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/127787
th at' s where we got ou r points. That ' s wha t we're tryin g to pu t toge the r again this year. Call it luck or w hatever, but you rarely ever fall dow n. Yet at Sacramento, you hit th e gro u nd pretty hard. Did that detune yo u at all for the final t w o race s? Sacramento was one of those days that so many teams had had all year long. It was one of those days where nothing was going right. We broke a bike right away . We were disqualified in the scratch heat because we didn't plan on running our other motorcycle and it hadn' t p rope rly been through tech. We figured it ou t after th e first lap of the scratch hea t, and we took it to the AMA officials. We tol d th em w ha t the d eal was. It was all handled prop erl y, but that' s just how the da y went. We struggle d all night, and I w as just lu cky to mak e the main. Then in the main Dale Jenneman tangled with ano ther ride r, and I ran over him and went down. It was just one of those da ys. It didn't really bother m e th at mu ch th ou gh . We ca me b ack a nd finished four th at Pomo na and fourth at Del Mar . Everyone seems to have a favorite type of track. What kind of track suits you best? I like it when it gets a little bit rough. I li ke a rac e tr ack th at takes m ore o f a ride r to ride it than brute horsepower . I do n' t think I've ever been on the fastest motorcycle on any given day. I like riding the mile, but there are so many gu ys with a lot o f horsep ower that can go fast. They struggle everywhere else, but on the mile they ha ve horsep ower and become a top can tender. I like a r ace track where yo u've go t to pi ck you r lines and keep your lines. I like Pomona even though I' ve never done too well th ere. I like Del Mar , and I like Indy. Those are heavy race tracks where the lines can change and the race can go from the top to the bottom in 25 laps. Daytona is like that too. But Daytona is a lottery anyway, is n't it? I do n't believe so. It's a race track where you have to ha ve a lot of savvy. Consistency pays off. You ca n't jus t go there and try and blow it into the turns. You have to be calm. You have to be fast out of the gate, and you have to be smooth the whole night. Erratic riders don't go fast at Daytona. It's a lottery for a lot of rid ers because there ar e 10 gu ys who you ca n count o n ma king the main even t. So I guess the lottery is the las t seven spo ts. H o w has your sta tus within the d irt track com muni ty changed si nce las t yea r? Hav e you noticed a differ ence in the wa y people treat you? It ha s ch anged sligh tly - I th ink more ou t of Iowa. People in Iowa ha ve always followed what I was d oing, and they are th e people that I care th e most abo u t. But I like all the fans, and I like it when the kid s come up and see me after th e races, and I like to do everything I can for th e fans. I never really go t mu ch publicity befo re, an d w hen I d id there was usu ally some mis take in it. It wasn't just in Cycle News. Stuff like my sponso rs not getting listed in the p rograms or ha ving a letter next to my nu mber in the p rog r ams . A lot of t he ti me I wo u ld n' t even be in th e program. It happened a lot, and I guess I got used to it. Last year that changed. I think that I go t a little m or e respect. I'm still the sa me though . I'm not high on a mou ntain or anything like that. Yo u have seemed a lot more determ ined at the races thi s yea r. Maybe a little bit deeper in th ought and not quite as laid back as you we re last year. co u ld do it. He bel ieved I cou ld w in Nati onal s even before I thought I could. He keep s me mot ivated and looking in th e right d irection . It's a big plus. My wife is beh ind m e and m y so n rea lly lo ves it. My d aughter ' s too yo u ng to know anyth ing about it. A lot of teams have stepped up their programs even more for 1996. Aside from Parker, who do you see as your main title rivals this year? I don't really look at it that wa y (in terms of the championship). There's so many guys that are fast. You've got the USC team and the TCR team . There's five riders that go fast every week. The ne w Harl ey-Davidson of Sacram ento team. Th ere's a lot of young talent out the re, and th ese d a ys yo u ng m eans under 30. Steve Morehead continues to amaze m e . He p robabl y pu sh es hi s motorcycle as hard as anybody. Well, I've worked harder in the off-season, and I've trained harder . This year I'm really d et ermin ed to im pro ve on what I did last year. I'm not looking at the champion sh ip, bu t if I improve on what I did last year, then hopefu lly the cha m p io ns h ip will come to m e . I'm more focused right now becau se our tim e is a littl e d isorgani zed . I'm m ore focused right now becau se there is a lot more on my mind. I'm d oing more of th e b ike s tuff n ow , unlike last year where all I had to do was worry about getting to the races. Now it' s "Where is this bike, where is that b ik e, wh ich motor is in which chassis?" We hav e three different 750s now, and I'm trying to figure out what the bike is going to be like. That's where I kind of miss George Garvis because he used to det ermine all of that for me. He was