Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

there, and he said, "You know what, I'm so god damn jealous." All I sai d was, "Don' t be mad, jus t keep helping me out, and maybe we can do some more of this." . And y o u w ere on a bike he u sed to race? Yeah , it wa s hi s old fram e, one of th e many Jon Cornwell ex-mo torcycles. Have you eve r cons idered quitt ing? . In 1993, I go t burned ou t. I was almos t sick of racing. Not so mu ch racin g, just the d rivin g, sick of ea ting food on the road and try ing to find restaurants with . d ecent meals, so I wa s glad to have that yea r ove r. Then 1994 started really we ll, th en I go t hurt, and I d idn 't h av e th e confidence when I came back. And then I broke my other leg and that pu t me out for the season. Sitting out all those rac es, I really realized how much I wa nted to ride. I realized how much I was doi ng th is for fun, fo r just th e pl a in e njoymen t. It wasn't the money or this or that. It was wh at I wanted to do . Did you ha ve an y doubts abo u t com ing back fro m two b ig injuries? Well, yeah . I remember laying ther e, in the gravel pit whe re it (the second MX accide nt) happen ed and saying, "This is it, I' m through w ith m ot o rcycles. I' m sell ing every th ing, I'm w ashin g m y hands of this crap . Enough of this." But a few w eeks later, as soon as I could, I wan ted to start ridi ng again. In 1995, once I go t back on the 750, I knew thi ngs were fine. I hadn't rid den the 750 since Ju ly u ntil th e following Ap ril at Pom ona, and I was hau ling ass. Mentally, I wa s just pumped. I cam e in fr om p ractice a t Pom on a, a nd I w a s sm iling . I wa s going faster than Par ker the only person I wasn' t faster th an was Spri nger - and he won that night. I knew I hadn't lost anyth ing. I thi nk ma ybe sitting out those race, after getting a little tired in 1993, made me really go for it in 1995. I wa s pretty excited. What do you do to train? Well, I kin d of stay off th e motocro ss b ikes (laughs ). I d o h ave a b rand -new tim e slot - we were on the re at 1 am on Thursd ay nigh ts. Only the night owls are going to catch that. Once we go t on to TNN, Saturdays at 3, it was excellent. Everyb od y' s talking abou t it, saying "Hey, I saw th is new sp ort." I got a lot of th at. "H ey, is that w hat you do, d o you go arou nd in circles?" And I'd say, ''' Yeah, that was us." Basically, if it was ope n ing th e eyes of frien ds, people I went to schoo l w ith that had no idea of wh at I did, if they all of a su d den realized that' s wh at I do, then I thin k we're going to get everybody noticing it. I a lways ask p eop le wh at t h e y thought of it, and they say "It's exciting, th ere is lo ts of p a ssing, it ' s good to wa tch." So you did almost all the AMA rounds, e xcept for s ome conflicts w it h t he Canadian series. He got pretty excited this year about running the u.s. Natio na ls, and I think that helped h im ou t a lot. The more you race, the faster you get. He had someo ne bu ild ing h is motors that re ally helped him ou t a lot. His stu ff was ru nni ng an d it wa s running fast. Chri s was p robably my tou ghest competitor, day to day. His consi stency wasn' t so goo d throughout the year, and that hurt him in the points sta nd ings in Cana da . D o you an d Chris ever work together at th e U.S. eve nt s? Not really. I try to keep m y di sta n ce. Ever yt hing is fine, we ge t alon g great, but I just work on my own. Do my own thing. I' m kind o f ge tti ng aw ay fro m bein g the old social butterfly in the pits. Wh at tracks do you like be st? My fav ori te track in Canad a wo u ld be Trois Riviere. It' s banked , w ide open, Doug was coming along there, bu t he 's k in d o f los t in te res t a b it. H e app roache d me a cou ple of we eks ago, wa nting to help me ou t an d tune for me at the races he isn't riding. There are a few ride s out th ere, m ayb e h e sho uld have been on the ph one some more, getting himself some rides . He' s not su re if he 's going to 883; he says he is, and he wan ts to ri de m y b ike a t a coup le o f events. And you w ou ld prefer to concentrate on th e race bikes an d not use you r 883? 