Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

INTERVIEW one who gave me a direction to go in, to set goals to attain. What's it like riding for a big team, for Keith Perry and John Ulrich? Keith is just a super person, really everybody on the tearn is pretty easy to get along with. John Ulrich, sometimes, is not the easiest person to get to know. My first year on the team, I didn't know John, I'd just spoke to him a couple of times at the races. Really, it took me a year, or two years, to find my niche in the team. I was always trying to do my best a t the track, and tha t's all John Ulrich expects from anybody. I was raised that, if you make a mistake, you say that and you don't give any excuses. I may go back and tell my wife something different. But if l'm out there in the public eye, at the track, I'm not going to come in and say, in front of a microphone, "Tray Batey could have done better but the bike just wasn't up to it." That's just not me. I always felt like that was the best policy. John and I had il couple of circumstances with the end urance bike in my first year when I made a couple of mistakes - it was exuberance and the excitement of being on the big Valvoline team in my first year. I was trying to prove myself, and you're not supposed to be doing that on the endurance bike. My teammate, Michael Martin, he was a veteran, and he was doing his job very, very well. Then there's this new guy, and he's riding around like it's a sprint race. When you do that, you'll make mistakes, and I made a couple. When I was questioned, I just responded, saying, "I made a dumb mistake, it was my own fault." Sometimes, that's not maybe the best answer. Maybe I should have made up something. It took me a while to get to know John. I've always respected him, back to the publications I was reading that. he worked on when I was a kid. Actually getting to ride for John Ulrich was a bjg thing for me. I have the utmost respect for him because of what he's accomplished. He's given me. the opportunity to do what I love, and hopefully it's a positive relationship. He's told me many times he's in business to race motorcycles, and if what I want to do is really race them, then let's get together. He provides me with the best equipment he can. How many AMA Nationals have you been in? I've been in two. I was at Mid-0hio in 1993, I rode 250cc GP, 750cc Supersport and also the Team Challenge. Then I ran the ational at St. Louis in 1995 where I rode the Valvoline Suzuki in the superbike race. That race at 51. Louis is an event a lot of people remember you from. Chuck Graves hadn't been doing so well with the Valvoline Suzuki GSXR750 AMA development bike, and you stepped in and· turned some heads. St. Louis was a track that's difficult. It's a little dangerous and extremely bumpy. It's just a regional-type facility. If you're a regional-type club racer, and you do well on these tight, bumpy types of circuits, well then you'd be use to it. I don't want to say I'm a specialist, because I don't like bumps any more than the next guy. But it seems like a lot of times, we get to a place that's kind of, well, crappy, I see~ to find a' way to get around it pretty good. I was a litfle worried about doing an AMA National at St. Louis, since everyone would be riding at 110 percent. I didn't really want to go there and hang it out that far. I didn't mind going up there to try and win some Suzuki Superstock money in a club race, that was one thing, but to run a superbike and hang it out with those guys, it would mean putting myself in a whole other zone. We just decided it was a good thing to do, went there and qualified pretty well. The bike was handling very well. I surprised myself. It was a shock. The bike was down on straightaway speed, but we were making it up in the back. I realized that the other guys were human, and I could do this. I still held them in the utmost respect, but I knew where you could make some time. I had a good weekend. In the race I worked myself up to sixth, running a pace tha t I was happy with. I thought I would have no problem finishing up there. One thing I hadn't counted on was the length of an AMA National. I also have never ridden a bike at a road race track when it was that hot; we just weren't prepared for that. I've ridden long endurance shifts, and it's not a problem, but to run an AMA pace in that kind of heat and humidity - everybody was suffering. They even shortened the event. I was feeling pretty comfortable at 12' laps, but around 18 laps, I was still trying to run a sixth-placed pace, and I realized I was in trouble, I began to think I wasn't going to make it. I was getting exhausted, so I had to back it off a little bit. Then Fred Merkel (on a Yoshimura Suzuki) caught me and passed me. I thought that was good. I could tell Fred was not running as fast as he was