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/127717
Obviously, you've always been a consistent rider, and yet last year was the best that you've had in five years. Where has the turnaround come from? Well, I'd rid den for oth er people for so man y yea rs. I had a great year when I rode th ose Hondas for Skip Eaken. It was the fir st time that I'd ever run a whole season without a single mechanical failure and we ended up with fourth in the points s ta nd ings . But finally I said, "Heck wi th this, I need to start and run my own race program and line up my own sponsorship deals," and that's mainly what we've done. It was a lot harder because of all the preparation and making sure everything is done and being more involved in it . But that's pretty much the way I've always been. I've got to be able to ' linker with the moto rcycle and have more to do with it. Right now, this is the best part of the season for me because this when we are ordering all the new parts and getting our motorcycles looking good. I probably enjoy this more than I do racing 'em. But I think that just getting more perso nally involved with it myself has helped. I've still got Skip Eaken doing all my motors, and last year Skip and Gary Stolzenburg, the Harley dealer from F&S in Dayton, Ohio , shared in the chores of building my engines and we ended up third in the points. Our program jus t keeps ge tting stronger and stronger as it goes along. Last year you had a couple of suspension failures that cost you some valuable points, and perhaps even a National win at the Pomona half mile. What was the deal? We broke the sw ingarm . I went to Carrera sp rin t ca r shoc ks . I wa s working with Corey Phillips out of Indianapolis who doe s all of the valving and sluff for the Carrera shocks, and I tried to get him involved in the motorcycle end of it. See, that's the problem with our deal is tha t it's not like motocross where you ha ve all of these shock tech n ici a ns showing up and revalving your shocks, and working with you. We buy a set of shocks from White Brothers, and I've got compression and rebound knobs to turn, bu t a seven on one shock might not be seven on the ot her one . Unless yo u've got your own shock dyno and know all of this sluff, there's a real fine line there. And I think getti ng the chassis set up is more important than horsepower right now. As far as suspension goes, we're still in the stone age . Have you considered going to a singleshock frame like the factory Harley riders use? No. As old as I am , I don't need any new tricks to go out and dial myself out of the program. I know that Parker and Carr seem to be doing pretty well with theirs, bu t that's because they' ve went to the shoc k peo ple. Werner, for example, has Pensk e workin g with him on his stuff. So unl ess yo u ha ve that kind of source to work w ith you , I t h in k it would take a privat eer gu y too long to get it sorted out. Frankl y, I hope that all the gu ys go to a single shock becau se I feel it' ll take them half the year to get 'em dialed in. At Pomona , for example, my sw inga rm broke, bu t the reason I was able to drive by Par ker is because he couldn't ride right around the rail and then drive off. H e had to spin it sideways coming in. And then at Hagerstown they had trouble getting the mo torcycle turned with that single shock. But if they do get it worked out you can bet they're not going to share it with anybody. If people d idn't keep reminding you how old you are, would you remember it yourself? VE-40 Sizes • HardTerrain • Soft Terrain loo/I00-1859M 110/100:1864M 100/90-19 57M 110/9G-19 62M For small and } medium singles } For big singles A matching front tire is available. Ask for the VE-39! IRCnRE A DIVISION OF I N C A C ., For big singles } and2·strokes Callor write today for more information: IRC USA; 2851-8 Whipple Road; Union City CA 94587 , Tel: (510) 441-0 126 Fax: (5101 441-0129