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/127722
.INTERViEW Thomas Stevens By Paul Carr uthers Photos by Henny Ray Ab rams here are a lot of people out there who wo u ld have bet th e farm against Tho mas Stevens and his Yoshimura Su zuki endi ng u p in Victo ry La ne following the Daytona ZOO. Based on last .year's re s u lt s, th e Suzuki GSXR750 was sure to be uncompe titive - especially on the h igh ba nks of Daytona Int ern ational Speedway. A top-three finish? Maybe in 1996 when the new GSXR is expecte d to m a ke it s debut, bu t 1995? Forget about it. Wrong. St e ven s an d Su zuki proved everyb ody wrong at Da ytona. The 30-year-old Flori d ian rode hard and fast for ZOO miles, the Suzuki wa s sud denly competitive and reliable, and th e pairing improbable en ded up in Victory Lane - basking in mo re than just the Florida s u n . The result: Stevens and everybody associated with Suzuki were elated - and a great many others were left eatingcrow. We caught up with the 1991 AMA Superbike National Champion in the weeks between Daytona and round two of the AMA Superbike National Championship at the Pomona Fairplex to get his thoughts on Daytona and beyond. Did you r result at Da yto na surprise you as much as it surprised eve ryb od y else? I told my guys - and everyone else who kept asking, "How's the bike, how's the bike?" - th at I'd either be smiling after the firs t p ractice or it was going to be a long week. As soon as we rolled out in th e first p ractice, I was sm iling. I had an idea of where we'd finish . I didn 't actually know it was goi ng to be in the winner's circle, but I had a goal of putting it in the top five. With the field that we had at Day tona, tha t would have been a feat in itself. To put the Suzuki in the winner's circle was just icing on the cake. So what's the difference? Wha t's changed to make the b ike so m u ch better th an what it has been in pa st years? There's been a lot of development with th e bi ke and m ost o f th at has come ove r the winter. I think the mai n reason is that our communi cation h as ju st become so much better - the comm unication between myself, th e team, u.s. Su zu ki an d Suzu ki Japa n. As a resu lt of the improved commu nication, the bike has become better . It basically comes down to the fact that I go t to deal perso nally wi th some of the enginee rs over th e win ter when we we re testing. I was asking for changes an d the tea m has finally been given the leeway to really help develop the bike . That's basically the answer. Is the biggest improvement on top-end or acceleration? Or both? The bi g gest im p rove me n t is pu ttin g the power to the grou nd and having the acceleration. Back in ' 93 I to ld them that I d idn't care if we had the fastest bike in five miles. If we had two bike s and one w ent 190 mph and one went 180 mph, but the one that went 180 mph got there faster I'd take the one that went 180. Th e reason for that is that you want something that accelerates. Who care s if it makes so m e ungodly amount of horsepower if it doesn't accelerate. Man y peop le believe th at Suzuki ' s hiri ng of Fred M e rk el as your teammate ha s further mo tivat ed you to be tter results. Any tru th to tha t? There's no truth to that whatsoeve r. The same was said for Tom Kipp . Last year it was: How was I going to react to having Kipp as my teammate? Well , the record speaks for itself. [ ou tq ualified him at every race except one and I beat him at every race - and not just by a position or two. [ was at the front and he wa s stru ggling. So as far as that goes, no. As far as having Fred come onto th e team , I give him all the respect in the world because of what's he's accomplished. I told him right in the beginn ing that I had all the respect in the world for what he's done - b u t I also told him that when it was time to roll out on to the track I wanted to kick his ass as bad ly as he wants to kick mine . That's where we've been. The people who actually kno w how hard I rode the .thing last year, know what's going on. My riding has gotten a lot better