Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

can't. Nobody ever tha n k s you fo r telling them they're doing a good job when th e reali ty is that they 're not. H o we ve r, possibly, I could be a lit tle less, as you put it, frank. The fact of the matter is that sometimes, if vou want to wake somebody up, you have to give them a slap. To be honest, one of the things I'm really afraid of is the fact I'm going to be working with the factory Ducati again . Which means I get to work with John Kocinski. Which means that sooner or later, we're going to have trouble. To be honest wi th yo u, John has had an easy a time of it. People have bent over backwards and kissed his ass . That' s the last th ing the guy needs. He needs to just get on th e bike and ride it. Don' t com plain, don 't change the stee ring-head a ng le 42 ti mes and end up exactly w here yo u w e re, because yo u j ust wa sted th r ee day s, Rid e , d on 't thi nk . I had so mewhat similar problems in m y ow n racing career, when you start to thi nk too m u ch instead of ju st rid in g. An thony (Gobe rt) is th e best case in point, in terms of an example for that. You can set his bike with a good basic setup, nothing super-trick, a reasonable chassis setup, reasonable suspension se ttings and good tires, and send him ou t and tell him, "I'll be back in th ree h o u r s . W e ' ll see h o w you're doing then." By that time, he'll be comfortable and going well . . .. . . How long d id it ta ke to lea rn what a ne utral chassis setup was fo r all those different m otorcycles? You have to go by what the rider tells you. The teams have a baseline for any g iven tr a ck . These guys know wha t they're doing, yo u give them some basic pointers. To be honest, I sti ll don't know what good, basic, neutral settings are - I have to work with what the riders tell me. The rider comes in and tells me, "It's not turning, it doesn't hold its line, it's hoppi ng off the corners, it's no t squatting, I do n't have any traction ." No w I have some thi ng to work w ith. The team s co me to th e t rack with w ha t they know, o r if they don 't know anythi ng, they jus t leave it the way it was the last time. Then the rider can say wha t he th inks is wrong. Th is is where th e com munication factor comes in, and this is one of the areas that I think is m y strong point. I try to allow the riders to think on their own, and give me the answers th a t they re a ll y believe, as opposed to lea ding them, and getting the answers that I thi nk they are feeling. There's a really, really fine line there, in terms of the type of question you have to ask. You have to ask a completely neutral question, and yet be complefely specific about what the type of answer is th at you' re looking for. Is it doing A, B or C? You have to walk the m through it. Over tim e, you get a feeling for their responses, witho ut even asking q uestio ns, but looking at body la n gu a g e an d t h e expression on th eir face. It tak es a great deal of trus t. I h ad a probl e m w ith An thony at Assen, he liked th e bike the way it was se tu p, and he didn't wan t to cha nge a ny th in g . Bu t it w as p is s in g d ow n w it h ra in . He w as spi n ning the tire out of all the comers. So (Kawasa ki learn manager) Steve Johnson and I took it upo n ourselves to tr y an d help him ge t some better grip, since he was several second s off th e p ace . We d id so m ething, and he w as rea lly offended by that. He said th e bike was sta rt ing to try to hi gh -side h im, but th at told m e we we re heading in th e right direction. How important are the data-acquisition sys tems? Cornwell last rode his 250cc GP bike at Daytona in M arch of 1995; he was knocked out of the race early on with mechanical problems. It's a good thing in certain regards. It helps us as sus pe nsion technicians to see w h e re some o f the probl em s are, in w hat part of the stroke, and how fast th e frequency is, w he re on the race track a particular problem occurs. But the most important part is the human element, the co m munication between the key individuals. You only use the data acquisition as back up. If a rider comes in and says he doesn't like the way something feels, and you look at the data acquisition, or as we like to calI it the "cartoon screen," you can make that thing pretty m u ch tell you whatever you want. It's there, it's good information, but by the same token you have to take it with a huge grain of salt. Motorcycle racing is no where near as precise as car racing. Do yo u think the Ducatis ha ve a basi c ad vantage? Yes, I do. They are easy to ride, you can ride it faster, longer, and it's easier on the tires . The total package is much better than the Japanese b ikes, but the Japanese bikes, all of th em have areas where they are much be tter than a Ducati, The problem is, the sum of the p ar ts is be tter on the Ducati. Do yo u think that a n y of the n e w bik es , Ka wasa k is and S uzuki s, will chall en ge the Ducatis? They w ill be more competitive, but how m u ch more? You're still dea ling with the same problem. The last line is the tires, and the final sta tement is that the Ducati is easier on the tires. They have perfected their package very nicely; tha t bike is easy to ri de. Its acceleration is unb elievable, and it's no t spinning the tire. In th is d ay and age, with fac tory technology and riders' abili ty being pretty darn close when you get right down to it, overtaking sta rts to be a big problem. You need someone like Anthony (Gobert), who has the desire and the drive to stay in front of somebody, . whatever it takes. It's now very difficult for people to pass on the brakes, because the bikes are SO similar in tha t rega rd . Do yo u think Ca rl Foga rt y is th e best ri d er, o r do es h e jus t ha ve t h e b es t bike? Las t year, Carl had bo th the race craft and he a lso h ad the desire. When you combine all of th at with th e abilities of that m ot orcycl e and team, it's quit e a