capable of running; he was riding a smart race and conserving his energy. When he passed me, I passed him back once to show him I could do it - you know, that ego thing. Then I just stayed on him, and I decided to let Fred take me home. I didn't want to crash the bike and come home with zero. Even if I couldn't get back past Fred, seventrt would be okay with me. We pretty much ran the ,rest of the race tha t way. Coming out of the last corner on the last lap, we got caught up with a lapped guy, and Fred went one way while I went another, trying to dodge the guy. The lapped guy pinched me out, and Doug Chandler gol me righ.t at the line for seventh. I was kind of upset about that, because I kind of felt like a Harley was never going to beat me. In the hands of Doug, I guess it's not such a bad thing, and of course the Harley's have come such a long way now. Do you ever think that a racer like yourself, who primarily runs F·USA and WERA, doesn't get the recognition that he deserves? You have to earn the respect and status you deserve. I'm quite happy, personally, with the respect I receive from my peers. I don't demand a lot of worship, so to speak. I want to be one of the guys. I guess I am a little dissatisfied with the amount of attention the series gets, the amount of coverage all the racers get. It doesn't seem like we get all of the recognition that our efforts deserve. We need to remember that there is more than one game in town. I don't own the Formula USA series or anything, but a lot of us have put a lot of time into it, and when people print things that are derogatory, or take a little stab at it, it hurts me tao. I subscribe to American Roadracing and it seems like every chance they get, they're going to take a stab at Gonda (F-USA President Doug Gonda), some kind of way to give him a hangnail or something. Or better yet, it's like Formula USA just doesn't exist. How does that make me feel, I'm the champion of nothing? Hopefully, we'll try that much harder to turn some good laps times, and prove that we're a viable series. It's an honest-to-gosh serious deal, compared to anybody's series anywhere. The top five or six guys over there at the AMA, they're doing a good job, they're committed, they have vision, they know what they have to do. They have the drive and determination to make the most out of what God's given them. They've worked hard to get what they've earned, and my hat's off to .them. It kind of hurts my feelings when they come over to our series and do well, then maybe some of the publications make it look like we're a bunch of bozos. I'm going to give it the best I can, and I'm there to race to win, too. Do you e,v~ tJ;).inlc about .the fil/=Lthat you're older than most of the other top riders? Sometimes I do, but I don't when I'm at the track. Sometimes when I'm at home, when I'm doing something as stupid as weed eating, and you think, "Boy, it sure is nice that I can work all 10 fingers." I used to never think about stuff like that when I was 25. J don't think about stuff like that when I'm at the track, because that would be detrimental. You do wonder how much longer you want to do this. The answer is that I love riding motorcycles, and I'm driven to compete. I don't enjoy trail riding. If I get on a dirt bike, the first thing I'm going to do is layout an oval. I'm going to start racing. That's what drives me. I don't have any interest at all in getting from point A to point B and sightseeing. It's always been about going as hard as you could go. That's youthful exuber- . ance talking, and that's how I felt when I was young. Now, I still have that competitive drive, but with age, it's just a natural thing, you just want to try and keep yourself intact. I'd like to stay intact so I can enjoy the sport I love for many more years. The biggest pain in the butt about getting hurt is the fact that you can't ride. I don't care about the pain, I don't care about laying on the sofa in plaster with nothing on TV, but it just sucks that you can't ride. That's what I love to do. So you're not re.ady to quit yet? Oh no. I just want to keep trying to become the best I could be. As long as I'm still studying hard, trying to make myself learn, I hate to quit. It's still a challenge, me against the race track. If I go to a track, I want to improve the lap times from the previous visit. That's the challenge for me. When 1 go to a place and I'm not on the pace, it's really hard on me. Naturally, I want to win and be competitive. But you can't just drive up to a track and start whopping up on Doug Chandler. He's a super guy and a super-good rider, and he's earned what he's got. If you're out there on the same race track, it's 'kind of an honor. If those guys aren't lapping you and flipping you off, you'll be-afr right. 0

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