Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

INTERVIEW The ch ass is wa s set up completely like wh at Mick had run. My first im press ion was great. I loved it, I had a grea t time on it and I'm really looking forwa rd to s ta rt testing - if that is th e w a y w e a re goi ng to go . One thing's for sure: Ther e are some things that I \\;1I d efinitely hav e to mod ify, beca use m y rid in g sty le is definitely d ifferent than hi s (Doohan 's), But th e basic bike is grea t and I su re enjoyed it. One of Doo ha n 's ma jor comp lai nt s is tha t h e h as to share inf orm ati on wit h t he oth e r . H on d a ri d ers . If h is s e tu p d oesn ' t work for you, th en I gue ss yo u won't be r u n n in g over to h is pit try ing to get his setup. I have alwa ys been the type of rid er w ho likes to do his own thing. It's going to be up to me to try a nd und erstand w ha t I need , and wha t is going on. The Honda engin eers are so smart a nd th ey have so much information - that's what helped me tremend ou s ly th is y ea r in becom ing World Champ ion . The RC45 is a motorcycle that is knojvn to be no t so easy to ride. To come in to it w ith absolu tely no experien ce a nd to w in the championsh ip in the first year w ell, tha t' s a pre tty tall order. Having those guys there is what did it for me. If I had a problem, I cou ld talk to them abo ut it and they wo uld come u p wi th ideas tha t w e need ed to tr y. Tha t' s why I have absolu tely no worries in th e world . Th ose guys ar e go ing to take care of it. Given that you are going back t o GPs, what co ncerns y o u most abou t re turning to th e 500cc class? I d on 't have any real concerns . I guess the thin g that has sparked a flame insid e of me mor e than any thing is that I've been 250cc World C ha m pio n a n d World By Paul Carruthers Phctos by Go ld & Goose 16 t now appea rs almost certain that John Kocin ski will return to 500cc Grand Prix racing in 1998. An d he'll be armed with the ultimate ticke t to rid e - a fac tory H onda NS R50 0. It is hi s rewa r d for b ringing Ho nd a its firs t Wor ld Superbike Championshi p sin ce 1989, and the first for the muchchastised RC45. All of this comes a s Honda b eg in s its 50 th ann iversa ry, coincidentall y matching Kocinsk i's 25th year as a motorcycle racer. Alth ou gh h e wou ld like to bring home the gold in what will be his silve r anniversary, Kocinski isn 't go ing in to the 1998 seaso n with his m outh cutt in g checks his righ t wrist can 't cash. According to Kocinski, the 1998 season will be a back-to-school se s si on fo r h im in th e 500cc Wor ld Championship, a year that will force h im to s ta rt all over aga in . Love him or loat he hi m, eve n Kocin ski's harshest cri tics see m to be placing thei r ho pes on him to bri ng excitement bac k to 500cc Gra nd Prix racing - most no tably fro m an Ame rica n racing fan's p erspecti v e, some th ing th at' s been mi ssing since the days of Wayn e Rai n e y a n d Ke vin Schwantz. . Althoug h Kocinski .. w ho will turn 30 on March 20, speaks of hi mself as a class roo kie, he' s far from it. After all, he won his first 500cc Grand Prix in 1991 - only one yea r and 27 days after fourti me World Cha m pio n Mick Doohan won his first. Since then, the tw o have take drastically d iffere nt p a ths, ye t it is Dooh a n whom Kocinski must beat if he is to com p lete his u ltimate go al . of being th e o nl y man ever to win the 250cc World Champio n s hi p , the World Superbike Ch ampionship, a n d roa d racin g's ultimate prize , the 500cc World Championship. America's biggest ho pe for glo ry in 500cc GP racing talked to us from his home in Mod esto, Califo rnia. He spo ke p roudly of last yea r's World Supe rbik e title, yet was so mewha t guarded in his app roach to nex t year's 500c c Wo rld Champio nship . Let' s s ta r t with nex t ye ar a nd move bac kw a r d . W ha t i s John Ko ci n s k i going to be racing nex t year? At th is moment , all I can say is that it app ears th at I'm going to b e ra ci ng 500cc GPs - bu t at this moment; no thing is finali zed yet. The way I look at thin gs, un til I have my signa tu re signed on the co n tract, then no thin g is 100 percen t sure. Are we to assume that you don' t know what team you' ll be with yet? Or is that the holdup? At th is momen t, nothin g is finalized . There are a lot of situations where deals are 95 percent or eve n 99 percent, a nd suddenly the next day something happens and the w hole d eal falls through . I think the biggest thing right now is trying to get som e d e ta il s fina lized betw een th e team ow ne r a nd m ysel f. Tha t's th e bigges t p ar t. O ne thi ng I know for sure is that I have 110 per cen t backin g from HRC. They are go ing to supply me wit h factory machines and all the technical su p port and staff people that they feel is necessary for me to go ou t and have a real cha nce of winning a champ ionship . Is tha t team owner Sito Pons? Since nothing is finalized 100 percen t, I really can't say at this momen t. You w ere given the opportunity recently to ride the N SR500 a t Sugo. What were y ou r initial impre s sions of the bike? Is it as awesome as everyb od y says? For me, the thing that's awesome is jus t riding for Honda . I rea lly learned an incredible amount last year riding th e s2perbike for Honda. Basically, a lot of people in the past have said a lot of neg ative things abou t the RC45. After Carl Fogarty rode it a nd sa id yo u co u ldn' t win on it, maybe people though t it was a project that Ho nda br ou ght ou t that wasn' t going to be successful. However, it was nice to join them a nd pro ve all th ose nega tives wrong. It just goes to sho w tha t when yo u work with people with suc h a d es ire a nd d ed ica tion to win, you can basically achieve whatever you wa nt to. When you first jumped on the NSR, was it set up for Mick Doohan? Th e bike I s ta r ted on was exa ctl y th e same as how Mick uses it, excep t I used the old style, or I guess you wo uld call it the Big Bang engi ne - the same engine as (Tadayu ki) Okada and (Alex) Crivill e. . Superbike Champion - it's just the 500cc World Championship tha t's missing. To be qu ite honest with you, the Flarnmini Grou p (the World Superbike promoters... Editor) runs a fantastic sho w and the people were very helpful. Whenever you n eeded a ny t hi ng, you could go th er e and be ve ry confiden t that they were going to help yo u in any way they could . I quite liked the World Superbike Cham p io nship . For su re, I'm goi ng to miss bein g th ere, becau se th e peo p le look after you so well. From what I can remem ber from Grand s Prix, you 're sort of ou t there on you r own and there were more peop le grou ped up - it's definitely a lot different atmosp here. What excites you about go ing back to GPs? Does it really just come down to the thrill of ridin g a 500 again? A ft er n ot bein g o n o ne s ince 1994, I th ought th e 500 w ou ld be a lot faster tha n when I ro de it a t Su go. That jus t

• Cover