Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

can say whatever you like, but also say that I'm not 100 percent sure that's the avenue I want to go up. Sometimes I've said that before and it's kinda like "Mick's Going Superbike Racing." It's just that I'm aware of superbike racing, 1 and it would be good perhaps to be the first guy to win both. How would you rate this championship, in terms of difficulty, compared with the others? I think, this year, I've been pushed the hardest - with Alex. I don't think anyone's shown the consistency like Alex since like Wayne Rainey. Even (Kevin) Schwantz wasn't that consistent. Has he surprised you? Yeah. From the off-season testing I knew he was going to be quicker this year. It was documented, I guess, that I wanted (Anthony) Gobert in the team for this year, and I think that inspired him. He got a rocket up the arse, basically " it's done him the world of good. It turned him into a different rider. Straight away when we went testing, I was amazed. And he's been consistent all year, which has been the main thing. . You beat him in a variety of different ways - it was fun to watch. Then suddenly he came up and beat you from behind. To what extent were you thinking about the championship by then? Obviously, at that time of year you're thinking more about how you just want to keep fhe thing on two wheels. It gets to a point where you realize, like in Austria, when I had 60 points advantage.:. I really couldn't do anything about him there anyway, because of the tire selection we had. Because of the rainedout weekend, we were running a lot softer compound than him, and my tires were just knackered. So I gave it a few goes to try and rattle him. He's not that easy to rattle now. Not like he used to be. (Laughs) No. And also he's learning all the time. At .the beginning of the year I could sit behind him, then just up the pace. But he's learned that is going to happen, so I had to think of different ways to try and beat him. And it's not always that easy. You've almost got to leave it to the last turn. Also his speed, when he's in front, is starting to pick up as well. Whereas before when he was leading he'd slow down. Like in Czecho, when he was in front, Scott Russell and the other guys would catch us again. I was .disappointed I lost the race in Czecho, not so much that he'd beaten me but the way the race was won. He'if slow the pace, then I'd have to get back in front so the others didn't catch up again. And he took advantage of that. . Looking back, how would you run that race lIifferently? Well, I got a little bit complacent in the last turn as well. Tried to square it off to shoot to the finish, expecting if anything that he'd try and come up the inside. But he came up the outside, on the left. If I'd have just run the normal line there wouldn't have been any room on the outside. When I seen him coming - there was no point running him off the race track. I'd rather beat him fair and square. Since then I've had to cover the bases a little better. I can't take anything for granted. !mola was rained out. I don't know what he had up' his sleeve but I felt I had that pretty well covered. And then last weekend (Catalunya), I didn't have to beat him. It was more psychological ~o beat him than anything else. It seems this year you've started trying to win at the slowest possible speed? I could go quicker sometimes, but round about the middle of this year I'd pull back and just think about the checkered flag, because I know on Monday that is what will make me happy - that I won the race, rather than I was going six seconds faster, but I crashed. i've really enjoyed racing this year, and I hope to continue where I am. But if I feel like doing something else, and I'm not enjoying myself... Do you have anything mapped out beyond racing? If I did, perhaps it's time to stop. I have a few minor interests, but nothing that consumes too much time. As far as running a team - I don't think so. I think I'd rather slam my hand in the door. I'm with Honda now and I don't see myself leaving Honda. And HRC runs the team. I couldn't be a (Kenny) Roberts and (Wayne) Rainey and run it myself. And I don't think that's me. Perhaps I could do something in Australia with younger guys and, with the contacts I have in Europe, perhaps help them to come to Europe. Training people? I reckon you'd be quite a hard teacher. Not so much telling people how to rideI don't think that helps anyone. I think I could help people open doors. Maybe like in superbikes in Australia. It's not on such a big scale as here at the GPs. At the start of the season, there was a lot of talk about you wanting to ride the V -twin. It was said that you wanted to try one and Honda wouldn't let you, then when they wanted you to ride it, you wouldn't. What was alI that about? Obviously, the first time out Tady (Tadayuki Okada) in Malaysia was going well on it, and I didn't know how the championship would develop, and if the twin would be the way to go. But as it started to develop, I said perhaps I might run one at Donington. By the time we got there it wasn't even in the championship race, so it didn't really warrant pushing Honda that hard. At Suzuka we'd had a big meeting, and by that time they figured they would have enough parts. We were going to test one at Paul Ricard before Jerez (at th.e start of the European season), but we just ran out of time, because the four-cylinder was in a situation we had to get on top of. The twin-cylinder is good, but over the whole season I don't think it's as strong as the four-cylinder. I wouldn't eliminate the possibility of me riding it, but until it shows more strength and consistency there's not much point. And now with Alex, I want to be on equal equipment to him. But perhaps over the off-season I'll give it a test. I've never done more than a handful of laps on the bike in Malaysia at the end of last year. It was in an. early prototype stage. In the middle of the season you were talking about perhaps dropping the Big Bang engine and going back to the old type. Yeah - we're still going to try that - the old engine, over the off-season. I don't know if it's better until we try. It's like the three-cylinder. That was good in '83, and now it's coming back again.-Next year will be five years since the close-firing-order came in. We've learned a lot electronically since then. So I think we can govern the power a little bit better than in the past. In dry conditions I think we can help it accelerate. These droners are almost slow to accelerate, so if we can get it on the power better through the tum, hopefully we can get back a little corner speed, and accelerate quicker. But in wet conditions we can govern the power a little better. Because these new engines are a benefit in the wet. We might even have to have two types, though that's a bit ridiculous. Another problem we had with the old one was the wheelspin would put too much heat in the tires. The tires are so much better now. It just might work. The feel of those old engines was pretty good. These ones here are ... intimidating, almost. You want to give them more gas, but history has told you that you can only give it so much, and if it does break away you've got no control over it. With the other ones you were always in the power, and when it did break away, that's when you'd see the big wheelspin. These are a little bit more torquey, but it feels like the throttle isn't really connected to the back wheel. I don't know if you understand that terminology, but you're opening the throttle quicker than you can feel the power through the wheel. That's scary sometimes. Particularly if it does break traction, and you've already got more throttle on than the power you're receiving, so it automatically tries to catch up, and the next minute you're flying through the air. Do you mean that the Big Bang has taken away from the rider's control? I think so. They are more tractable, and I think they've helped these other guys come through, because it's almost doughy.until that point where they snap away. Whereas the old ones, once you learned how to ride them, I think were more user-friendly. Yet there was a time before the Big, Bangs when everyone was getting flicked over the high side aU the time'. Yeah. That was in 1990, and the}' decided to add more weight to the things. I don't think that helped much, except to slow corner speed. We're also going to try some other things with this motor. We're not locking ourselves in to any sort of program, but we've got to do something. The strong point of the Honda is the engine. Another strong point is reliability, but

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