Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

you've been the fastest guy throughout practice, qualifying and in the heat races, but have floundered in the main. It seems like inconsistency has played a ro le in your past seasons. Well, I see exactly what you' re say ing . Just like Daytona this year - I was fast all night, but then ended up ninth in the main. Other times we'v e been real fast, but then had some probl ems in the ma in . We had so me mechanical troubles in the past, but not n ecessarily things that Dennis Tow n could have helped. The main thing is that wh en this kind of stuff happens, you have to put it out of your m ind and stay p ositi ve . There' s another ra ce th e foll o w in g weeke n d . You go tta put it behind yo u and mov e on. This is your fourth year on a Honda RS750, so the past three years have been spent without the benefit of Harley-Davidson contingencies. D oesn't that make it tough? I can't say that it ' d idn't. This winter I had some Harley rid e offe rs, and that contingency definitely had so me weight. I told them to let me think about it, and I figured, w ell why a m I reall y d oin g this? Do I want to switch so I can make that extra 15 or 20 thou sand dollars on a Ha rley, or d o I want to win the championship? That's when I told myself that I want to win races and I want to win the championsh ip . It's n ot th at a H arley can' t win races - I know th ey can. It's just that I ha ve my Ho nd a p rogram so well sorted out, that I know I can win on a Honda. Maybe I could ha ve jumped right on a Harley and won races, but I don' t know that. Was it for the mon ey, or for my ultimate goal of winning the championship? He ll, if I win the champ ionship on a Hond a, I'll still make enough money to eat, even without any contingency. (Laughs) . All of your National wins have come on ha lf miles. Do you consider yourself a ha lf mile specialist? What type of tracks suit you b est ? Well, in the past, I would ha ve said that a dry slippery half mile track with a little groove wo uld suit me best. But then I wo n Pomona at the end of last year, and it was like a p lowed-up field. Then there's Lima where Steve Morehead and I ra ced in the cushion all n ight long. I thi nk maybe I'm a slow learner, but I thi nk I'm learni n g to ride all types of tra cks. Honestly, I really want to win a short track Na tional. I want to win the Sp rin g field Mile rea l bad, too, but my big deal is to win a short track. Growing u p, that's what dirt track was all aboutshort track. A co uple years ago, I would have told you that half miles wer e my deal, b ut I think thi s year that I can win on any track. Well, except for Peoria. Why not Peoria? Do you have a men tal b lo ck after yo ur bad crash with Kevin Ath ert on over th e jump in 1990? Maybe that's it, but it's also the fact that I never rod e an y TIs growing up. I jus t don't have the desire to go fast there. I actually like TIs, but Peoria, to me, isn 't a TI. It's a half mil e with a ju m p. But m aybe my positive attitude this year w ill help me get ove r that jump . (Laughs) Last year at the Denver Half Mile, you were on e of th e three rid ers sent out on the muddy track to decid e whether or not to run the race. The other two riders came ba ck shaking th eir h eads, but you were seen smiling.. . I understood why th ose g uys didn't want to rid e on it. But b ack here in ' N o rth Carolina where I grew up, we raced on wet, real wet, red, tacky clay race tracks. We'd get there and the track would be underwater, and they'd run these bomby old sp rint cars on it, then tell us to go out there and race. Racing was in mud through the first half of the night, and you cou ld n't eve n put your skid shoe down or it'd get ripped off. I just kn ow how to ride w h en it' s lik e that. Ru sty Roger s is the sa me way. It don't bother him eithe r. But Iknow how they felt . Wh en I go t on my first peagravel track I was totally lost, too. What is your favorite track? I'd have to say th e Springfield Mile. I know that ev ery one says that, but it's that good . Then there's Lima. When the track is good there, it' s just awesome. Wh at ha s kept you from winning your first mile National? Faster competition! (Laughs) Well, real ly, I think that you have to have good experience to win a mile . You can' t just follow everyone around if the track gets grooved up. You have to know when and where to pass someone. You can 't just follow someone around, you have to go where they aren't. All the great riders who have won championships, now they can do some passing. Passes that yo u can watch and then wonder, "How di d they do that?" You jus t have to be confident tha t you are faster. Who w ill be the tou ghest guys to b eat this season? Scotty Parker, of course. He's definitely the ma n to beat. Steve Morehead will be tough . Ronnie Jones will be good on the ha lf mi les. He's got a new guy working for him, Rodney Farris will be riding the wheels off of his bike, he ju st ha s to have his bikes stay together. That's about it. There's a lot of guys out there who can go fast, but tho se are the only gu ys who are totally dedicated to racing motorcycles. That's the problem nowadays. There's not enough gu ys out there who are totally dedicated to racing motorcycles. My first priority is my family , but after that it's mot orcycles and racing motorcycl es . It' s all I've ever done and it' s all I think about 24 hours a day. I know that's how Steve is. There's a ton of talent in the younger generati on, but they are wasting it. When I was coming up, my dad bought me a truck and said go do it. I had to learn on my own. That's all I wanted to do, and I did it. What do y ou think about the 25-race seri es this year? Do you like it, or would you prefer a 12-race series that · was held at p rem ier facilities, with bigge r pu rses ? That's been a debate for a long time. But if I had my way, I'd like to run a 50-race schedule. I' d like to race