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
straight-up fight, but also for Suzuki, whose faith in the young Australian was validated and who could now see their way clear to the rapidly approaching post-Schwantz future. "Basically, what 1 said at Hockenheim was 1 felt that 1 had an advantage because 1 had a bike that had good top speed," Beattie said during a conversation in his motorhome during practice for the Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez . "Basically, that's how 1 went about it. "Suzuka, 1 felt that, yeah, 1 felt that 1 raced pretty good. 1 mean you can tum around and say, 'Well, Mick had an off and that's what gave me the race: But you know that's racing and that's the way it went." But the question lingers: Why did Mick have an off? Was he feeling the heat? "I guess that race means ...there's nothing like winning your first Grand Prix, but that race at Suzuka probably meant more to me than any other race," Beattie said. "And of course it was at Japan in front of the factories. It's good for Suzuki and good for Lucky Strike in Japan and that's probably what made me feel good about the whole thing. I felt that I gave them something winning there because to them it's pretty important:' When the year started, Beattie's goal was to be consistent, not really think about the World Championship, but try to finish on the podium at every Grand Prix. He'd done it through the first three, only to have front tire troubles knock him off the box and back to sev'enth in Jerez. Post-race tests confirmed that the new Michelins were ultra-sensitive to minor changes in track temperature. But with Doohan high-siding in Spain while well on the way to his third victory, Beattie vaulted to the head of the title chase, 74-70. yourself after anyone, but a gu y that I probably enjoyed watching before I " started racing, and I just enjo y - but a lot of people probably disagree, but I liked his attitude and his consistency and that was Eddie (Lawson)," Beattie says. "Eddie is someone, even today, and some weekends I sit around and think: What's that guy doing? To me, he was someone pretty special. It's not that I try to be like him. It's just something I admired about him that he was consistent. He didn't necessarily win six Grands Prix in a year to win a world title. Maybe things have changed since then. But he was just always there and he was smooth:' Beattie's is an attitude whose maturity belies his years. It was born, he believes, "from going crazy in Japan for three years:' where he raced in the AllJapan Championship aboard a 500cc Honda from 1990 through 1992. In his final full year he won both the 500cc title and the Suzuka 8-Hour. And in his first GP, a one-off ride at his home Grand Prix the same year, he finished a very respectable third. "I honestly don't know (how the maturity developed)," he says, "I honestly believe that the reason I'm like that is probably because, not that 1 left horne, but from the age of 18-19-20, I pretty much went and spent a threeyear stint in Japan. Sure 1 got back to Australia every now and then . But being away at that age, which is not that young , I guess, but being away and racing and having to deal with a lot of the business myself and with Honda and dealing with them all the time and traveling. I think that traveling changes people. "In some ways I disliked those three years there and I didn't really want to be there that long," he says. Beattie had fully expected to have his rookie "Sure I had in the back of my mind that I'd like to win a world title, but realistically I didn't think that that could happen this year," Beattie said. "In some ways it's not being negative, but realistically, it's still going to be difficult this year. But I still feel that I have a chance. I'm still going to fight GP season in 1992, only to have to spend another year in Japan . "But I guess now that I've done it I can sa y that I've done it and in a lot of ways it helped me:' Winning is not something that has corne recently to Beattie. When he was lO-years-old he won a mini-bike on a TV game show and began racing shortly afterwards. The year he turned 16 he won both the 100cc and 125cc Australian Short Circuit dirt track championships, following in the rich dirt track tradition of most of the 500cc World Champions of the past 20 years. It was during the same year that he first tried road racing and his rise was nothing less than meteoric. By 1989 he was the 250cc Australian Champion and the following year he was off to Japan for , the first of three years racing for Honda. The year 1993 marked his entry into the Grand Prix wars and he came armed with the best equipment, the allconquering NSR500. Never has a machine so flattered its pilots and it was more than partly credited with providing Beattie's victory at the horsepower-intensive Hockenheim track. for it." Being atop the leaderboard hasn't changed his focus, he insists. "I still want to win races and try to be in the top three at every race. If I can do that all season, and finish in the top three at the end of the year, I'll be pretty happy. Then I feel that the following year I should be able to win. "In some ways I've been pretty surprised at the consistency. It's been my goal and it's happened so far and it's not very often that your goal happens that quickly. It's a long , long year to go yet and it's only going to get more difficult." Not to overstate the obvious, but consistency wins championships and one rider who understood that more than most is a rider whom Beattie admires. "I don't think you really model That was but one race, but in the long haul Beattie was able to outpoint h is Rothmans Honda teammate Doohan, fini shing the year in third to Doohan's fourth . Then Rothmans pulled out, Honda had to pay the bills themselves, and Beattie became the odd man out. The 500cc seats were taken