Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ing to win the next race, and if th at isn 't possib le, to take th e most poi n ts I can. Then hopefully' by year-end I'll be in a good position." The philosophy is so obvious that Mick gets tired of repeating it. But what more can he say? How many times m ust he say it? This attitude co m b ines wi th a n a tu r a l wis h for p ri v a cy to m ake. h im s ee m b oth d ull a n d d e fe nsi ve in interv iew si tu ations. The truth is not that he's h iding any th in g, b ut quit e honestly he's not mu ch of a talke r. One inci den t in M alay si a b e ars this o u t. " Lo ris Cap iro ss i as ked me for some a d v ice a t Shah Alam . I'm w illing to. help ' him becau se h e ' s new and he's on a Honda. But I can 't explain what I d o. So I told h im to hoo k in b eh ind me an d I'd sh ow him around ." For Doohan, no matter w ho he is talk ing to, actions speak louder than wo rds. As k h im who h e th in ks ca n beat him and he' ll tell you. Lot s of peo p le . There a re lots mo re races to come, anythi ng could happen to him. Like what happened in 199 2. Being the dominant rider is only part of the equation. You still have to go to all the tracks, one by o ne, and t ry to win at each of them . On e by one. He sees both Suzuki rid ers as his main o p positio n later he said, with em pha tic gruffness: "I d on 't care who else is on a Hon da, as long as I've got one . "Once we h it Euro pe, I . thi nk Kevin (Schwantz) wi ll pick his game up. Also Daryl (Beattie) h as it pretty much toge ther. He' s d one p robably more test in g than any bo dy, an d last yea r it was the Dunlops that let him down more tha n th e bike. Eve n o n Michelins .he seems hard on the front. When we rode Ho ndas together he u sed the 16.5-inch front (with a bigger contact pa tch ) while I used the 17. He was braking later a n d h arder than me, then kinda flicking and firing it out. More like Schwantz than my sty le. "I don 't thin k this yea r's Yam ah a is all that bad a bike. But they ha ve a tire problem, and they' re only good for a lap or so. Also, Luca (Cadalora) need s to learn ho w to slide. He still has a so rt of 250 sty le. That's fine as long as the tires still grip. But it's pretty unusual for a 500 to go 30 laps without sli ding, and when it d oes start you still have to be ab le to ride it fast. "In a way my style - carrying mor e comer speed - isn't so d ifferent from the 250 sty le. I don 't brake late or hard. But th en if it bre aks away, I' m u sing th e pow er to control it. A lot of riders when it sli des they sh u t the th ro ttl e. Wa yne Rain ey' s ad va ntage was that he could keep it open . "It wo u ld be d ifferent if Rain ey was still rid ing. but I don ' t kn ow how mu ch different. It'd be mor e en tertai ning for the fans. He'd be a lot more cons istent o n th e Yamah a th an Luca . H e' d b e included, week in, wee k out. I was talking to him today abo ut the way he could take th e b ike furth er than the tire s would allow." or fou r guys at one time who can ride a 500 to its limits." A tru th that reach es further back in to racing history than Mick realizes. Doohan doesn't care for questions that take him off the beaten track. At one point, I asked him what he most fea red, h o p in g fo r some insight. "How d'you mean," he shot back, look ing forbid di ngly puzzled. Later, discu ssing his riding techni qu es an d strengths, I as ked him wha t his weak point s were. " How d 'you mean," he replied again. Ea ch ti me th e res po nse carried strong overtones of " Mind yo ur ow n bu si ness." Doohan, as fellow -Au stralian new spaper journalists discovered at a Sydney city -center press co nference 10 days before, is as cagey as can be about his p r iv a te lif e, his leis ure int erest s, his p erson ality, and any ana lysis on such ma tters as the long-term p ro sp ects fo r his rui ned righ t leg. "I'Il try and find a doctor if you like, a n d you ca n ask him yo u r q uestions," he fumed at one gently probing "human interest" reporter. Only on one '. topic would Doohan open up, his face alive with something more than the usual du t ifu l ent husiasm h e finds so d ifficult to mu ster on such occasions. He was ta lking abo ut the s hee r thrill of r id ing a 500cc Grand Prix bike. "There's no th ing else I've ever expe rienced like it - the feel when you open the throttle. It's amazing when you're in fifth or sixth gear and you give it gas, and the front wheel starts coming up." Th en it is quite clear just how m uch h e loves Doohan knows from bitter experience how suddenl y things can g o wrong, and that so far he's only laid the foundation . Thus he treated with disdain suggestions that he was on course to win every race of the year - prophetically, it turned out. "I dou bt very much that will happen. It's a long time, with a lot of d iffer ent weather and a lot of different guy s. Kevin will be real fast at Suzuka, and Daryl also, because he likes it there. " I don't much like Donington or Assen . Most people have their bad tracks. For Suz uki it's here (Shah Alam) and Brno . In Britain and Assen I'll just basically try and get through them." Don ' t expect him to be dism ayed at th e loss of th e tw o u ltra-fast circuits w he re Ed die Lawson identified " Honda- la nes." O ther H o nd a riders have always relished th e Salzburgring a nd H ockenh e im r in g , but Doo han wo n' t miss them . "The re are plen ty of other Hon d as at those two tracks," he says. " In a way I'm glad they're go ne, because it gives the other people nothing to whine abo ut. I'd ge t s ick of p e ople m a k in g excuses becau se of the Honda's spee d ." Dooh an is aware that the sigh t of him gradually draw ing away from the oppositio n d oesn't make riveting TV or track- s ide viewing, but there's no t much he can do about that. "I can't see a situation where I'd slow down to make it look like a good race, or because I want to play around. I do that more when I'm testing - I'll slow down to do some big-time sliding or wheelies. "If I put on a show, I would n't be riding my race. In any case, I don't ever go into a race thinking it's going to be easy." But he is aware that the 500cc class needs some perking up. "We need some new riders . I don't understand why young guys are going into Superbikes and then not trying to move on to GPs. "I guess they see it's p re tty easy to push a Superbike to its limits. Wit h a 500 , it takes some time - a co u p le of years - before yo u feel in con trol. A 500 is a real challenge. Maybe tha t' s why they're hanging back fro m making the final step. "To me, th e 500s were a lways th e class, and eve n now it still is the World Cha mpionship. "Bu t it's not perfect. I'd like to see the weight lim it lowered . Then you ' d see la p ti m e s co m ing d o wn again . It would n't make the bikes easier to ride. They'd be more twi tchy, if any thi ng . But in any case, there's only ever been three racing. But it is not a blind love. Hence his waspish response when I p ut to hi m what Schwantz had said - about confidence being 75 percent of the equation in a successful World Championship season. "You also have to have the bike and the tires p retty good," he replied. Anyway, confidence isn't haphazard . It's achieved when hard work and ded ication is attended by a modicu m of good luck. Doohan's season started in a hospital in San Francisco, where he rushed through further surgery and painful "I1aza roff" treatment to his right leg. injured in 1992. Although still weak and ugly, his foot doesn't now d rag so mu ch an d the toes do n' t claw up, so that the pronounced limp of recent yea rs is now jus t a trace. He was r e ad y for tes t in g, w hile Honda escaped the bad weathe r that hit other tea ms. And th is year H RC h ad resisted the tem ptation to second-guess thei r star. They gave him basically last yea r's b ike, with better han dling and accelera tion . In this way, he was able to start the yea r head and shoulders above the rest. No w he has only to maintain that position , and if anyon e else can ra ise the ir ga me to h is le vel - well, tha t' s up to them, isn't it. C~

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