Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127780
(Left) With the setbacks that he faced In 1995 all beh ind him, Coolbeth can manage a sm ile now as he looks toward the future . (Above) "I like rac ing the 750s way better than the 6005," says Coolbeth (31) shown here leading Ronnie Jones (16) at the Sacramento Mile "I don 't rea lly notice the . weight difference." (Below) The past and future kings?: Coolbeth, aboard Randy Texter 's Lancaster HoD XR750, dices with Jay Springsteen at the Hagerstown Half Mile. Quoin Mile, and by his own adm ission the ve te ra n w rench was rea dy to call it quits, not necessaril y relishing the ide a of w orking with such a yo ung rider . But he an d Coolbeth ca me togeth er at Rapid City and be gan to build a solid relati on shi p. It paid off as the pair made all but one main eve n t th ro ug hou t th e rest of th e year. Despi te a trou bled season, Coo lbeth still managed to stay in the top 20, tally ing 61 poin ts for a 17th p lace finish in the series final sta ndings. Not bad, yet not where he "should have been." But tha t was then and this is now, and 1996 might just be the year that Coolbeth comes of age. H e is a year older - an adult now, ligh t years wiser about the bu sin ess side of racin g. an d he is back with Adkins and eager to continue his tu telage under th e ex perienced tuner th at m ay finally hel p h im live u p to his potential. Coolbeth has bee n training like never before in an effort to be in the best possible shape for the new season. A 10th-place finish at the D aytona Short Track w as just th e beginning of the roa d that he hopes will lead him back to the top of th e heap of young hotshoes in Grand National racing and allow his star to shine . That in itself could be fair w arning. considering that Cool beth, the " m an" who has already experienced a roller-coas ter career in the sport of profess iona l dirt tra ck racing. is just 18 years old. When did you start racing? My first race was at Loudon, Ne w Ham pshi re in 1981. I w as 5 yea rs old : I never wante d to pl ay any other sport or anything like that. My d ad 's dad raced, and my dad raced, so I jus t kin d of fell into it. But I didn't rea lly know that it was what I wanted to do because I didn't think that I'd ever go anywhere. Now 1do. You were 16 when you turned Pro-Am. Did the level of competition change when you got to that stage? It cha nged a w hole lo t, bu t I rea ll y w asn 't learning all that much as a ProAm, so I tu rned Exp ert like a m on th la te r . I reall y h ad no competi tio n as a Pro-Am, and that surprised me, because I remem bered how when I watched my dad I used to think that those guys were go ing so fas t. But it just came to m e, I gu ess. It w as no problem by the tim e I got there. You w ere no doubt paying attention to the guys on the Grand Nati o nal sce ne by th en . Di d yo u ev er ha v e any favorites? I liked them all. I thought they were all awesome. I didn't really have a favorite. Does it surp rise you to be raci ng wi th tho se sa m e g uys now? What do you think of the longevity they've ex perienced? It reall y does, because I never tho ught that I'd be able to accomplish that. Now I jus t have to put my hea d do wn and try to do better. If I think tha t I can, I'll probably keep on doing it for a long time, but if I can't, then maybe I'd only race for one more year and han g it up. How do you reflect on the whole experience with the Gardner situ ation? Do you consider that to be wa sted time? What have you learned from it? No it wasn't. It was actually a good experience. You learn from your m ist akes . I learned tha t first of all you have to have a good tea m and everybody h a s to get along . It's like if you have a good watch with no batteries, that w atch isn' t going to work . But I learned a lot a bo u t th e business si de of racing. I learned th at y o u 've got to ke ep y o u r e a rs to the ground all th e time and listen to what everyone is sayin g. I was just so excited to get such a good rid e so quick. Now it' s still fun, but I'm pa ying more attention to th e other details too. It also taught m e a bou t loya lty - that you have to think th ings throu gh before you go m aking sna p decisions. The deal with Texter was just a stopgap. Everyone involved knew that, right? Oh yeah. Randy asked me if I wanted to ride his stuff until I go t something else. He trea ted us rea l we ll an d we did pretty good. Bu t then Eddie ca lled . I called Randy to tell him, and I think he was a little disappointed. But he wasn' t mad or anything like that. How do you feel about the w ay things a re going with Eddie? Yo u g uys d id pretty well to make all the main events exce p t Gosh en last ye ar, but now the honeymoon is ove r, and it's going to be time to get do wn to business this year. Yeah, I think that we're going to do really well this year. I'm mentally and physically in shape, and Eddi e has got the bikes in mint condition . He doesn't com pare me to Rodney, he just looks at me as another kid that he has to try and teach stuff and work with. He's been reall y easy to get along with. ow we're going to put our he ads down and go for it. Yo u mention ed being m en tally fit as well as p hy sicall y. O ne of th e th ings that Eddie sa id las t year w as that you weren't racing sm art eno ugh ye t. For exampl e, you cost yo u rself a tr ansfer sp ot in your h eat race at Springfie ld bec ause you failed to recogn ize that you weren't b ein g passed until after the fin ish line. You backed off and let the other guys th ro ugh rather than to just bury th e throttle and make them beat you. Is that the kind of fitness you're talking about? Bein g a smarter racer? Yes. I agree that's where I w as screwing up a lot last year. I'm go nna pay attention m o re and w atch w hat ot he r g uys are doi ng out there. You've been characterized as a natural talent on the motorcycle, taking into consideration things like your sense of balance and feel for the bike. But your dedication has al so been questioned. How would you answer that? I think that I can go as far as my abilities will take me. I do have the desire to go far. I w ant the championship. A factory ride woul d be nice , because that would be the easy way to do it. But I wa nt to win the ch amp ionship just as much as an ybody else does right now. Maybe more. What type of track do you feel suits you best? I like the day tra cks. I Iike the banked half miles like Oklahoma City . I also like the miles. I like the TT at Peori a even though I never do much there. But I still go there with the same attitu de as everyw here else. I go there to try and win. What is your plan of attack th is seas on? In other words, everyone w ants to win th e title, but what fundamental goals have you set for yourself in order to do that? And what is it that you would want to tell people regarding your feelings for this year? My plans are to try and win one or two N ationals and finish in the top five in every final and in the championship. I think we can do that, because everything's clicking this year, and we 've go t a lot of good sponsors helping us out. Me and Eddie have got our heads together. Just watch out. rx