Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

"Oar e-II. To QIre YINI' l7w . . . , . .otocro.. ' All Bike Brands Welcomed In.tnH:IItHI Ar"""" The re's n o n eed to tr avel hal f way across the cou ntry to attend a motocross sc hool. Not when th e best on e will com e to you . TON Y D., multi-tim e U .S. Motocro ss Champion. will soo n be In your area to hel p you sharpen your riding skills and show you how to make a tra ck work for you . He has been j oined by a group of fine sponsors to produ ce an outsta nding series of r iding school s and indoor seminars. ~ Also operatin'g pri vate and small group lesson s. Sign up soon for the one nearest you. S UZ U KI OWNERS "FREE"!! See your local dealer for details 1996 SCHOOLS & ACTIVIT!ES LIST DATE CITY/STATE TRACK/EVENT January 1 3 Orlando. F lorida Citrus Bowl Super X'" January 21 Niagara Falls. New York Convention Center Arena X'" February 3 Seattle. Washington King Dome Super X' " February 1 7 Trade Show' " C incinnati.. Ohio March 1 G ainesville. Florida Gatorback MX Park Special G uest - G C uy ooper March 1 1 T T yler. exas Swan MX P ark Special G uest - G Cooper uy March 1 6 Eloy. Arizona Ocottillo R aceway March 23 San Bernardino. C alifornia Glen Helen R aceway Inc ' Special G uest - C D raig ecker" March 30 R ancho Cordova. California Prairie C ity-SVRA April 6 Washougal. W ashington Washougal MX P ark April 20 Watkins. C olorado Watkins Sports C enter May 6 Blountsville. T ennessee Muddy Creek R way ace Special Guest - G C uy ooper May 24 & 25 Buds C reek. Maryland Potomac R aceway (MAMA) May 26 Mt. Morris. P ennsylvania Highpoint Raceway"' , May 31/June 1 Johnstown. P ennsylvania Pleasure V alley MX P ark June6&7 Casey. Illinois Lincoln Trails Motor XSports June 13 & 1 4 Atlanta. Georgia Road Atlanta June 17 Buds C reek. Maryland P otomac Raceway Special Guest . Ezra Lusk' Central .Village MX Park (NEMA) June 21-22 C entral Village. Connecticut MX 338(NESC) . June 24 & 25 Southwick. Massachusetts June 30 Englishtown. New Jersey R aceway P ark Special Guest - Tim Ferry' July 8 & 9 Buchanan. Michigan ' Red Bud MX P ark Special G uest - Mike LaRocco' -July 12 & 1 3 Lake Mills. Wisconsin Aztalan C ycle P ark Special G uest - G C uy ooper Millville. Minnesota Spring Creek MX P ark July 1 & 16 5 uy . Special Guest - G Cooper July 21 N Berlin. New York ew Unadilla Valley Sports Center" Clifford. Pennsylvania Hurricane Hills Sports Center July 22·25 Special Guest - G Albertyn' reg Troy. O o hi Kenworthy MX P ark J ~l y 29 & 30 Special Guest - Guy Cooper Hurricane Mills. Tennessee Loretta L AM Nationals'" ynn August 5-10 A ugust 26 Binghamton. New York Brcone·Tioga Sports C enter D elmont. P ennsylvania Steel C MX Park" ity September 1 Clifford. Pennsylvania Hurricane Hills Sports C enter'" September 8 Englishtown. New Jersey Raceway P ark'" October 6 GaineSVille. F lorida Gato rb~ck MX Park" November 28 NOTE: SUBJECT TO CHANGE "'PROMOTIONAL SEMINAR 'TEAM SUZUKI MX RIDER TDMXS I 345 John Hyde Road / New Windsor, MD 21776 / (410) 635-6916 24 . . Team Honda n:'anager Gary Mathers Wh at did it mean to H o nd a t o g et Miguel DuH amel signed u p for t w o more years? I think it was a turnaround for American road racin g. We've always suffered u nder this th ing tha t if you d are put some time and effort into making somebod y good yo u're going to los e th em because the European programs have so much more to offer . The fact th at he d e cid ed to s tay with us is great for American road racing. He's got the talent to go on afte r this two-year contract. I can't answer as to what he wants to d o, but I suspect that he would like to go back over there. But he's got some goals of wha t he'd like to d o her e. We're tickled to death -to have him, I can tell you that. He's a great guy. Aside from be ing a good rider, he's a very good guy. Was the hiring of Steve Crevierfor the '96 Smokin' Joe's team a tough decision? Not really. Only because we didn't find out until the 11th hour that we were losing Mike (Hale). He was the next guy there tha t was available. It was late. He was the guy a t the top of the list who was available. It was an easy decision. We also talk to ou r sp onso rs. Sometimes they have a different requir em ent, or th ey want u s to lean some o th er way. When Crevier' s name cam e up eve ryone just agreed imm edi ately . There were no objec tions fro m any side. Our biggest concern was what Miguel (DuHamel) tho ug ht abo ut it, but he was fine wit h it. Why did Doug Henry end up leaving your MX team? Was that his decision, or Honda's? It was Henry 's d eci sion. Af te r he go t h urt , we didn't really have a lon g-term prognosis at the time that we had to do the neg otiating. But our feeling was that h e probably wouldn't be ready to go until the Nationals in 1996, maybe even later. Because of his injury, we decided we could only pay him X amount of dol lars. It wa s an increase, but he was basically very d isappointed w ith it. He wanted a fair amount more money and we d idn't offer him any more. I don't know