by number-one rider Doohan, Alex Criville, the Spaniard who was meant to bring funding to the team, but didn't, and Shinichi Itoh , retaining his team membership by birthright. Beattie was offered the chance to spearhead Honda's assault in the World Superbike Championship, but declined, instead signing on to partner with Luca Cadalora on Kenny Roberts' Dunlop-equipped Marlboro Yamaha team. The year was nothing short of a disaster, with Beattie scoring points in five of 14 races and losing parts of all of the toes on his left foot in a practice crash in France. In Japan he'd pitted to change tires, after incurring a oneminute penalty for jumping the start, and at the next race in Jerez he pulled ' in after one too many scary front-end slides. He ran out of gas in Germany, the most amateur of mistakes a team can make, then followed that up with his two best finishes of the year, a seventh and a sixth in Holland and Italy, respectively. Then carne the crash in France, a first-lap cold tire mistake that was complicated when his foot was caught between the rear sprocket and the chain. In addition to the loss of toes, Beattie also fractured his left wrist and was out for nearly two months, returning for the Ll.S. GP at Laguna Seca - the site of another mechanical DNF. He pulled out of the next race in Argentina when his tires turned to mush and ended the season by finishing fifth in Barcelona, his best of a very long year and one that caused him to question his future in the sport. '1 was certainly starting to wonder, 'Where am I going now? '" Beattie said. " 'What' s going to happen now?' I've - had an injury, 1 haven't done anything th is season and it 's hard to stay in Grand Prix. So I was sort of seeing myself disappearing into the distance and not knowing what l -was going to do. Luckily, Lucky Strike came to me and Kevin carne to me and 1, basically, got a lot to thank for those guys. "Kenny (Roberts) and I had spoken at Argentina and, it's difficult to say, but probably the most blunt way I can probably put it is that Kenny is Kenny Roberts and he owns Kenny Roberts Marlboro Yamaha. But, unfortunately, he doesn't get to make a lot of the decisions all the time. Kenny pretty much spoke to me about this season and he was with Dunlop for another season and he knew that I wasn't fitting well with that and the bike. And he knew that I was speaking with Suzuki and.he pretty much told me that I should go that way. And in a lot of ways I'm really happy that he came up with that answer so early that it gave me the chance to do that. 1feel that we actually ha ve a really good, if not, better, relationship with Kenny now that I'm not on the team. I think it 's unfortunate that a lot of times that sponsors get to make the decisions (about riders), but that's the way it is.' There are no regrets, though, and Beattie has been a perfect fit in the Lucky Strike team. Of Schwantz's numerous teammates over the years, Beattie is clearly the one he's most comfortable with and is the only one he has closely befriended . The pair ha ve bought a condo in Austin, Texas, Schwantz's hometown, and Beattie, who resides in the, tax exile of Monaco while in Europe, makes every effort to get there when time allows. "Day one, since he knew that I was corning to the team, he's given me a lot of support, told me a lot about the bike, and helped me in testing when he couldn't be testing. He spoke to me on the phone and asked me how things were goirig and gave me his advice and you don't really get that sort of thing with every team you go to. I must admit, that when I was with Honda, Mick was good help with me as well. Yamaha was a bit different. Luca (Cadalora) and 1 sort of did our own things, we only spoke about things a little. Every team I've been on I've had really good support, but Kevin just 'seemed to back me up a lot, which is a help:' Schwantz may not be there much longer, nor may Doohan, and the time has corne for Beattie to step forward and he knows it. "I definitely think the sport's going to miss Kevin, and when Mick decides to go it's going to miss Mick and I think that it happens in all sports. I think that at the end of the day it's going to happen no matter what and there's going to be people who are going to take their place. There's never going to be another Mick Doohan, there's never going to be another Kevin Schwantz. There's a heap of new guys corning through and 1 think that at the end of the day the racing's going to be similar. There's going to be another two or three guys that are running at the front again, and then when they retire they're going to be saying, 'Well, what's going to happen when you guys go : "I think (Alex) Criville's going to be there. I think (Loris) Capirossi, if he gets used to the 500 and starts getting his confidence, he's going to be there. And maybe (Max) Biaggi's going to come," Beattie says. Biaggi is known to covet a 500cc ride for next year and is the favorite of some members of the Su zuki team. "I think there's a lot of guys that have a chance. (Alex) Barros, as well , he's got a good bike now. There's a heap of guys . There's going to be a lot of good guys, but it's going to be the same again. It's the guys who're going to be consistent, those four or five or six." And Dazza aims to be one of them. He's already begun discussions with Lucky Strike for 1996 and says that he's spoken to at least one other team. He expects a contract to be signed in the next few weeks, the earliest he's had a commitment since he began racing . Part of the expedience can be attributed to his success. There had been strong rumors that Lucky Strike was thinking of pulling out of motorcycle racing after this year . With Schwantz gone, it would have been easy to say good-bye. But now they have Beattie, a worthy successor, and the latest word has them re-upping for another two years. (-:0;