883s are okay to ride, they're fun, bu t I d on't care for them that much. I guess I just haven't ha d a good exper ience. The one. I do a lot of bicycling, p layin g hockey with Corn dog (Ion Cornwell) all winter long - that' s how I trai n. I was in a stage there th at everybody gets into in motocross - the big air is fun, then th e bi g air bites yo u in the a ss. Th at' s wha t h ap pened . No w I know I can d o it, but I don't h ave to do it that way anymore. I'm fine without it. I still do motocross, I just ride sa fe. I h ave a lot of friends, we do it togeth er, and if I'm not doing some thing like that, then I'm bor ed . You've got to keep riding to keep you r skills sharp. I'll tell you, mou ntain biking can get you too. It pu t me in the hospital for a day. How many motorcycles do you have for the various dirt track events? Five in total. I have an 883, two 750s - a mile and a half miler, and then the two 600s. The AMA series seems to be turning around after some lean years. The TV is h e lp in g ou t the m o st. It ' s doin g us a lot of goo d. People are starting to see it. At first, they gave us a bad I missed Den ver due to Trois Riviere, and the LaSalle short tra ck du e to the Leam ington Canad ian Na tional. Now yo u're pretty much part of th e American tour. Who do you see as the toughest competitor? I'd ha ve to say Scott Parker. The guy's won six titles. He's go t, I thi nk, 69 more wins th an I do . He m ight be h avin g a bad d ay early on, or a bad da y altog ether, but the next week, he' s goi ng to be there. What about the Canadian series? Chris Evans, Scott Buchan, a young kid ou t of Michigan who I think is 15 years old, Brian Bigelow, those are abou t the th ree that give me the most trou ble, any kind of headache. Maybe I shouldn't be telling them th is! Chris h ad the n umber-one p late, I expected him to give me a little bit more of a run for my m oney this year. But I think he had some bad luck, started off on th e wrong foot. At th e en d of th e year, man, he was just on a tear. yo u can run top to bottom. It's lots of fun, you can do lots of neat things on a 750. In the U.S., I wo uld say the Sp ringfield mile, even though it's never been m y bes t race. It' s the ultimate mile and th e ultim ate d irt trac k. As far as h alf mil e, I guess 1-96. No t that it's a g reat track, but it' s go t some mem or ies. Do you still prefer to ride the big bike? Yeah, I do. I still think I' m a better 750 ride r th an a 600 rid er. I'm wo rking on the 600 stuff, too . I'm working on my s hor t trac ks; th a t ' s w h er e I h a v e to sh arpen up my skills. It' s a good thing that there aren' t 15 of those a year, or I'd be finished . Wh at are your goals for 1996? My goa l for th is year was top 10, and I just missed that. So my goal is top 10 in AMA po ints . Now I kn ow that I can win them . It was fairly easy to win that one . I'd like to w in a few more races in 1996, and maybe get closer to the top five, if I coul d . How do y o u rate y o u r b rother's progress ? d ay I h ave a go od experience on one , one th at' s set up p retty good, then I'll ge t into it. But in genera l, th ey're too h ea vy an d d on' t h a ve enough horse power. What about road raci n g? You 've dabbled, and yo u know a lot o f people who are involved, is that important? It is. It' s exp ensive, but I'd like to get in to it . Rig ht now, my season in d ir t track is just too busy. This year, I went from April 1 to October 15 w ide op en, with no breaks, no weekends off. So as far as try ing to squeeze in a road race, there is n o time righ t now. So if I d o d e cid ed to d o i t, I'll have to s tar t scratching some d irt tracks. Righ t now, I haven't accomp lishe d what I w ant to do in di rt track yet . 5.0 , I guess w e'll p ut that on the back bu rner for now. If I was offered the right deal to come ou t an d try it, to get my feet w et, see how it goes, I wouldn ' t pass it up. But u n til tha t h appens, I' m not goin g to spe n d my own money. We're going to 0 go tear 'em up on the dirt tracks. Beattie and his tu ner Brian Olsen take a victory lap at the Woodstock Canadian National.

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