Yes . Me and (Eldora Speedway owne r) Earl Baltes are pu tt in g it on . You 'll no tice it's a $42,000 p u rse . The richest race so far has bee n Sp ringfield, and it paid $41,000. We (d irt track) are fortu nate in tha t we've got more promoters tha n d ates to sell righ t now. I've told the AMA that we sho uld get in a bi dd ing war to drive the purses up. Wh at do you see happen in g with the sport in the future? I thin k th e thi ng is going to s ta rt . growing again . If we can get on TNN, that w ill help a lot. I mean, with ESPN we were a lways on at 1 a .m. here in Ohio . Big d eal. Tha t d oesn 't help a bit when you go looking for sponsors. But if we line up TN N, itcou ld be a better dea l. We 've s ta r te d thi s season with an owners group becau se we've got to keep them involved or you' ll hav e no motorcycles for the riders to race on . Also, Bru ce Bober has come in fro m the AMA and he's been the b iggest turnarou nd tha t we've had in years. He's set the relati onship between the riders, the ow ne rs a n d th e A MA . It ' s n o t u s against-the m anymore. We' re tryi ng to work together. Now, we've go t to try to kee p Bruce from ge tting too big a head , kee p him in line (laughs). But for the last two years it' s wo rked rea lly we ll. There is a real good association between us all. Now w e co m e t o the i ne v it a b le que stion, and the one y ou'v e been asked most often. But let ' s put a twi st on it. When you do finally reti re from motorcycle racing what w ill y ou do with you rself? Well, I'd love to say that I was going back to spri nt car racing. but the on ly way I wo uld is if I we nt and drove for somebody else. It's just too expensive to stay in that game and try to keep up. That's why I am try in g to ge t my foot in the door wi th this promoter dea l an d work with Balt es to where maybe I co uld put on three races a ye ar. I wo uld love to get pa id to see my friends somehow. Doing that means wo rking with the racing association or being a prom oter. I want to see the other side of the fence. I ha v e ne v e r wo n th e Nat io na l Ch amp ionsh ip, b ut I' ve h a d a g rea t ca reer, and I've met a lot of great people a long the wa y. I want to walk away a winner, too. Right now, I'm just looki ng forw ard to Dayton a becau se I alw ays do we ll a t th e half mil es excep t fo r th at d amn Memorial Stad iu m sho rt tra ck. But me and Parker and Spri ngsteen go down there and have a hell of a riot. It's fun, and tha t's why I still do it. f:\ "To finish first, first you must fin ish: ~ goes the roeing adoge. At the 1995 ~UN Grenada-Dakar, where less than 30% of ~ 1995 .1 the motorcycles that stoeted made it to the ~ finish, most tire companies would be happy just to have their products surv the ive ordeal. But Michelin isn't like most tire companies. It's one thing to participate in the world's toughest race, but it's something else to win it. After 15 days and 6420 miles in the western Sahara, Michelin rider Stephane Peterhansel aga in praved that Michelin has what it tokes to win in the most demonding conditions. In 1994, Michelin off-road tires were put to the test everywhere from theTunisia Rally to the Alligator Enduro to the Nevada Rally to the ISDE. And just like at Grenada-Dakar, Michelin came out on top every time. You can experience this some world-class performance on your bikewhen you mount a setof Michelin tires. See ~ your Michelin Preferred Motorcycle Tire Dealer and learn M Ie IIECAU5l: tiE ~;;;.bot-" i'" 6";"';~ ... end 6";"';~ 60' so MUCH IS RIDING ON YOUR 1lRES.. t s ~ a ~

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