Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

INTERVIEW Mike Hale ee i dn't G lit in n e len ge dash for cas h race an d ea rned a hearty $10,000 paych eck for his five hips of wo rk. The handsome Texan went on to earn Rookie of the Year hon ors , and man y dubbed him as the Next Big Thin g in d irt tracking. Unfortunatel y, Hal e failed to live up to su ch billings. Thou gh he was easily amo ng the spo rt's to p ride rs, he would ne ver again ge t to ta ke a vic to ry lap wit h the checke red flag in hand . Na tiona l w ins jus t weren't in the cards for Hale, and apparently , neither was a rid e with the all- conqu ering Harley -Davi d so n factory. For four mor e years, Hale struggled to fulfill his ch ild hood dream of becoming the Grand Nati onal Cham. pion , but as tim e pro gr essed, he began to re-evalua te his goa ls. Like so m any d ir t tr a ckers before h im , Hale w as lured a way fro m th e rou nd y-round world of dirt track and towards the glam our and gr eater fina ncial rewards of roa d racin g. He didn't start out on top, mind you, but inst ead cut his teeth in the hog eat hog Harl eyDavidson 883 series . In '94, Hale w as rewarded for his 883 escapades with a 600cc Supersport ride wi th the Smokin' Joe's Honda team, an d h e proved his wo rth by turning in a number of stron g finis hes aboard the team 's highl y competitive CBR600F2, as well as the not-socompetitive RC30 su perbike . In April of '95, H al e brok e th e ice w ith his first- ev er 600cc Supersport Na tional win on the makeshi ft Pom ona Fairplex race course, and minutes lat er backed it up with a shocking win in the Su perbike N ational. At the en d of that me mora ble day, Hale was, once again, the Nex t Big Thing. But this lime, Ha le wo uld prove that his breakthrou gh perfo rmance was not a fluk e . A t th e foll o w in g Lagu na Sec a Na tio na l, Hale again topped the 600cc Supersport Nation al and rod e to a smart fou rth- p lace finish in the fog- delayed Na tional. This ti me , the 22-ve ar-old fro m Carrolton, Texas, is for rea""t 26 Three ro unds into the 1995 season, you find yourself leading not only the 600cc Supersport Series, b ut th e Superbike Ch ampio nsh ip Series as well. Is this beyond your pre-season expectations? No . Care to elabora te on that? (Laughs) Yeah, a littl e. I guess realisti cally , this is my rookie yea r on a supe rbike . I set some goals for myself at the beginning of the yea r that I th ou gh t we re realistic. One was to win the 600cc Superspo rt C h a m p io n sh ip , a nd th e Sup e que . Those Hie personal go for myself. Compare those to the goals you had before the start of last sea son, you r first full year aboard a "real" road racer. Last year, I wanted to finish top three in the 600cc Supersport Series . So somewhere, there was a huge boost in your confidence. Wh en did you gain so much faith in yourse lf ? Well, we had an extensive testing p ro gra m this p ast off season, and th ings started to ge l and come together for me. The w hole tea m was working rea ll y ha rd. I was wor kin g really hard . I got more and more comfortable on the bike every time I rod e it. Basically, my confidence gre w every time I got on the bike this winter . You competed in se lected Superbike ra ces last year aboard the team's ou tdated RC30. Still, yo u managed to outperform some of your RC45-mounted teammates. That's tru e, the RC30 was outdated, bu t to me it was th e best road racer I ha d ever rid de n . I jus t we nt out there to do the best I cou ld d o aboa rd it. Fortunately, I turned in some decent resul ts. Your team had trouble developing the RC45, and in '95, some riders still seem to be having trouble with the motorcycle. You, on the other hand, have adapted to the bike just fine. Is that because as a relatively inexperienced road racer, you haven't been spoiled, and don't really know what to complain about? Sure, tha t's possible, but each rider has his own sty le, an d I'm just doing the best that I can with what I have. Like I said, to date, the RC45 is the baddest motorcycle I' ve ever ridd en . Compared to the RC30, the RC45 has a hell of a lot more power, an d it handles a lot diffe rently. You liked the RC30. Did you take a lik ing to the RC45 immediat ely, or was there ever a time when you got off th e bike and thought that it sucked? Umm...no. (Laughs) When I firs t ro de the bike, we were making changes right from the get go to make the bike mor e comfortable for me. The firs t time I took the bike aro und the track, it wasn't set up for me at all. We took the available pa rts and shuffled them around until I was comforta ble on it. With the points lead in both series, is there one championship that you feel is more attainable for yourself? I t h in k that the Superbik e Cha m p ionship is th e one th a t I am th e most focus ed on, however I feel