real good at that. This year I have a lot of good sponso rs, and we' re all dedicated 100 percent. We just have to figure out what nee ds to be d one and when. Let's talk mo re about you r new deal. How did yo u hoo k up with C ra ig Rogers? After last yea r, George said that if I wanted to go back to running a limited schedule then he could go out again. We're running so many National races now, and h e h as a business that he needed to take care of. This (d irt track) was his hobby and not his life. So over the winter I started talking to a lot of teams. I talked to Taco (Tim Torrecill as o f Corbin Ra cing), I talked to AI Bergstrom (Loral Lake Racing), I talked to the Gardner team , to TCR. I talked to a lot of peopl e, but nothing eve r came together. What reall y im p ressed m e abo u t Craig Rogers was that he seemed really determined . He seeme d to me like he would do whatever he could do to make it work . Wh en I ta lked to him he to ld me th at he wan ted me to ride for him and that this is what we were going to d o. Craig is a good guy, o therwise I wouldn't be here. But he hasn 't do ne it like this before. When Will Davis was here, it was Wi ll a n d D e nnis Town doing most of it. Craig is realizing that there is a lot more to this. That' s wh ere I've step ped up myself as far as d oing the chassis wo rk an d thi ngs . Until we can find someo ne that we're both comfo rtable with as far as p repping the bikes from week to week, then I'm probably going to do that myself. Are you con fident that you can do that you rself and still concentrate on racing? (Above) Rich King poses with his 7ยท year-old son Aaron at the Springfield Mile . (Right) Despite switching teams, King act ually rode a George Garvls Honda at the 1996 Daytona Short Track. King netted second place In the swan so ng lor the pair, which had been together off and on lor 11 years. Yes. George is still helping me out. He's giving me a lot of help. Johnny Goad and Skip Eaken are helping me. Johnny is building our motors, so I'm confident that we've got good m ot ors. Th ey all help me with any questions that I have. And George is right there. I've probably been down to Des Moines every week since Florida . Everyone has been a real ly big help. Nobody has turned me away when I've had a question on things like sus pension settings or whatever. I used to do all my own 600 stuff anyway, and now I'm just getting dialed in on the 750 s t uff. We 're going fast enough right now. We were second- fastest qualifier at Pomona and we were fast qualifier at Harrington. The Garvis deal was pretty much out of p ocke t. How much of a difference has th e sponsorship that Craig picked up ma de? George is a lot like m yself. He ha s a tou gh time as ki ng fo r anythin g. He always did it him self. With Cra ig we have a lot of new spo nsors for every area of the motorcycle. Our main sponsor is Saddlem en, an d we ha ve an other main sponsor in Road Riders. Those two are a big plus to us, and we've also got a lot of smaller sponsors that are very good to us . We're getting dialed in and we're getti ng the stuff we need. We' ve just got to pu t it all together. We're not getting real big money, bu t we're not hurting for any thing. I'm confident in my team. What about the support of your family? Motorcycle racing has been my life for a long lime, an d it probably always will be. This is a family deal for me. I go tra il riding with my kid all the lime. As far as my father goes, he's probably been one of the major backbones of my career. When I was down, he always told me I And Parker can be beaten. He 's not superman. H e can be beaten, bu t you'd be tte r have your shit together if you w an t to do it . Yo u said you are going to be 33 this year. How much longer are you going to do it, and what will you be doing when you' re not racing? I'm not sure how long. I'm going year to year . I have a lot of sponsors right now that I really enjoy and that I feel I am real fortunate to have. So as long as I keep the good sponsorships behind me and I can build on my program every year then there's no telling how far I'm going to go. I will say that I won't go as long as Steve Morehead. He's amazing. It's year to year for me. As long as I'm motivated, I'm going to do it, and we'll have some good finishes. One o f m y ma jor dream s bes ides racing was to go trail riding with my so n. i lm living that right now along with my racing dream s. After I'm d one racing, I'd like to have my own motor cycle shop and do that until I ret ire. I would love to tune and go to th e races wi th an up-and-coming am ateur, but as far as whe n tha t migh t happen, I don 't know. Do you think anyone ever really gets away from it? I do ubt it. Dirt track racing is special to me. I feel it' s the most competi tive racing ou t th ere. The rid ers th at ride thi s should be making $100,000 a year - each and every one of them . The top 20 ride rs sho uld be making a comfo rtable living. I've never heard a fan come away from it and say that they didn't like the racing . Yes, we have some long pr ograms and rainouts, and other stuff that they don' t un d erstand and maybe we don't understand. Bu t as far as the racing, there's none better. . -:0;