Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

for the road racing team as the team manager. We have a motocross team manager in Wes McCoy, but we don't ha ve a Wes McCoy in road ra cing. It wo uld be hard for me to pick what kind of racing I like best. Way back when we d id a lot of it, I think I leaned toward d irt track. It's a one-day deal; you're in th e morning and out that night. It ' s quick and dirty, but each one has its ups and downs. I used to d o them all. The first year I was here I got the Fourth of July off and Christmas Day. Did you be li eve the road race te a m would be able to bounce back from the d isastrous year it had in 1994? Our lack of success in '94, '93 and '92 I d on 't think was an yone person or an y one entity' s fault. Overall , we just didn't have the development program that we need ed . We didn't hav e the budget we need ed, we didn't ha ve a whole lot of thin gs you need to have a compe titive p rogram. At the end of 1994 we made so me decisions here that made a lot of sense to us. We d id some more de velopm en t, we bou ght so me equipment to help us out. Prior to that it was a Japan progra m and you buy into those programs; you buy plan A, plan B or plan C. At the end of '94, I stuck my neck out a little bit and we changed some of those decisions . We also go t Miguel and we got Mike and we spent some money that we wo u ld n't have spent if we d idn't thi n k we had a competitive program. Everything just worked together. . What's the bottom line for s uccess? How much emphasis do you place on havi ng the right riders? I think in motocross race day is more of a mental thing than road racing - not that either one is more difficult than the o ther. I th in k the mental ps ych e of a motocr oss rider ha s more to do w ith wi nn ing than with a road ra cer. Road racing takes a pretty good balance of each: It takes a reall y good rider, a good bike and good support. It really has to be spot on, because if it isn't somebod y whose d one it better is going to beat yo u. Jeremy could jump on the worst bike in the main event and win with it. Miguel couldn't d o that. He couldn 't . jump on the worst bike on the 25th row at Daytona and do anything w ith it. To win races, yo u ha ve to ha ve a good rid er , go od equipment and good su pport. That's what it takes. What in your opinion went wrong with the Kevin Magee experiment in 1994? I think we let Kevin persuade us in to trying to build him a Yama ha. He liked the Yamaha, the last four-s tro ke Yamah a that he r ode, a n d e ve rything he d idn't like about our bike he made references to the Yamaha. We never even got close. When your race setu p is close to being right, you can make small changes and the rider can feel it. We could change that motorcycle from one end to the other and it never made a difference. He still didn't like it. Our bike wasn't as good then as it is now, so I'm not blaming Kevin . We just couldn't get it close to what he wanted and he could never get comfortable w ith it. Is Daytona th e most important race to wi n, from a com pany standpoint? If I put my Honda ha t on , I think I'd have to say yes. It's Daytona. As a team manager, you want to do the best you can, get so me points and lea ve there w ith hea lthy riders. There's like 10 guys who can run ou t front at Daytona. From a company standpoint, the marketing people would tell you it 's the most important, especially for the 600s. There's a lot of guys in the snow country wa iting to see which 600 wins Daytona before they buy something. I think 600-wise, tha t's the race. D Saddle&el™ • Absorbsruts & bumps • Ride farther • Ride comfortable • Lower seat heightoptional •C hoice of colors • Features Spandura®, tougherthan leather Call for information or a free b rochure ~~ "'=~ Trallli!/cade BQO.397·'T7C19 AlK, Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha, Kawasaki &3ii!!5 AlaI..". BhIrL. Pai--..nt,. CA 907i!3-375lJ 3f11&3D 'I5i!!i! MJII:e • 3fD-li3D-34Oi! I'ax 25

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