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/127866
"
,
\
~~
L ikeJohn ~ are th e first rid er in
smoother, and a lot of
You
Dowd . I wa nt to
the m od e rn er a to b e
guys I have raced
cas t off by the fac to ry
against have either
ra c e as long as I
team s, and throu gh
quit or retired,
can be good a nd
hard wo rk and tenaci ty,
while mv resu lts
competitive.
you ha ve fo u nd yo u r wa y
kept gettu1'g better and
back in to the elite fra ternibe tter.
ty. You mu st reall y appreciIn lat e November, y o u
ate the second lease on life.
broke YOUT ankle and many
Yes, Iplan on practicing and
p eopl e assumed that y o u
rid ing more than I ever ha ve.
wou ld miss the beg inn ing of
I've come clo se to the chamthe 1997 AMA Supercross Series.
pionship before and I wa nt to
However, at the very last mom en t, yo u
d o w hatever it tak es to win. It
s h o wed u p i n Los Angel e s ready to
will take a lo t of ha rd work
race. Explain that to us .
and luck, but I ap preciate this
I was rea lly pumped u p las t wi nter and
cha nc e more tha n an yth ing
was lead ing the World Supercross Series
and p lan to tak e full adva nhea d ing int o Paris. I was also in the runtage o f it. I want to rid e more
ning fOT the King of Bercy title in Pari s
than ever and practice all o f
u p to the last night, un til I ran in to so me
the little thing s like starts th at can mak e
problems a nd end ed up with a be n t
all o f the difference.
fron t d isk and could n' t finish th e ra ce.
After it all went wrong wi th Suz u ki in
From thai, there was no King of Bercy
1993, d id yo u feel li ke sayi ng, 'T o hell
title . I was reall y en thus ias tic and want with it - I' m d one' ?
ed to w in th e ne xt e ve n t in Tok y o ,
H onestly, no . I s tayed close wit h m y
st
Japan , b u t the fi T n ight ba ck a fte r
fa mi ly and ju st keep mov in g forwa rd .
Par is, I goo fed up w hile practicing and.
Maybe my first year afler I left Suzu ki, I
broke my ank le. I had to hav e a pin p ut
was a little d iscouraged . I went ou t and
in it immediately and, unfor tuna tely, it
bought my ow n bo x van and bikes an d
was a non-weigh t-bearin g in ju ry and I
th at w a s to u gh , but all of th e o the r
could n' t rid e, trai n or d o any thing on it.
years, I've been rea l hap p y and I have
Tcou ld swim, bu t tha t was abou t it. The
no regrets abou t my career.
Monday before the season ope ne r a t the
Compared to the gli tt ery, Hash-andColise u m, th e d octor remo ved the pin
. g Iam, Cali fo rni a-b ased gro u p o f p roand I wal ked out of the hos pital. I actufessional racers, yo u se em to be much
ally ta lked him in to ta king the pin o ut
more conservative and re served. In
two weeks ea rly. The swelling had go ne
fa ct, you were out deer hunting this
and t he flexibility was all th ere, so he
morning. What do es Larry Ward do for
agreed. He told me that I coul d rid e and
kicks?
trai n, a nd I immediately wen t home,
I go o ut wit h Ih a t so-ca lled "gro up"
where H onda of Troy ha d a p rac tice
o nce or twi ce a yea r. II's no t tha t I d on't
bike waiting fOT me. I s ta r te d Tidi ng
like them, but I'd rather go to slee p early
immed iately an d felt very good. I'd ge t
so I ca n wa ke up and go sit in a d eer
wind ed real easy, but my speed was all
blind at 4 a .m . and hu nt w h ite-tailed
there and I still had great co nfidence
d eer. I rea lly like to h u n t. I like d eer
from how we ll I had done in Europe. I
hu n ting and big-game hu nt ing, like for
finis hed third that nigh t in Los Ang eles,
elk. I've never harv est ed an elk. I also
a nd my se ason kept ge tting better to
like quail huntin g, but I'm more in terw here I fin ished fourth in the poin t
es ted in bigge r game. I have a Jet Ski
standings. I was a little disa ppointed,
a nd go o ut in the ocean and rid e
how ever, because I wan ted to beat Ezra
the waves. They're no t as big as
Lusk fOT third .
the ones you guys hav e ou t west,
When yo u w ere sh own the d oor b y
but we hav e a lot of fun with il. I
Su zuki back in 1993, yo u didn't leave
also ha ve a ski boat and go ou t in
on the best of terms, did you?
that. I live in Florence , Sou th Ca roli na,
It was a g ood m o ve f O T m e . The y
w h ic h is abo u t a n ho u r fro m My rtl e
. weren' t happy with me th en . I was a
Beach, so we're pretty close to the OCean.
yo u ng g u y th ai wo n a few races fOT
But with ou r Ll.S, sched u le and all of the
them , and I think I won them a little bi t
Eu r o p ea n races th at we d o, we r ace
too ea rly, beca u se I h ad n ' t rea ll y
a lmos t all yeaT and there isn' t a lot of .
m at u re d ye t. OUTin g th at same tim e, I
time for o the r interests.
also had some bad races, and I th ink it
You'v e been doing th is for a long time.
w as fru strati ng for Suzu ki to see m e
Now that you're a facto ry rider again,
bac k in fifth and all of that h u rt ou r relawhat do yo u see in yo u r fu tu re?
tions hip.