combination . What do you th in k of the ongoing di scussions concerning SOOcc Grand Prix bikes vs, superbikes? Let m e give you an example. I ha d a GP tech ni cia n working with me, and after tho se ra ces, he said that superbike racing w as the best ra cing he' s see n after years of goi ng to GP s. We had lot s of tim es with five, six guys, righ t together in the lead . It's unfortunate that some of the Grand Pri x riders ha ven 't tried s uperbikes; th ey shou ld try a n d rid e t h em b e fo re they d en igrat e t h em. (Michael) Doohan w as at Monz a, watchi ng, and yo u co u ld see h e was impressed . What race stan ds out for you, in terms of the ambience an d th e European feel of the series ? Monza . That track, th a t place, that whole atmosphere, the histo ry, walking around and just looking, it just gives yo u the sh ivers. You kno w, the Paraboli ca. Les mo; I rode aro u nd o n a scooter and all I could think is, "Boy, do I ever wish I had a bike to race here." At every single race track, the hardest part was just to watch. I wanted to race. I had no desire to quit, it's just that the circum stances of th is opportunity was th at I bloody weII better take advantage while I can. Tell us how yo ur car racing works. The main guy who is helpin g me is Ian Tatham, from Hyd-Mech Saws, and Armstrong's Garage in Georgetown . They build the motor and give me lots of technical and driving assistance . I figure the mo tor alone is $17,000 Canadian. Witho ut th em, I cou ld n' t do it. Ca r racing is expensi ve, but w hen yo u get righ t down to it I don' t kn ow if it's as expensive as bike racing. And yo u can d o it a lo t m o re ofte n, and you don' t have to drive as far. The car that I'm racing is 'dirt-m od ified , and basically it's a sprint car with a big body on it. It's a little bit heavier than a sprint car, an d it's longer, and it doesn't have quite the same horsepower, but it's the same sort of thing. It' s th at sideways style, tha t dirt track racing th at I like so much. It was definitely different. You get a completely different sensation than on a bike. The sensation of speed in a car is much greater than on a moto rcycle. In a car, you're looking through this little three-by-three square windscreen, you have the body all around, a roll cage, and you're enclosed. On a bike, you have all this space, you r periphera l vision, an d 110 m iles per hou r doesn't seem like such a big deal. Wh en yo u get u se to it, yo u rea li ze th at every thing happens a lo t slower in the car. You have to be a lot more gen tle, really, really smooth; you ca n't ge t a way w ith being abru pt like you can on a bike. You can' t just pitch it in to a comer like you can with a bike. When the car sta rts to let go, there's a lot m ore m om entum and inertia beh ind it, an d it jus t keeps righ t on going. That w as th e first big revelation . The re is so much car arou nd you, it takes tim e to get th e feel th rou gh your fingers of what' s happening five or six feet away at one of the wh eel s. After a while, it go t to the point th at it wa s a little bit like a Sunday d ri ve, compared to racing a bike. Racing a bike is immediat e, wh ereas in a car, it tends to tak e a little longer fo r the feed back to ge t back to you . Plu s, on a bi ke you're sitting in th e m id dl e, but in th e car, yo u' re si tti n g over the rea r w heels. So, when the th ing starts to slide, it feels like you' re ha n ding it way out. Th en, afterwards, you - look at the pictures, you realize it's no t that far, you're not at full lock. When you're looking out the side window to see where you 're going, then you' re really sideways. It takes a while to ge t used to th at removed fee ling. You have to learn to sit back, and say to yo urself, "I do n ' t have to b e banzai." Ev en though it's fun. When you run it down into a comer, don't lift, throw the th ing sideways, whack the throttle back o n, it's like "Wow, I got away wi th it." There is no way yo u can do that on a bike. How long does it tak e to get u sed to 500 horsepow er and a 2400-po u n d car on dirt? I never did ge t used to it. I never did get complete ly comfortable or confiden t with myself in the car. I go t to the point where I cou ld say I was competent ge tting the car around the track by myself, but in traffic it was anothe r thi ng . .You get the things stacked up three wide in a h alf mil e comer, yo u feel really cro wded. I th ou ght there would be lots of tim e to look at th e ga uges, take th ings in, but in th at regard it's jus t like bike racing . I drove the car six tim es, I had a couple of really good drives, I never won anything. I th ink my best finish was a ninth or so mething. I led a bunch of races, an d I won a heat, I bea t some fast guys, bu t you h ave to take a good hard look at how to make th e car react. Because I'm so used to the bikes, and I'm so happygo-lucky with the throttle, and I like to get it sideways, I can enjoy driving it but it can be slowing me down. What d id yo u m is s more last year, road racin g or dirt tra ck? I would have to say that I m issed th e di rt track. from being a di rt tracker for a lon g ti me, an d also fro m running th e dirt car. But because I was wo rki ng at the road races, and was exposed to it all th e time, I mi ssed it a lot too . In m y heart, I m iss the dirt mo re. What do you hope to do in 1996? I'm goi ng to be a World Su pe rbike tech n ician ag ain and I'm going to try and ride a few AMA Natio nals; I ha ve a Hyd-Mech 600cc Kawasaki Supersport at m y d isp o s al, a n d I st ill ha v e m y TZ250. I d on 't ru le ou t som e flat tra ck; Bri an Ol sen (St eve Beattie ' s tuner) .is go ing to build m e a m ot or, and I ha ve the chassis rea d y to put together. And I have a new ch assi s fo r the car, an d 1 want to go out and ha ve fun with that. I hav e a lot of toys, not very much time, but whatever I do I'm going to make sure I enjo y it. 0 ° 47

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