Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127846
'"' '- r~ f,NTERVIEW _ .... Michael Doohan \~ ichaeI Dooh an has been interv iewed ad nauseam . Wh en you 've been top of the tree as long as he has , you get sick of answ ering the same old ques tions - and people are sick of the sa me old answers. O fte n as no t, Doohari's prone to a salty ans we r, and he has a repu tati on for . being a taciturn and po tentially dang erous in tervi e w s u bjec t. But this is not really fai r. There a re other tim es when he is friend ly and expansive , and talks freely and interes tingly, pep pering his responses with dry humor precisely the mood I found him in on the eve of the French Gran d Prix, with my own list of questions. Ma ybe tha t' s not su rprising. Th ose with a bent to ward astrology (who always seem to preface their rem arks with, "Of course, I don' t believe any of this stuff, but ...." ) point out that this is typical of a Gemini. They are tw o peo ple in one. Doohan had tu rned 32 only six days befo re, and he was displaying all the characteristics of his star sign. Then, w he n .a sked to d escrib e his o w n c haracte r, he gave the classic res ponse, " Fa i rl y laid ba ck ... a n d intense ." A class ic exposure of the contra d ictio ns w ith in th e g reate s t road ra cer o f our lime s . C a l m , bu t edgy . Relaxed, bu t wound tight. Two in one. His beni gn mood was a gin, for I was armed not with my own questi ons, but 20 se lected fro m th ose sen t in by the readers of the week ly Dutch ma gazine Motor - significa n t th is , fo r Doohan' s relati on sh ip with the fla t cou ntry ha s not always been cordial, ever since his ru inous cras h in 1992. No w, ho w e ve r; ha vi n g over ta ken Mike Ha ilwood in ,th e reco rd of 500 wins, and well on target for his fifth win of th e s ix- race-o ld season , Doohan spoke freely. M] By Michael Scott Photos by Gold & Goose 6. ยป Do yo u think there is room for real frie n ds hi p i n th e paddock ? Do y o u ha ve real friends there? Yes and no . Essentially, this is a business padd oc k, and you kid yourself if you think yo u have frie nds here. But I feel Da ryl Bea ttie is a friend , even though ther e's sometimes te nsion be tween us. Als o Niall Mackenzie. We ca n leave the raci ng behind u s a t the track and live in the normal world. Otherwise, I find it hard. 7. For wh ich lad y would yo u risk an argum ent with Selina? My mother . (Laughs.) 8. You g iv e the impress ion tha t you d on't like givin g yo ur a ut og raph or hav ing .your picture take n with fans. Wh y is that? (Imm ediately before th is interview, however, Doohan had bee n willingly do in g exactly that.) It' s no t so m uch that I d o n' t lik e it. I ca n 't reall y u nd erstand w hy peo p le sho uld want to do it. Wh en I'm on th e bike, I tend tolook away from the cam eras, because the flas hes can blind you a bit. Even one flash can do it, but when they go on a nd o n ... Th e sa me with autographs. I don' t feel comfortab le giving them , because I d on ' t und erst and why people wa n t them. Also, a t the track, I' m co ncentra ti ng on what I'm doing, and I d on't li ke brea king that concentration. To be honest, there are times when I feel I'm being a bit of an arsehole, Gi ven the right s itu a tio n, I think I give more than enough time to s igni ng sessions and so on. But when I' m walking to and from the garage especially o n th e way to it - I'm so wound up... 1. What do yo u consider yo ur bes t race, and wh y? Th e Argen tine G P of 1994. I won the rac e , a n d I wo n the cha m pions h ip. That' s the bes t way to win the title, and I'd achieved my goal. 2. 30 Is there one specific race that yo u lost tha t you dearl y wi s h you had won? Lot s of them. ot so m uc h Br no las t year, w hen Alex CrivilIe beat me. I was irri tated by the way that race was won following all the wa y. It wo uld be more the o ne a t Le Mans in 199 1. It w as between me and (Kevin) Schwantz for the lead . I needed to win it to kee p my championsh ip cha nces alive, but he was just in front over the line, by just over a tenth of a seco nd . If it hadn' t been for th a t, it woul d ha ve ke pt th e cham pio n s hi p g oi ng to the la s t r a ce , in Malaysia - and (Wayne) Rainey missed th a trace after crash ing in test in g th e week before. Th e Yamaha, main ly because they were good to me wh en I started racin g. I rod e th e GP bike in ' 88, a nd it fe lt good. Rou nd about then, everyone was rid ing a Yamaha - it was like the Honda is now. I still feel, w hen I look at it now , that it's int eresting. It's no t the fastest thing ou t there, but I like the way it hand les on the ra ce track. I' ve neve r ha d th a t mu ch in tere st o r pas sio n fo r the Suz uki , thoug h th ere ha ve been a few times w hen I nearly we nt to ride for them. 3. Wh o do yo u regard as yo ur mo st respected rival ever? Wayne Rainey. o t because he was the fastes t, but because of his mindset and his cons isten cy. He was so strong. You always knew he wo uld be the re, even if things weren't good for him . 4. Can you give us a top 10 of you r favorite riders of all time? T hat's hard fo r m e. I' d have tro u bl e th in ki ng of 10. Befo re I s ta rt ed racing myself, I didn' t really follow it, so I can' t really put in peo ple like Barry Sheen e or Mi ke Hailwood. I didn't race aga ins t Kenny Roberts, bu t he's in there because of w h a t he did o n d irt bikes. Wayne Rainey, Eddie Lawson, Kevin 5chwantz, Wa yne Gar d ner , Alex CriviIIe, Daryl Beattie, Rob Phillis, Malcolm Campbell, Mike Dowson, Kenny Roberts. Is that 1O? 5. Is there a b ike you would like to have a go on? A present GP bike or a famou s racer of old times? 9. Before you sw itched to GP racin g, you raced four- strokes. \VItat w as the mo st difficult th ing you were conf ron led with when you sw it ch ed? Do yo u th ink it is harder for a four-stroke rider to s witch to tw o-s tro kes, or is it th e other way around ? It 's definitely ha rd er to ride th e twostroke. You can see that when the Superbike Worl d Cha m pion is having pro ble ms, It wa s the sa me when I came. A superbike is easy by comparison. It has