Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

them and dicing with them, then the intimidation factor goes away. It's real important. You can't think of them as being superior to you. They're another person and they may be real good riders, and if you think anything otherwise you're doomed. Once I started thinking that way, I'd be upset if I wasn't on the front row of the 600 or 750." His forward progression ended in 1995 when he admittedly went backward. For equipment he got one new machine from Honda and not as much technical support early in the year as he'd hoped for. His engine builder, who'd done wonders with the Kawasakis, wasn't as skilled with the Honda. And his motivation factor was low. '''For a while there I was like: 'What's going on?'" Rothman said. "You're trying and trying and when the results aren't coming, you start to question. I think everybody does that. When results aren't there and you know the. bike's decent, then you wonder what's up." • Just when he thought things couldn't get worse, they did. He crashed hard into a wall whil.e trying to go around another rider at the notoriously dangerous start-finish line at Sears Point. The physical damage was five broken vertebrae. "I couldn't move 1 was in so much pain," he said. "Sam (Mota Liberty's Sam Yamashita) called me and asked me if I wanted to go to the test here at Daytona. I talked to my doctor and he just laughed at me." The year was forgettable and the future was bleak. "I ",as to the point where. I was like, 'I'm just not going to do it this way any more:" Rothman said. "I was willing to not ride and, like I told Sam when he first called me, I'd rather not ride at all if I'm not going to ride for a team that's good, or if I had to do it myself. And I told him that straight up." Near the end of the season, he'd had an inspirational talk with Vance & Hines Yamaha's Tom Kipp. "It was my first time having to deal with that kind of situation where I was questioning my ability:' he recalls. When he had some time, he went to a Motor Racing Outreach conference on Kiawah Island in South Carolina. "I fel t Iike, keep the fai th:' he said. "And I came back and whatever's going to be is going to be. And there was a call on my answering machine from Sam (Yamashita)." It was just a tryout, and it was on a 1.25, but it turned into a ride for 1996. His physical improvement coincided with the machine development, which translated into results. Fellow Mota Liberty rider Masahiro Iizuka, who'd never worked on four-strokes, was building the team's race motors. "Once he got the hang of it, they were fast:' Rothman said. "After midseason I was qualifying well and racing pretty well and really in the hunt. At Mid-Ohio, I finished second." There' were a pair of wins in Mota Liberty's first foray into the SuperTearns class. There a1so were a number of SuperTeams DNFs, mostly the result of engine problems. "At Las Vegas there were pieces of metal in the exhaust pipe:' Rothman said. It's hard to say what was more impressive at Las Vegas, the second place on the Honda CBR600 in the 750cc Supersport class or the 600cc Supersport win. Either way, he ended up third in the 600cc class and attracted the notice of a few team owners. "I talked to Suzuki a bit, EBSCO Suzuki," Rothman said. "Yoshimura, I thought, was pretty much out. After I heard Mat (M1adin) had gone, I thought they were just going to keep two riders. I knew Sam (Yamashita) had wanted me back because we talked two races before and he tried to keep me. I talked to Mr. Ferracci. I was, like, 'Give me a chance to ride your bikes next year.' "And then a couple of weeks later I talked to Suzuki a bit and Bill Syfan and kind of told him what I wanted. I knew there was some interest there. I wanted to make sure that if I was running Supersport, I was going to .be getting paid what the other top Supersport riders were getting paid." While Honda dragged its feet on a budget commitm.ent to Mota Liberty, Rothman got the call from Eraldo Ferracci who, at the time, was in Italy. Though they talked for close to an hour, Rothman wasn't sure of his status when they hung up. "We've just got a verbal agreement:' Rothman said. "I like the terms, but we don't have a contract signed yet. It was kind of a strange deal after he called me. Do I have a ride or not? If you like the bike and you go halfway decent and you feel that you can do the job, then basically it's yours. That's kind of the impression I got. I didn't really know where I·stood. ''I've got the chance to ride the bike. I'm going to do the best that I can. Whatever's going to be is going to be. It's hard for me to explain. He (Ferracci) was going to try to see what I could do and at the same time he kind of had his mind made up that he wanted someone who was aggressive. He was at the Vegas race and he saw that I was pretty aggressive and I wasn't giving up. That's what he wants." What Rothman understood was that if he was dog slow at Daytona, Ferracci had an out. What he had to do was show the aggression he'd showed all year. "Tha t' s one of the things I noticed with Mat (M1adin):' Rothman said. "He was an aggressiVe guy right from the get-go. If you watch the Sears Point race you can see him, even Homestead, he was sticking it in there. You almost look at him like he's at the point where he's out of touch, or out of control, but he wasn't. In Supersport racing you have to be aggressive. If you're not riding at 100 percent, you're going to be midpacking it. That was what gave me a little bit of confidence, too. "! have raced Miguel (DuHamel) and I have raced (Aaron) Yates and all those guys. I haven't raced (Doug) Chandler, but I have raced a lot of guys who are . front-running superbike guys, and they beat me and I beat them a couple of times. That gives you hope that I'm going to be competitive on the superbike. I feel I will be. And I'm not a fool. I know it's not just a matter of jumping on the thing and I'll be going 49s or 50s down here (at Daytona). It's a lot of new informati

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