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/127729
iNTERVIEW Daryl Beattie e ha ve arrived at a pivotal time in the history of 500cc Gra nd Prix racin g . The Ra in e y, Schwa ntz, Doohan Tro ika which once dominated the class is no more an d the opportunity exists for the best of the neXt (sic) Generation to s tep fo rwa rd . From the evidence we 've seen so far this year it ap pears that the firs t to cross that th reshold is Lucky Strike Suz uki 's Daryl Beattie. Fou r races into th e 14-rac e season, it's no shock tha t an Aussie Queenslande r would be leading the 500cc World Championship . The su rp rise is tha t it's not Repsol Honda's Mick Doohan , but the 24-yea r-o ld kn own Down Under as Dazza. After a year of hards hip, failu re, and inju ry on the once almigh ty Ma rlboro Rober ts Yamaha team, Dar yl Bea ttie tho ug h t his ca reer was in jeopardy. And he was right. Then at last year's Argen tinean Gra nd Prix Beattie was pleasantly surprised to find the Lucky St rike Su zuki team , and , specifically, then World Champion Kevin Schwantz, interested in his talents for 1995. Wit h the full blessing of Kenny Roberts, Beattie mad e the switch and it has been mutually be neficial. Even before the season bega n Suzuki ha d reason to smile. The lap times coming out of the pre-season tests had Bea ttie nearly on par with Sch want z. Then Schwantz crashed, reinjuring his left wrist, and the burden of testin g fell to Beatt ie, now on his third brand in as man y yea rs. When a si milar situa tio n occurre d last year, wi th Brazilian Alex Barros, the ma chine that emerged from test in g was far from salu tary and th e team spe nt mu ch of the seaso n recover- By Henny Ray Abrams Photos by Abrams and Gold & Goose ing. When Schwantz recovered enough to try o u t the Beattie-developed 1995 RGVSuzuki , th e r e was nothing but compliments. The 1995 series began in his home country at Eastern Creek, with Beattie carding a distan t second to the World Cha mp ion Doohan on a track where both had tes ted , a nd race d, extensively. Doohan's win , by 13.5 seconds, was expected; Beattie's second, in h is fi rst race o n th e Lucky bike, was a pleasant su rprise. Next came the sea ring heat of Shah Ala m in Malaysia an d Bea t tie fo ught th ro ugh th e pack to follow Doohan home, thi s tim e hold ing the gap at the end to a more resp ectable 6.8 seconds. Headi ng north agai n th e se r ies traveled to Ho nda 's Suzuka Circuit where it was greeted with a weekend of rai n that wo uld not abate for the .race . Doohan was again in control, but Beattie persisted and on the very last lap the normally unflappable Doohan made a critical mistake, running off the circuit to the approaching sound of Beattie's footsteps. Doohan was quickly back on track, but not before Beattie swept past to carry on to his second 500cc GP win . (T he first was aboard the su perior Ho nd a at the high s peed Hocken heimri ng in his rookie seaso n of 1993.) It was a hu ge win, not only for Beattie, who p roved that he co ul d bea t Do oh a n in a