Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

bike in the production class. Of the six races he en tered , he won three and was offered a one-time gu est ride aboard a fac tory H o nda RC45 , b ack ed by the Winfield toba cco br and, at th e end-ofthe-season Stars of Tomorrow meeting a t Philli p Isl and . It was a t the sa me meeting a yea r ea rlier that Troy Corser had mad e his mark. ot only did Gobert win the Stars of Tomorrow race, but he also took two p roduction victories th at da y and ea rned h im se lf a seat alon gside Corser on th e 1993 Winfie ld Honda team, thou gh he received offers from a nu mber of other factories . He d idn't d isa ppo int, wi nning se ven races and sewing u p the title wi th one round to spare. Mo re im p ressive was h is World Supe rbike debut at Sugo in Japan, which is where Muzzy took notice of him. Riding in h is first international road race and aboa rd the works RC45 for the first time , Gob ert was the highe st-placing Honda in both legs, beating. am ong others, th e Castrol Ho nda team of Doug Polen and Aaron Sligh t, the latter a for' me r Kawasak i rid e r who Muzzy still hi ghl y res pects. " So th at really impressed me," Muzzy says. falling-ou t came wi th Honda. After the dem ise of th e All-Japan 500, I as ke d wha t the plan was now ." The ans we r was that they didn 't have a spot for him on the 500 team . "As it tu rned o u t, th e y didn 't fee l I was read y," Gobert says, but HRC Director Heijiro Yoshimura d isagrees. "We wan ted h im, b u t Kaw asak i offered World Su perbi ke a nd we o ffe red AMA . He chose World Superbike." The re w as a la te conci lia to ry offer fro m Honda to d o the AMA se ries in 1995, bu t Gobert's sights were set higher, either World Superbike the SODcc GP The year wasn' t what he had hoped . for. He crashed a t almost eve ry r ace meetin~ and didn't finish man y of them. He high-sided at a race at Lakeside , in Queensland, with the bik e cartw hee ling on top of him three times . "I d idn't know that the tires went off after a cou ple of lap s. I ride the same at the end of the race, " Gobert sa ys . He finished the yea r in eighth place, though what he learned belied his fin ishes . Still, Honda kept him for 1994 and made him the number-one rider. Once hi s budget for 1995 w as ap proved , Mu zzy sent Gobert an offer. Gob ert also had an offe r from Erald o Ferracci, as well as the Honda offer, to consider. " Ho nd a wan te d a four-year plan ," Gobert ex p la ins. The fir st year w as ab oard the RC30, th en th e ne w bike would come, but "knowi ng th e RC45 was underpowered and had no chance to win. Race 1994 on an RC45, ' 95 the All-Japan Championship, and, if I won that, then GP 500 . Tha t' s where th e class. A nd they wou ld e ve n t u a lly rescind the AMA offer before they withdrew his en try and his machin ery for the Phill ip Island fin ale. Their foolish ness was on display at Phillip Island. Gobert went straight ou t and won the pole in what would be the most important ra ce of th e yea r for Russell a nd Ducati's Carl Fogarty. The title was on the line, Fogarty ahead by a few points, but Russell more than capable of making them up . Both had incentive to go fast, . but it was Gobert wh o impressed. In th e first race he s t uc k to team o rde rs and backed off when th e ti me was right. In th e seco nd leg Russell's tires w ere ju n k, h e h ad to pit fo r a cha nge, and Gobert was free to fly. "I w a s able to d o m y ow n t hi ng a n d pu lled out a IS-second lead and wo n it by th a t," Go be rt says. Granted , w ith the title on the line there was little reaso n for Fogar ty to mo unt a challenge. But Fogarty wasn't the on ly othe r rid er in th e ra ce and th e fact th at Go ber t bea t Aaron Slight and Doug Polen and a field of o t he rs was h ead y s t u ff, indeed . "I d on 't think my success has really hit me yet ," Gobert said at the Dunlop Daytona test. " Probably next year when we s ta r t doing th e Wo rl d Su perbike races it wiIl . At th is s tage, it' s so rt of noth ing o ut of the ordi na ry fo r m e because I'v e put a lot of har d work into m y raci ng," Gob e r t says, offerin g a n example. "There are a lot of tactics lead ing up to a race . I wo rk ou t 50 to 100 race strategies ." "I think wh at I was most impressed wi th wh en we actua lly got to work w ith him was, for his age, how focuse d and cente red and confident he is for a 19year-o ld," Muzz y observes. " It's pretty amazing ." Steve Johnson adds, " He's not to be underestim ated, for su re." Daytona will be Gobert's first expos ure to American roa d racing and he took pa rt in the Dunlop Dayt ona tes t last winter to get acclimated to the bike, the team, and the track. His best time ca me while chasing Russell and his wors t time was crashing in tu m six, at the end of the final infield straightaway. There will, no doubt, be more of both chasing and crashing - th is coming season, thou gh, Muzzy thinks he and Russe ll w ill make a fo rm id able tea m. "I d on't think he has relied on Scott to help himthrough. I'm sure that there will be more of that when they go to Europe. I think he' ll do as much as he can himself. There will be time tha t he'll be looking to Scott for some hel p. And, to be quite honest with you, it could be that Scott could be loo king to him. That' s one of the nice things abo ut having two guys, beca use a lot of times one of them will have a problem and the other one will have an an swer." One o f the les s nice th ings is what effect Gob ert' s su ccess might have on Russell. Johnson , for one, d oesn't see it as a p robl em . "If a ny th in g, ha v in g someone of this level as a teammate can only make Scott better and more determined. I think it' s a w in-win situation for us." . . Despite having only a few da ys of testing at Da yt on a, Gobert is al ready formulating race strategies and feels he has a legitimate shot at winning. "I'll be in there with a good chance," he sa ys. "Consistency is the main thing. Trying to be sm art is the second th ing. Being able to pick the righ t way through traffic. Anything can happen at that place, at that race." (.~

• Cover