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/127870
AMA Superbike ~ational Champion Doug Cha/Jdler By Henny Ray Abrams ou g Chandler ha s it a ll: a rec ord-tyin g thre e AMA Superbik e titles, a two- ye ar fa cto ry contract, m ore to y s than Santa Claus, and, most im po rtantly, a wonderfully su pp ortive wife and three you ng children - bu t he w ants more. . At an age when riders are supposed to be slo wing down, the 32-yea r-old life- ยท lon g res iden t of Salinas, California , is still winning. Thou gh he only wo n one of the 10 MBNA / AMA Supe rbike races this year, his legendary consistency and smoothness put him in a position where he controlled the title chase for much of the season . There were setbacks, though they were sma ll and occasional. He di d n oth in g s tu p id . H e did n't cras h , h e d idn' t blow the bike up, and he ma de few bad decisions. H e just kept motoring u ntil he arr ived for the final race in Las Vegas need ing very little to secure his third title and ma ybe the best bonu s in AMA Superbike racing. Ch andler d id wha t it too k to get it don e and he's u napologetic. While others ma y quibble wi th his stra tegy, they can't arg u e with his results. Whe n he wasn 't winnin g , he w a s close - and wh en he wasn't close, ther e was a good reason. But he was also lu cky. His wor st race was the Lagu na Seca World Supe rbike race, w he re his Kawasaki su ffere d an engi ne failur e in the second leg. Even in the final race at Las Vegas, he dod ged a bull et: His yo ung teamm ate Tommy Hayd en suffered a ba ttery failure and had to pit; had that been Cha ndler, he might no t b e wearing the nu mber on e on his bike for the second year in a row .' As im pres sive as thi s third title was, the next on e will be more di fficult. With an influx of new super- of deal. At the time, if I rem ember, they kind of go t criticized a little bit then, but now who rem embers it? Not too many people. Do you think you could be a better rider if you had to win races? ~ ~~i~~;~;;;~~~~::~:;----~_;..-_ ~ 20 red edica tion of the facto ries to the b ike the 1998 campa co should be series,riders, a nd th e ignnti nuing the toughes t ever. There will be little room for error, and finis hing every race will be par am ount. If he does in 1998 wha t he did in 1997, it could be a record year for Chandler. It wou ld make him the firs t fou r- time AMA Su perbi ke Champion ever, a mark that will be hard to match. We cau ght up with Cha nd ler on the eve of his first test sess ion of the yea r at Dayton a International Speed way. How.do you top last year? Try to win more races this year, I guesstry to ge t the champion ship won . What about the criticism that you don't win enough races? Does that bother you ? .Not really, because I know, fou r or five yea rs d own the road , it's going to be forgo tten abou t - who won the most races. It' s going to be the cham pionship (that's rem ember ed ). I go t to th in kin g abo u t that a little bit past midseason. Ther e's a number of instan ces tha t were just like th at. I thin k Wa yne (Ra iney) a n d (Kevin) Schwan tz ha d a year like that, and so did Wayn e a nd (Fred) Me rkel. (In 1986, Merkel won two races and the tit le; Ra iney won s ix ra ces . In 1987, Schwantz won f~ve, Ra iney thr ee, and the crown ... Editor.) Just the same kind I do n ' t t hi nk so . I th ink I jus t kin d of go abou t it gi ve n how the p oi nt s are structu re d , and you just d o wha t you have to do to accom p lis h co m ing h om e ,w it h th e cha m pionsh ip. I just can' t justify takin g a risk wh en th e guy's o n ly go ing to make three or four points up on yo u with thr ee races to go . There's no point. It'd be different if it was maybe half the p oints ga p, .per p os iti on, w ith thre e ra ces to go. Yea h, the n yo u've got to beat that guy. It seeme d like if it wasn' t Migu el (Dul-lamel), it was Mat (Mladi n), and vice versa . .The y kind of we nt back an d forth, but I seemed to be the consistent o ne ri ght th ere with th em, with eithe r one of them every time. Su re, I would ha ve lik ed to have wort more races. I just d idn't feel it was wo rth it: Do you think they should change the points structure? I thin k th e way it pays - as far as the amo unt of points you ge t for a win - I ' . think that's too high . And I think it pays too far d ow n a nd we need a g rea te r s p re a d. For the amoun t of ra ce s we have, getting 35 points a win is a lot of points. If you lose one race, to make up . 35 points, tha t's tou gh . The spread' s a make a race back up so meho w. But as it is now, you miss one race ... It ' s tou gh . I th ink we pay too many points and the spread needs to be farther apart. And this year, you're going to be riding a 600, too. It ' s some t h ing new . I reall y w a sn 't wa n ti ng to , but it w as s o me th ing Kawasak i really w ould lik e me to d o. I' ve n e ver ra ced a 600, so I th ou ght, "Why not?" I kind of figured we're the only ones with a new bike thi s yea r, and it shou ld be as good , if not better, than th e rest of them . So I think we shou ld . have a pret ty good sho t at d oing good . Did the sub ject of you riding a 600 first come up this year? At th e end of last yea r, we kn ew th ey were goi ng to have a new bike, so there was a bit of a pus h going then . I didn't want to, bu t I d idn't really mind d oing it for them. I looked a t it th is way: If it wo uld've been b ad - w h ich I hi ghly do ubted it was going to be - we wou ld have just ki nd of packed it in like we did o n th e 750 (Super spor t), Bu t there's no way they're going to ha v e a bad bike. That class is so competitive. T.he o ld bi ke ra n go od, it ju st d idn' t qu ite hand le as go od . Thi s n ew one :they've su p posedly fixed every thing that . th e old on e wouldn' t d o for you . With th at in mind , you'd thin k we'd h ave a d arn goo d 600 to race this year . , How much harder is it to do two classes in a weekend? { I d o n 't kno w . I' ve n ev er d on e it: I mean , I did the 750, but that was the d ay before . (75 0cc Su p ers p ort ra ces are hel d on Sa turday ... Editor). I still admire the guys who do it beca u se there is quite a bit of difference ther e, in tire grip and bi k e p erformance . T he t hing (su perbike) accelerates and stops so mu ch quicker. You ' ve got more grip ther e. You've go t a wa rmup lap and a sighting lap to adjust to ge t back on that thing. I think it' d be a tou gh deal. How long do you th ink it's going to take 10 get used to doing it? Hop efully, by the first race. It's kind of nice in one way. You 've got to kind of turn arou nd and make it work for you try to make it a mot ivati onal thing rather th an just kind of ge t depressed and dwell on it. That' s not going to do you an y good. You' ve go t to try to build it up th e best yo u can. I'll look at it as getting more track time, so I'll be able to know the track bett er and hopefully sort out stuff qu icker. How much different is it to ride? It's quite a bit. It' s another step. You're on so me thing that's a stock pr oduction bike with DOT tires an d you ge t off of th at a nd onto so mething tha t I d on't think weigh s mu ch mor e than tha t one, bu t has quite a bit more power - mor e .brakes under it, and bet ter grip with the slick tires . To me, it's the equ iva lent of ste ppi ng up fro m a su perbike to a 500 on the same day. It can be tha t big of a step.