that winning the 600cc Supersport title is going to be just as difficult, if not more so. d, el uHame . s e n um er one superbike rider on the t ea m, how do you think he's handling the fac t that h is rookie teammate is beating and leading him? We ll, Miguel seem s to be handling it fine. We tested togeth er, and we wo rked together to develop this bike all win ter long. It was a real team effort. There's no tens ion between US two. You sa y that you were "developing" the bike. Have you gaine d enough experience aboard a road racer to really know how to set up the bike? Obviously, your skill s and speed are there, but are you truly aware of what changes do what? I' m always learning and trying to stay aware o f wh a t th e bike is d o ing . I learn ed a lot when I was dirt tra cking - a lot about how to set up a bike. Dirt track racing is much more "handson" for the riders... Yeah , it is . At least ou r p rogram was. There's no do ubt that my di rt tracking ha s hel p ed me learn how to se t up a bike. But I think this past yea r is when I learn ed the most in the sho rtes t amount of time. Working with my chief superbike me chan ic M erlyn Plumlee has taught me a lot. In the off season you had a couple of crashes. Were those results of you riding over your head, or trying oddball chassis set ups? We ju st made som e prett y dramatic chassis ch a n ges back to ba ck , a n d I d id n't allow myself enough tim e to get ad justed to the changes befor e I went for it. I h ig h sided a co uple of times, but my big gest ro ad race cras h was in my fi rs t ra ce o n th e RC30 w h e n I crashed in Th omas Steven s' oi l. Yeah, that was m y bigg est crash on a road racer, but I've had bigger ones on a dirt tracker. Were you nervous about crashing for the first time on the pavement? What's the difference between that and a dirt tra ck crash? Pavement doesn't give as mu ch as dirt, bu t th en again th er e's not a re tai ni ng wall and hay bales around the track at a road race . (Laughs) Why do dirt trackers adapt so well to road racing? Well, I've been racing a motorcycle since I was five years old. I've been sliding mot orcycles and going fast on motorcycles all of my life. There's no su bstitu te for experience. The high speed, competitiveness and sliding of the mile races are a big help. . By Donn MaedaIPhotos by Henny Ray Abrams ke dr lC d. going road racin g , bu t I pl anned on d oing th at eventually. After I won the d irt tra ck title. In your rookie yea r as a Grand National Expert, you wun - the Camel Challenge dash for cash. Compare the feeling of winning that race to your first Superbike National. I think that w inning th e Cam el Challen ge is s till t he bi g g e s t w in o f my career. That was m y first big major win, and I had beat guys that had been my heroes all of my life. I won $10,000 for that, an d at the lim e it was just me and m y d a d o n ou r priv atee r b ik e . That mon ey went a lon g, lon g way. I was 17 then . After a win like that you must have bee n full of confidence. But in the years sin ce then, you never s co re d another dirt track win... Well , th e follo wing year I hooked up wit h Bartels' Harley-David son . That' s one of th e top privateer teams in that series . Bill Bartels is one of the bes t men in the spo rt, no d oubt. But there's such limited facto ry involvement and su p port in th at se rie s, th at it' s hard to go against the factory rid ers and kick their butts. Do you think you had a confidence ' problem? I've seen you spank the guys in the heat races, but then falter in the main. I mean su re , up until th at poi nt , ther e ma y have been a... N o, I would n't say th at th er e w as a confidence problem . Inexperience, maybe . That cost us a few times. In my heart, I wan ted to win . I kn ow that there we re times when I was lined up and wan ted to win worse than any on e else ou t there. But the re a re so me drawbacks to th a t. In 1992, for exa mple. I wanted to wi n so bad that I went out and cras hed . I cras hed a lot in '92. I wou ld go ou t and race hard to try to ma ke up for the weeke nd befor e. I le a rn ed a lo t th at y e a r . A lot abou t myself an d a lot abou t self con trol. When did you first throw a leg over' a road racer? In 1992. It was mostl y Bill Bartels idea. Nigel Gale and Tripp Nobles were his team road rac ers, an d th ey said, "You sho ul d co me try th is. It' s a lot of fun . We've got an extra bike." I decided to go tr y it and had a lot of fu n. I went up there to check it o u t, I w ent a ll by myself. They handed me the bike, I took it through tech myself, and I wrenched on it m yself. I ended up third, and it was a blast. I even wore Nigel Gale's old leathers. It wa s real easy to put a piece of white duct tape over th e "G" and wri te an "H" on it.

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