what he made from Yamaha, but I have to assume he got what he wanted. And he left. The number-on e question on everybody's mind is this: Is th ere anybody out there who can b eat McGrath? Sure . Ther e 's alwa ys somebody out ' there wh o can beat anybody. There are so me good gu ys out there, but I' m not go ing to tell you who we think the y ar e. I don 't think there's an ybody out there right now who can beat Jere my because if there was th ey'd be be ating him. There are guys who in their stage of their caree rs right now have the capabilit ies . In fact, there 's a few out there we're surp rised that nobody is looking at. We'r e full right now. Jeremy w ill race until he doesn't race anymore, but there will be the next Jeremy . It'll probably be a long time before somebody has the string of race success that he's had. It's pretty phenomena l. Ha ve you seen anybody reach the level that McG rath has reached? Not wi th the ease that it looks like he's reached it. I' m sure if you tell a cha mpion he's got so much natural ability, or that he's been lucky, it'd make them as mad as hell. The y'veall had some real commi tment early in their career tha t' s .brou ght them along to make them look so good, bu t he looks like he does it so easy. To a ns w e r yo u r question, I'v e never seen an ybody that has done it that easily in appearance. A man with your immense racing backg round must have some opinions on the state of racing. Is there an yt h ing yo u ' d li ke to see done diffe re n tly in supercross, motocross or ro ad racing? I think all of them cou ld pay h igher purses to the riders. I think that we've really dropped the ball there. I also think th e manufa cture rs need to put more emphasis on the outdoor Nat ionals in m otocross. Sup ercro ss is getting to be rollerball in some cases - and this is my opinion, not Honda's - and I think the Nati onals could be a better sho w for televisio n. You can see the na tural terrain and all that stuff. It's also. more relative to the kind of rid ing that our customers do . I'd like to see the Nationals reach the prominence that supercross has. In road racing there are a lot of little things that nee d to be d one, but I think we're doing pretty good in road racin g. Did S co tt Russell's mo ve from Kawasaki in the middle ofa season ha ve an effect on how future contracts . w ill be written? It had a littl e bit of an effect on the con tracts that we've done, but we 've onl y done a couple since then . I think it made u s all rea li ze th at the w a y we cater to the riders ma y be w ron g . Th e contracts are basically written to cater to the rid ers. It's d oin g what the y want to do for their reasons. And I think that bit Rob Mu zzy on the tail. I think th e next time we do a major con tra ct it' ll be different beca use of tha t. That kind of situation isn't un us ua l in othe r sports, but it s u re as h e ll is unu sua l iii ou r sp o rt. There ' s been more in tegrity in our sport, I think. But contracts are only a s good as the tw o people w ho sign the m, and we found ou t how good one of those people was. The bo ttom line is if yo u ha ve a con tra ct wi th a guy tha t doesn't like yo u or yo u don't like h im and it isn 't going to work out, the best thing to do is let it go. You can' t figh t each other all year long in a racing scenario - it won't work. What changes have you seen in the sport over the years? Are the people the same? I think the racers a re the sa me . The money has gon e up so it's become more of a money thing and that makes it a little mo re tense some times. The stakes are higher. The biggest thing for me is there are a lot more people looking over your shoulder, and there's a lot more paper work (laughs). Racers are still the same. Good racers and good mechanics - they just want to win . It's always been that wa y. Is the average person who works at American Honda aware of the racing p rogram? I think we have a pretty good number of employees who follow the racing - but .it's probably only on e out of every 10. Ten percent. Th e same people come around every time and tell us, 'That's grea t: But the majority of the people don't. I can only compare it to the last place I worked (Kawasaki), where people would call up and ask if the y could come over a fter w ork and help cle an parts. It was like ' Wh at d o you need, you're doing g re a t, yo u' re k ickin g Hond a's ass and we lov e it: There was so m uch en th usias m there. It's more of a job here. But there are a bunch of people here who are rea l race enthusiasts. More so than kudos and attaboys, we'll get people say ing, 'What's the matt er with you gu ys?' if we're having a bad series. Winning is expec ted here . How many races do you attend a year? I do all the 'roa d races and the test sessi ons, and th en I just go to the local motocross races . Should that lead people to believe that you like road racing better? No. I'm re sponsible for th e w hole department, but I'm fully responsib le

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