Friday, Satur- day, Sunday, every week end. I know th at's unre ali sti c, especia lly for th ese poor mechanics who have to keep the bikes going. But for me, a 12-race series wo u ld, by no mean s, keep me sa tisfied . Startin g in May, I have a race to go to every weekend. I kn ow that sounds bad, bu t when I d o h ave a weekend off, I u su ally wish that I was off racing so mewhere.1 can 't get enough . Co mpared to a lot of other National series racers, you spend a lot of time competing in other series, like the Motorcycle Asphalt Raci ng Series.._ I just want to race. I get bored when I'm not on a motorcycle. And also, being a pri vateer, the on ly time I'm gonna make any mo ney is when I'm on my bike racing . You're a three-time MARS Champion. Tell me a b it about that series. What's it like to race on asphalt? It' s like running on a big grooved dirt track. It's aw esome, real consistent. But I can't tell y.ou that there's not scary moments out there. We don 't really know how fast we can go . We still use dirt track tires, and that slows US d own. You can slide a dirt track tire real good, and we don't hook up like we would with road race slicks. Bu t the scariest th ing about the races is that at every track we run at, there 's a big concrete wall on the outside. When you fall down on asphalt, you don't slow down. You're gonna hit that wall ha rd. Look at these European road racers. They get pa id all this mo ney , bu t if they show up at a"track and there's not tw o football fields between th e track and the wall, th ey 're no t goi ng to race. I finally hit on e of those walls last year, and it hurts. If we're gonna do this asphalt stuff, I wish it would ge t bigger and into the faciliti es that are sa fer. Do yo u use the same technique on th e asphalt? It' s like riding on a groove race track. It's actually ea sier once you get some time on the stu ff and gain confidence in you r tires. Th ere' s be en several tracks where I've found ou t that I don 't have to sh u t off in the corners at a ll. It's that consi stent; you don't have to worry about d ust or san d on the groove. So by competing in eve ry race that you can, you're able to make a living on racing alone? Yup . I can actually make a living, that's about it . Well , ac tuall y, I ca n' t say I cou ld m ake a.living at it if m y wife Rhonda didn't work. She 's a registered cardiac intensive care nurse. She definitely helps pay the bills. If it weren't for her, I would p robably h ave to w ork a regular job during the week. Having a supportive wife has been a big plus for you... I feel like th at's been th e biggest plus I've ever had. We've been together sin ce I was 17 years old . All the tim e I was try ing to learn how to race motorcycl es, I didn't ha ve to be out trying to find a girlfriend. (Laughs) We've been together since high school, and I've never had a desire to do any thin g but race motorcycles . And mo st of the time, she's been right there wit h me. You and Rhonda had your first child last May... Oh yeah, a little boy. Cole Avery Dav is. Has becoming a father changed you on the track at all? No, I can' t say tha t it has . I feel like it' s helped my program , beca use all winter long I had to look after him. I pretty much have only tw o things on my mind now, looking af ter him, or workihg on these motorcycles. I used to get distracted and go play golf and stuff, but not anymore. Tell me about y o u r nicknam e, "Winkin' Will ." I don't kn ow who came up with that, ma ybe Dave Despa in. I'm blind in my right eye, and it wi nks a lot. When I get nervous I start winkin g . I guess that's wh ere it com es from . Are you actually blind in that eye, or is your vision just bad enough to be considered legally blind? It's called a lazy eye, really. Supposedly, Colin Ed wards had the same problem, and he went to a specia list for some sort o f tre atm ent that ca n correct it. I switched to Arai helmets this year, and Bruce Porter told me about this procedure. Wh en yo u have a lazy eye , what happens is that yo ur brain won't let that eye see. So in this treatment, they cover up .you r good eye and someh ow trick your brain into believing tha t the lazy eye can be of some use. It' s pretty·complica ted ... this probably isn't making much sense. Bruce seem s to think that I'll be a new man after I see the doctor. I'm supposed to visit him right before the (April 1) Pomona Half Mile. I've seen yo u wearing glasses before..• last year, I got some gla sses, thinking it might help. But man, it screwed me all up. The first two races I wo re them at, I crashed. They went right back into the case, and I haven't used them since . Yo u, Morehead a nd Roeder are the only guys out th ere still wearing those l ace-up "co n s truction boots." Why don't you wear MX boots? The ma in reason is that I have a better feel for the brake pedal and shifter with them. I must admit tha t MX boots will be a bit sa fer, and as a ma tter of fact you 'll see me with a brand-new pair of Alpinestars on at Pomona. We're sponsored by them this year, and they made me a special pair without all the plastic pads and Kevlar support stuff. The y feel like a real old pair of broken-in boots. I'm getting flash y for '95. Wait until you see the new lea thers, too! In conclusion, yo u have b ecom e on e of the series favori tes th is year. What can we expect from Winkin ' Will Da vis in '95? Well, I'd be cheating all of my sponsors if I didn't say that I was going to try to win every rac e I'm a t. I know that I won't win every race, but lowe it to everyone who has helped me to do my best. O v er th e yea rs , y o u le a rn the things not to do, not SO much the things that you should d o. Experience and a positive attitude is what is going to help me win this year. I want to go to every race and w in . Lik e Lee Trevino says, "So me o ne's go tt a win th ese tournaments, it might as well be me." a ..... ..... ..... 0.. ~ 23

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