Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

INTERViE,W' Team Lucky Strike Suzuki's Scott Russell , By Henny Ray Abrams S 50 cott Russell rolled the dice and came up a winner. Gambling his future that the various bosses at both Lucky Strike and Suzuki would see in him the same ability which he sees in himself, the 30-year-old Georgian walked away from a guaranteed threeyear deal with. the Muzzy Kawasaki team to prove, in a very short time, that he deserved one of the most coveted rides in all of motorcycle racing. His just rewards came last week when the team picked up his option to ride alongside Daryl Beattie for the 1996 season, keeping a dream alive he's had since he began racing. "It's good. Next year I can get a good season of testing in and come into the season really ready to knock heads with these guys, heads up, be positive, be focused. It's a new challenge that I'm really looking forward to. I've always wanted it," Russell said during a Saturday afternoon conversation in the Lucky Strike hospitality tent at Bmo, site of the Czech GP. Lucky Strike Suzuki team manager Garry Taylor said at Bmo that he was retain.ed because he was "fast. Others aren't fast, they're fastish." Taylor believes Russell will be challenging for the 500cc World Championship in 1996, agreeing with Russell that a winter of testing will be invaluable. And if Suzuki hadn't signed him? "Even if they didn't play this option out, I was thinking about it a lot lately, but never worried about them re-signing," he said. "I thought that we'd done a pretty good job and everybody gets along and I thought, you know, I think they'll hang in there and give me a good shot next year to see what I can really do. Because they knew, as well as I did, that to come into this thing in the middle of the year is a tough thing to do. And to really do what you can do you need time to get everything sorted out. I wasn't going to worry about it. If it didn't happen, I'd be riding a superbike making more money than anybody. "I had a guy here yesterday who was ready to pay me a million dollars to go back and ride a superbike," Russell said, referring to an offer from the Austrian Promotor team. "I'm happy to be here. It's where I always wanted to be. That's a lot of money to ride a superbike. It takes a few sacrifices to get where you want to go and I'm here and I don't want to leave, I don't want to have to go back. The next place I go from here is home." Since moving up from World Superbike to the 500cc World Championship unquestionably the pinnacle of !Jlotorcycle road racing - the change that has come over Russell has been wondrous. His struggles aboard the Kawasaki superbike had made him moody and sullen. The trademark wide-mouthed, quick smile had been replaced by a lingering, sulking frown. Around the paddock of the world championships, he is again outgoing and engaging, still somewhat in awe of the accoutrements of success which rightfully surround .him . But racing is serious business, especially at this level, and Russell knows that his results haven't been what they should be. What should have been the highlight of the season, the British GP at Donington Park, became the low light within a span of a few laps. After setting the fastest time in the morning warmup, Russell was the victim of a lesser rider's mistake - he rode into Russell's path after doing a plug chop at the end of a long straight. Track marshals held up blankets around the fallen Georgian to hide him from view, and rumors, many dire, filtered back througJ:l the paddock. Fortunately, it wasn't as grave as had been whispered, but it halted an ascent which had begun when he first tested the Lucky bike at Bmo in May. From the minute he first threw a leg over the RGV500 he's been a pleasant surprise for Suzuki. They knew that he was good, but they were surprised at how quickly he came to grips with the 500. He, on the other hand, quickly realized it was more difficult than he had imagined. Everything happened much faster than on a superbike. There was no engine braking, the power was incredible, the carbon brakes, along with the light weight, made stopping instantaneous. And the Michelin tires were not nearly as predictable as the Dunlops he'd spent most of his career on. And even when he took a step back to assess the situation, he impressed the team. "He has a real honesty with himself, which is not always the case" Lucky Strike Suzuki team manager Garry Taylor said. "When he first got together he said all the things a rider says. He was a big enough man after the second race to admit it was harder than he thought. That he had to be fitter than when he was on the superbike. He saw there was' no time to rest and think about what to do, where to go." AJr.eady there's talk within the racing community that Russell could well eclipse Beattie next year and become the number-one rider on the team. Either way, it could easily be the strongest team in racing. His learning curve was obvious by the third race, the French GP, at Le Mans, where he was up near the top five and gaining before crashing. But he picked the bike up, restarted, and carded a sixth-place, his best finish of the year. Wrestling 'the bike back upright with apparent ease was more impressive to the team than his finish. Then came the British GP. "Donington was looking good. I reckon first or second there. I really believe I could have done it. There just wasn't no way they were going to get away, not there," Russell said. Instead, he went home with a broken bone in his left wrist and was later diagnosed with a whiplash injury. "When I got home, I couldn't hardly turn (my head) to move. I couldn't lie down, I couldn't do nothing. I mean pain going from my neck into my shoulder. I was a mess." He admitted that he left the cast on his wrist longer than he should have, heeding the doctor's instructions and hoping it would heal properly. "I just wanted it to heal up. And it has. But what happened is that I lost a lot of strength." Three weeks off were not enough for ,him to be in shape for the Bmo circuit, a track that features hard doWnhill braking and plenty of hard transitions. His left wrist was still in a cast, he didn't have the strength to muscle the motorcycle, and he never got it to a pace where he could make the proper decisions about setup.

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