Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

beat Scott Parker quite a few times last year. Daytona for you is pretty much like it is for Parker: not worth a dam. Nope. It's still a crapshoot, a roll of the dice. I've done well there before, and I've done worse there than I did this year. We broke a lot of motorcycles there this year, which is very odd, especially with the Rotaxes, which are pretty much bulletproof. But we broke a lot of Mickey Mouse parts, and they were brand-new engines, so they shouldn't have broke. But they're racing motorcycles, and things will break. It's another race track, and Scott Parker and I are two of the best, so we should be able to race Daytona like we do every other race track. But for some reason we struggle there while guys that you've never even heard of go fast or you see guys like Terry Poovey that are awesome at the place. Obviously you want to do as well as possible at every race, but the Springfield Mile is coming up fast, and you've never won that one. Davey Camlin earned a lot of acclaim after winning both of them last year. It's a big deal to win Springfield. How do you feel about it? It is a big deal. Springfield is the granddaddy. It's the .Jndianapolis 500 of dirt track, and everybody wants to win it. I know that when Chris Carr won it was a big load off his shoulders to finally win it. I've been in the position to win it at least a half a dozen times, and things just didn't work out - either I made the wrong decision or someone else made a better one. But I want to win Springfield probably more than I would want to win Peoria. It's just one of those that you've got to win because of the heritage behind the race." You just want to be able to put your name up there with the Carroll Reswebers and the Bart Markels. I want to be One of the guys to win Springfield. It'll happen. Give us Kevin Atherton's assessment of the upcoming season. I think that it's going to be a tight championship, and I really think that it's going to come down to Will Davis and myself. I think I've got a little more on Will, I don't want to say in knowledge, but it seems that I do a little better than him at a majority of the places that we go. I just think that Will is going to be the toughest guy out there, and then Scott and Rich. Joe Kopp is going to be in there every once in a while. He's learning a lot. It's hard to say what the learning curve is going to be this year with him. This is going to be your ninth year as a professional. What does your future in the sport look like to you? I'm just getting started, I think. We've finally got everything figured out, like I said before. I don't know how long I'll do it. There are a lot of better things out there for motorcycle racers, and a lot of different avenues to go. Like road racing? Road racing is great. It's fun, and I enjoy it. But dirt track racing is my first love. I just wish that we could make some money at this. What do you think of the AMA's fiveyear plan? I'm really not sure yet. I do think that we need the ovicelJunior/Expert classes to let them (new riders) learn how to ride these motorcycles, like when I came up through the ranks. It was the best thing for you. I think that's a good deal, and I think that as far as getting the other manufacturers involved, we definitely need that so that we can make the market better and make a career out of this. So you actually sound like you're sold on it, but it sounds like you'd rather see the changes come more quickly. Yeah, we need to do it. As far as the equipment goes, whatever they teJl me to ride is what I'm going to ride. I'm not concerned about that. We just need more brands involved. It's gonna make for better racing and camaraderie among the manufacturers, and hopefully we'll see some money come into our sport. Are you satisfied with how far you've come in the sport? I've accomplished a lot, and a lot of other people are satisfied with that. But, for myself, no. I want to win that championship. I've been wanting to do that since 1986·or '87 when I decided to make a career out of this. I'm happy with what I've done, but not satisfied... Not yet. You've still got one more rung on the ladder. One more... One more. This is my year. I love what I'm doing. I love to race motorcycles, and I love to win. [ hate coming in second. It used to be that finishing in the top five was cool or standing on the box was great. Now second sucks. You can't win every race, and everbody knows that, but you've got to beat the guy that you're racing against in every race. That's how you win the championship. It sounds easy. This year I want to make it easy. ('N

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