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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127830
They had a big shakeup at Yamaha
and they moved some people around,
and one of those was a key person who I
always depended on telling me the truth
- because I didn't ever get everything I
wanted, but I need the truth. And I needto know what they were thinking
about for the future because, as they're
going to find out, it's hard to manage a
racing team. Especially if you're working
month by month. lt's almost impossible.
And to beat Honda and Suzuki, who run
their own thing - there's no middlemen.
They run their own thing. When they
changed the people around, and.moved
the people out of the department 1 could
really trust, the negotiations for me were
at an end at that point. That was December 3 of last year (1995). And December 4,
I said go, let's build our own. Because_
there's no way 1 could depend on the
new people to carry out and do what my
sponsors want to do.
And what's that?
Number one, to have a motorcycle to
race. Because they could say at any time
that they weren't going to [ace again. So I
had to have something to fall back on.
And as things progressed and as it started looking better and better, it became a
stronger and stronger option. Until the
end, the negotiations with Yamaha were
as everyone expected, luke cold. I just
said, "Why am I doing this?" Working
with people I didn't enjoy, getting lied to
occasionally. It really got to the point that
it's their business and they ran it properly. I'm not goint to change that. Or they
ron it improperly. I don't know. I don't
care. There's nothing I can do about that.
1 know what it takes to run a racing team
and I know what it takes to try to win
and that's 100 percent commitment from
everybody. And it was real hard. And it
got to the point where why am I doing
that? I'm not enjoying the people I'm
working with. It just got to the point that
right after Assen I met the top racing
manager and the other guy and I just
went, "I'm not doing this again." And, at
that point, at Assen, there was no option
for me. I was not working for Yamaha.
This was '96. I had enough. I just said,
"Look, I'm building my own bike. I'm
going to race tha t or I'm not going to
race," and that's the way I maintained it
all the way through. Now we never actually sent out an official press release
because Marlboro didn't want to do that.
llut it had nothing to do with me.
Because I wasn't turning around. All the
money thjit they have is not worth
putting up with what I was putting up
with.
And when you made that decision in
September you knew that this project
was ar enough along that you'd have
something to race next year?
Yeah, I thought I did. Obviously there's
going to be some hiccups because we got
such a late start to actually commit to
building the race bikes. This is just a prototype. The race bikes aren't going to be
built until the end of March and we race
in April. One of the things that we're fairly proud of is that Marlboro decided to
go with US with such a scary project. If
I'd have known four months ago that we
were going to race, we could have had
the bikes ready by now. But I only gave
the go-ahead to do that two weeks ago.
What would you have done? Sat out a
year?
Probably more than that. Probably sat
out forever. If you're not working with
the right people and the sponsors no
longer have the faith that you can do it,
it's really not fun. [t takes a lot of money,
a lot of commitment from people. It all
has to be the right deal to all make it
enjoyable but also successful.
Did you approach any other manufacturers in the faii to get bikes on an interim basis to get you through the year?
o. We have no backup. lt's gutsy. It's a
big undertaking. And to be honest, very
truthfully, I didn't think it would be as
big as it actually is. And rve done a lot in
motorcycle racing. Me and my engineering staff thought it was going to be a little
easier than it is. There have been quite a
few hiccups in engineering, which we
expected. We didn't expect as much.
Anything in particular?
Everything.· When you send stuff out
contracted on a blueprint, it comes back
and sometimes it's 10 percent off. Ten
percent off doesn't fit. Two percent off
doesn't fit. It doesn't meet the specifications. It doesn't fit and it has to be made
again. Tensions are high right now. We
really want to be on a race track setting
lap records. We really thought we were
at this point. We really thought we'd be
at a race track doing well right now. So
we're behind. There's no question about
it. I've never denied it.
When did you actually start designing
the bike?
Warren (Willing) is the guy who basically put the motorcycle together. He tarted three or four years ago. We kick it
around all the time. And he hag concept
drawings in his computer. He has a program in his computer and at races he'd
diddle around with the three-cylinder
idea, two-cylinder idea, four-cylinder
idea. How to do this, how to do that. We
actually built a twin in America, a V-twin
test motor, about two years ago - a 250. It
was a concept that we wanted to do for
our motor and it was successful. Part of
our three is that twin. So we've been toiling with the thing for quite a while. It's a
dyno motor, made out of complete billet.
It's quite a nice little piece. At this point
we don't have any plans to race it.
Willing has had these drawings all
along. When he did he tum them into
reality?
It was May when TWR (Tom Walkinshaw Racing) started to design the
motor.
And how did you come to choose them?
John Gentry used to work for me and
now he works for them. And they were
kicking around ideas in their engine
department for what they could do and
what they couldn't do. And motorcycles
came into it. Why don't we build a
motorcycle engine? And John said,
'Well, if you guys want to build a motorcycle engine, I know someone who wants
to build one too." And I had a meeting
with Tom and his people and they were
enthusiastic, and that was all it took. I
had two meetings and I said go. This
thing has been done in three phases.
Phase one being the dyno motor, the test
motor. Phase two being what you see
now. Phase three being race ready for
April. TWR did all of the drawings and
some in-house manufacturings, but a lot
of the stuff is done around England. The
ignition is done by us. We do certain projects too. All the chassis stuff is ours, the
radiator and all that stuff. It was originally designed in their design staff studio,
but it's our respon ibility to make it all
happen. And now we have the capability
of designing our own CAD (computer
assisted design) parts. We'll be up and
running within two weeks with our CAD
system.
So if we want a handlebar changed,
for instance, we will design it, send it out
to the people that build them and say
build them for u . And by midseason, I'd
say we'll have the capability of doing
everything in-house. Except the engines.
We want TWR to do the engines. They
have what we believe are some of the
best engine engineering people and there
are some things in the motor that we feel
are unique so it doesn't have to be very
special. It just has to do what it's supposed to do. And it has to be made to the
best tolerances. It has to be made from
the best material and it has to have the
best people working on it. That's what
they really bring to the table. They've
been building race engines for a long
time.
There was some talk that you spoke to
Aprilia about this.
I did talk to Aprilia about this. I have to
sell it. I'm not a manufacturer, I'm not
Aprilia. So it only makes sense to sell it to
a manufacturer. 1 talked to Harley about
this two years, three years ago. So it's not
something new.
How far did you get with Harley?
It made it to the board. It made a lot of
sense for them to do this project because
we could have done it there very easily.
Almost as easy as we did it here. And it
would have been successful.
What would they have to gain from it?
Harley's got to expand into the world.
They can't just be in the American market, and I think what it brought to them
was a huge marketing opportunity
worldwide to sell their merchandise.
And it brings a whole new group of pe0ple. And some day they're going to need
that.
As it is, they sell every one they make.
That's going down too. The world
changes. It's funny, isn't it?
And why didn't the Aprilia deal work
out?
Two reasons. One, they're very, very nervous about this project and the speed in
which we're putting this on the race
track, and there are big risks around that.
They were very, very keen to do it.
Again, it's easier for them to say, "We
have a twin, let's just wait a year and see
what happens." Of cOurse, they missed
MODENAS?
W
it. Now
it's gone and
nobody can get it. My attitude was, yeah,
1 have to sell it. There's no question that I
needed the finances t