II's too soo n 10 tell. Hon est lv, I wa n t to
Did Roger have to work som e diplosee where I'm a t financially. Right no w,
. mati c magic in o rder to g et yo u and
I'd like to race a t leas t another three or
Su zuki back together?
fou r years. Like Joh n Dowd , I wa nt to
No , Suzu ki is a lot d ifferen t now . With
race as long as I ca n be good and comRoger in the truck, th ey have a lot of
petiti ve. It's nice to be good at somenew secre ts and a great racing program
th in g a nd work a t it every day, see it
tha t has been ge ll ing results . A lot has
payoff and go somewhere wit h it. I see
changed wi th them and with me. I was
my frien ds that ge t u p and go to wo rk
19 then and now I'm 27, so I believe that
and no t rea ll y go anyw h ere in their
I can do we ll for the m .
careers, and it makes me real ha ppy to
Suzu ki has come a long wa y in recen t
be doing w hat I'm d oing. Sure, it's a job
years, haven' t they?
at ou r leve l, but I want to keep moving
Yeah, they have. Roger is a huge benefit.
forwa rd wi th it. As lon g as ( can wo rk
Since he ' s been aroun d; they' ve been
ha rd and make money, I'll keep racing. I
doing a lot be tter w ith the ir resul ts . It's
realize how lucky I am to be raci ng and
g rea t for m e to be back tog ether w it h
I kno w I have it a lo t eas ier tha n mos t
them now, and I've tested wi th them fOT
people.
•
a few weeks now and I'm real comfortWhat are you r goals heading into Los
able on the new bikes - especially from
Angeles th is January?
w hat I remem ber about the old er bikes I
Idon' t wa n t to set th em too hi g h. I'd
rod e.
lo ve to w in th e Supercro s s Champ iHo w do you and "The Man" ge t along?
ons hip, bu t I'm first looking at th e top
I have always go llen a long well w ith
th ree and th at will mean being in the
Roger . Even in 1989, when I was a
top five a t every race. Th ere's going to
Honda sup port ride r, we g o t alo ng
be a lot of good competition th is year.
extre mely well.
(Above) Ward (right) and Damon Bradshaw clown around at the recen t Sheffield
Supercross in England.
(Be low) Ward , who has always done well racing in Europe in th e Off-season, passed
Jeremy McGrath on the last lap of the Sheffield Supercross to take the win .
With Windham entering the class full time,
Emig now a champion,
Albertyn a proven wi nner,
L us k
wit h Honda and
M cGrath co m i ng back with a
vengeance, who do you see as
you r tough est adversaries in 1998?
Well, you can' t cou nt out Emig. No thing
has cha nged wi th his prog ram; he' ll be
back on the sa me bike, wit h th e sa me
te am a nd w it h the sa me. m echan ic.
McGralh w ill be very motivated to win.
lf he comes out an d d oes well in the firs t
four or five r aces, he w ill be ha rd to
stop. A lso Lusk - if he gets hi s co nfid ence, he ' ll do very we ll. I also like to
think myself, because I' m rea l co nsisten I.
Year after year, yo u have d one extremely well in Euro pe. In fact, through yo u r
re su lt s a nd the p u b lic i ty yo u have
received , the off-season seems to have
kept you o n the factory-m anag em en t
rad a r screens. Do y ou en jo y it o ver
th ere ?
.
Oh yeah, it's a lot of fun. I like the European races a nd I have d one real well
over the re. The cro wds we race in front
of are smaller, but ap preciative o f w hat
w e d o. Like a t Sh effi el d , when I wa s
b ehi nd Brad shaw a nd McGrath, a ll 1
co u ld th ink ab out w a s pa ssing th ose
tw o guys. There was no one behind m e
going as fast as we were, so all 1 had to
d o was concen tra te on them. We went
back and forth, and Dave Stevenson and
all the mech an ics th at were the re said it
WaS a real exciting 25 laps . The crowds
and the stadiu ms are sma ller in Eu rope,
bu t the crowds are closer to the actio n
a nd v ery e n th u s ia sti c. Do n't ge t m e
wrong, tho ug h. Some times it's a little bit
of a pa in to race ov er there, bu t it' s all
worth it. You know, people think we ge t
all of this start money to race over there,
but som etimes it's a rea l hassle to get on
a p lan e , fly to Atl a nta , t he n fl y to
Europe to compete. I see the start money
as compensa tion for all of the travel and
being away from ho me . We also have to
pack u p forks , han d lebars, pipes and all
of Ihat s tuff, b ut I u s u all y ma ke m y
mechan ic d eal with all tha t. (He lau gh s.)
Larry, yo u made it all th e wa y back.
You h av e to fe e l good about the
ap proaching race season.
I'm rea lly excited about it. I'll be teamed
with Mickael Pichon and Greg Albertyn,
and Roger DeCost er will be ou r team
manager . I've been rid ing the bik es for a
few weeks no w and feel tha t I have a
grea t chance to win. I wou ld also like
everyone to kn ow that wi thout the help
and su p po rt of Noleen Racing and Oark
Jon es, and Hond a of Troy, and all their
sponsors, and Phil Al d erton a nd Eri k
Kehoe, I would never ha ve mad e it ba ck
as a fa ct o ry rid er. Those g u ys, a lo ng
with my fri ends an d family, neve r
s to p ped bel ieving in m e a nd I really
appreciate it.
.~
r-,
0\
0\
,.....
0\
,.....
....