Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~Facts "-at~ Praee at;/Uly 1, 1966 :aeeOf~m, England ~ fatherr.-....~m E Sister. Ala . '":""'lI!1, mother' ngland Danielle 1TIed to Michaela Jean, One ailed fOUr and Cla'utJ"'!: cfatJghters, How do you reckon the relationship with Aaron Slight will go? I don't see any problems at all. 1 just laugh about it and I'm sure Aaron does as well. It's just got everybody else talking. But if I thought there was going to be a problem then 1 wouldn't have gone there in the first place, and I'm sure Aaron would have had something to say about it. Both of us are happy about it and I'm sure it will work aU right. There's obviously going to be a lot of competition between you two. That's something you enjoy, isn't it? Oh sure, I'm looking forward to it. U I thought it was just going to be between me and him for the championship it might get difficult, but there's so many guys out there... About five or six who can challenge for the World ChampiJnship. So it's not all about me and ~aron, and I'm sure he knows that as Nell. You can't expect to win on the RC45 ;traight away, can you? {es. We've got a good test program :orted out before the first race. So by the aged one. (left) Fogarty In action at the British round 01 the World Superblke Series. (Above) The Fogarty estate. me it comes around I will have'done a1f a season's radng already. So I will e ready. Over the years I've found I do dapt to different bikes well That's one Ius for me, I can jump on anything and tde it straight away. Hopefully, that !ill be the case this time. I'm looking Jrward to it. I'm ready to go now. I'm Joking forward to it because I know ,hat everybody's saying, th.at I won't ·e able to do it. I think it's good for uperbikes. It will be a lot more interestng now that Carl Fogarty's not on a )ucati because if he was, he'd just go md win again. I want to go out and win m a Honda now. is it a case of taking revenge on all :hose people who said you were winrUng because of your bike? ~o, not really. It's personal for me. It's what I want to do. People are always going to say it's the bike. It doesn't matter what you win on. They say that about (Michael) Doohan, they said that about (Kenny) Roberts, (Barry) Sheene. You can't please people. If I win the championship on a Honda next year they'll say it even more. It doesn't matter. I know that the best rider won the championship and the people that matter know. That's why I had six offers to go superbike radng for next year. My bike wasn't the best out there. It was a good bike, a good package, but it had the best rider on it and that's what wins a championship. '0 What's your testing program between now and the start of the season? The provisional schedule that I've been shown has us testing at nearly every circuit we actually race at. It's only the places like Hockenheim and Assen where we couldn't test because we're not allowed to. Do you intend to train harder this winter? I will be. Tomorrow I'm going to a fitness test to work out a fitness program for the winter. I'll also be doing motocross and squash (racquetball). I'll have to get some bigger leathers next year because I'm going to be bigger, stronger and faster. I'm going to work on my upper-body strength to help me move around on the bike. Do you put a lot of pressure on yourself at the race track? I do because I've always said the only person better than Carl Fogarty is Carl Fogarty himself. U anyone can make me better it's me. I always put a lot of pressure on myself because I expect a lot from myself. Do you regret having missed out on the Roberts SOOcc Grand Prix ride? I don't know really. It was my first choice for 1996, that's what I wanted to do. But when I last spoke to Kenny there was nothing guaranteed. He hadn't even sorted his bikes out, sponsors, everything was up in the air and it was going to drag on a long, long time. It's stiJJ not decided yet. So if I'd carried on chasing the deal with Kenny, I would have missed all the superbike deals and if nothing had come at the end of it, I would have been left a World Champion silting around at home without a bike. That's what I was worried about. The superbike teams gave me time, but eventually I had to decide. I decided in Bali, when I was out there on week's holiday before we got to Australia. I said to Michaela, "Look, I'm going to go to Honda." And that was it. And what did she say? She said, "Good, at least they'll all speak English." (laughs). Does your deal with Honda include some 500cc GP rides? Certainly one ride. It's up to me. We'll look at the calendar. I don't really know what race that could be. It can't be the British GP, which I'm not too disappointed about because I might not have picked that anyway. We'll see. I think I'm going to get a test on the bike early in the year at Phillip Island. I'll have to see how I'm doing in my own championship. If I'm leading it and I think it's too much of a risk I might not even bother riding the NSR at all. Knowing the way the Japanese work, it's quite surprising that they would even consider allowing you to do that. Is it something which you asked for at the start? ot really. I just think that they will let a me dedde. That would be the best thing. I'm not like a young kid who can't make a decision anymore. I was in exactly the same situation only a year ago. I was leading the World Championship for Ducati and I rode at the British GP. Ducati said, "Look, the decision's yours," and I thought that was good of them to say that. I think that will be the case with Honda. Is this selling you up for a 500 ride with Honda? No, that's not been mentioned. It's ju t a year racing for Honda in superbikes with a chance to ride the 500. But nothing's been spoken about for 1997 at all. You rode the SR before (in 1990)... It was a nightmare. The bike JUSt didn't work for me. I couldn't do anything on it. I .just couldn't get round a corner. I came to a corner and the thing just went straight on. But since then SODs have improved a lot. I rode the Harris which was much better. I rode the Cagiva which was good. It was a nice-handling bike, it was just the power that was difficult on that bike. I saw the Honda in Spain, at Barcelona for the last GP of 1995. And it does sound like the power's very nice to use. Of course, it's all right looking and thinking it's easy but until you've ridden it you don't really know. How do you think your fans will take your leaving Ducali? I think the majority will not mind it and carryon supporting me for what I am. There's going to be a few disappointed, for sure. I get a lot of letters saying that they hope I will stay with Ducati, so they're going to be disappointed. I hope they understand it's a decision that wasn't easy, but it's what I wanted to do. I needed a new challenge. I don't think I could have stayed doing the same thing again for another year. This is motivating me; I'm ready to go now. I'm really looking forward to it. So you're not even slightly worried about the move to Honda? o. Even if I finish last in the World Championship, I'll still know I made the right decision. Because I just couldn't ride the same bike again for another year. There would just be no point. If I won again everybody would just say it's the bike. I know I've made the right decision, even now, before I've ridden the Honda. Have you thought about the similarity between your move and Doug Polen's decision to go to Honda after having dominated on Ducati? That doesn't worry me at all. I'm not Doug Polen. I think when he was dominating in World Superbike, it was just 13

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