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/127732
.'I ..INTERVIEW .Kevin Schwantz opening round of the season a t Eastern Cree k. "Those crashes made me question everything," he said. "I've had some of the biggest crashes in my career in the last few years, and I'm just not bouncing like I used to. "But I felt if I could get a couple of races behind me the confidence wou ld co me ba ck." Ins te a d, Schwantz d escribed concen tration problems in th e firs t three races. "My heart was n't in it." Another factor was a conversation with career-long rival Wayn e Rain ey, on the return flight to the U.s. after the Japanese GP. Rainey to ld Schwantz how hi s crippling crash happened wh en he was racing "because other peopl e wanted him to ra ce. I realized tha t I was feeling ju st th e same wa y right now." Schwantz d es cribed a week o f indecision, before he finall y succumbed to his worries on the' eve of d eparture for th e Span ish GP . "It was the hardest decision I've ever mad e. I gu ess I'll always wo nde r if it was th e righ t o ne. With Mi ck (Doohan) h a vi n g ba d lu ck, I'll always think tha t if I'd stayed a little longer a no th er tit le may have come to me. But righ t now I'm happy and confident with the decision. I've go t nothing left to give ." Schwantz sai d he would do his best to help title leader (and close By Michae l Scott Photos by Henny Ray Abrams ra nd Prix su perstar Kevil! Schwantz, the most po pular Grand Prix ri der a n d th e winne r of more SO Occ GPs than any active rid er, has announced his retirement. The 30-year-old Texan was the last of a generation of Americans who (together with some Australians) put a strang lehold on the World Cha m pionship back in 1985. His retirement mar ks the end of an era . After missing the opening two rounds of the European GP season amid rum ors that he had lost the heart to conti nue the struggle, the Texan has co nfirmed that he h a s h u n g u p h is fam ous Lucky Strike leathers for good. Riding problems du e to lingering ph ysical weakness triggered a crisis of confi- G ' G ~ ~ ~' II ~ 14 dence, so th at af te r t railing home sixth in the Jap anese GP - a wet race he was expec ted to win - he realized that he had nothing left to give. "I cou ld have got back to riding well, given time," he said , in an excl usive telephone inte rview a week before his plan ned public announcement at this weekend's Italian GP at Mugello. " T h e biggest thing was I didn' t have my confidence." After repeated injuries during 1994, Schwantz had three bones re moved fro m his left wrist during the winter, leaving it severe ly weakened . He fell off d uring his first "comeback" tests in Australia in January, the n tw ice more at the fr ie n d) Daryl Bea tt ie a nd "whoever they d ecide to pu t on my bike" for the rest of this season, an d to con tin u e to help Team Lucky Strike Suzuki "for as long as they wa nt me to. I d on't want to just wa lk away fro m racin g ." But he also has plan s to start a new ra cin g ca reer on fo u r w he els. He has already tested a ASCAR Super Truck rac er, a n d is a lso in te r es te d in othe r classes "th at wo u ld n ' t be s uc h a big step . I'll sit in anyt hing 1 get the cha nce to. Tha t's sit in it, not on it." The career-long Su zuki m an 's first full-time GP season was in 1988 - and he won the opening round at Suzuka. Since then he ha s logged 25 GP victo ries, putting him fourth overa ll in the SODecclass Hall of Fame (b eh in d Ago stini, Hailwood and Lawson, but o ne ra ce ahead of Raine y). In 1993, he at last won a long-awaited World Championship . He is famou s for his knees-out style, demonic late braking and a cavalier cornering style that epitomized the America n p ower-on, wheelspin-st eer tech nique. He is also known for a propensity in his ear ly years to win or crash, as well as an as tonishing capacity to bounce back fro m inj u ries th a t wou ld h osp ita lize most people, and to get straight back to racing . Wisecracking Schwantz ma d e the racing number 34 his own. Poe tically, his last World Champions hip score was C\ 34 points. ,