Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

did a bunch of riding. That race wasn ' t very wide open; it wa s kind of technical. Both Rand y a nd Ty were th ere, and I went and did it aga in. I pulled it off and beat them bot h. It all went back to that fir st ra ce . Even thou gh I got second there, I knew now that I cou ld beat them in th e lat er part o f the ra ce, and that helped me ou t for the rest of the y ear. That' s where I used to ge t killed . Last yea r, I co u ld maybe hang with th em ear ly on , but then they'd just keep going and pull away from me . At Coalinga, I just rod e kind of consistent in the morning and then Al said, "Hey! It' s time to rid e," and I just let it hang ou t. Tha t's wha t se t the whole season in place. You finally figured it out. Yep. I finally figu red it out. It was a proced u re of th is a nd tha t a nd th e othe r, and I kind of just had to pu t it all toge ther. After Georgia, it was "Look ou t!" - I was just a ball of fire that nobody could put out. After Washington it was Ohio. There, Doug Blackwell was on (minu te) 20; Randy was on 24; and I was on nUIIlber 37, and it was just a muddy, pouring-dawn-rain, Ohio race - a good 01' sou the rn Ohio race. I had never ridden the re in the mu d . I had always ridden there when it was d ry. I was kind of out of m y element a little bit, and those guys bot h had good nu mbers, and they were rid in g rea ll y well. I knew Dou g. was goi ng to be hard to beat, a nd he had so me good scores throughou t the d ay, a nd I was ge t ting s tu ck. I th ou gh t, "What am I doing? I'm gon na pin it, I'm going to at least beat Rand y!" We w ound up tied on scores, a nd I bea t him on the tie bre akers. Whew! I figured, "I finished second, but at least I finished in front of Rand y." I thought that da y that it was th e e n d o f th e world ; I was kind o f bummin' . I had won the last three and I wanted to win again. In the long run, it wasn't tha t bad. The next face was Minnesota, and I won tha t race. Rand y was riding really, rea lly good, a nd th en he ra n bu t of gas . He had me beat. I just kept going and beat Matt (Stavi sh ), and that was four wins. Then we had a weekend off and wen t to Michi gan. Randy had so me bad luc k he cu t his leg, had problems and di dn't show up in Michigan. I wo und up wi nning tha t one, too. After that, it was Colorado. Yep, my first time in Colorado, ridi ng at elevatio n, and I tho ugh t I was rid ing great. I had a really good num ber, I was up in front of every bo dy, but I d idn' t know wh a t was go ing on. I was mak ing so me chec ks, but actua lly Ty was making the checks th e min ut e before th at! He end ed up beating me by four .m inu tes , Nex t year, when I go to Coali nga, or to Colo rado, I thin k I' ll use a 300 ra ther than a 250 for just that little bit more horsepower. The last time we talked, last season, just before Da ytona, it was my im p ression that the k e y to wi nni n g the National Enduro Series - or even one race of the series - was figuring it out, knowing how to do it. There are a lot of guys who are fast enough and even more with plenty o f s ta mi n a, but I th ink the key is lea rning how to win. After the experience of thi s season, do you think there is any truth to that? Very mu ch. I'll agree that now I've figured it ou t, but I've figu red ou t tha t there's many things to do. I mean there are so man y differ en t things tha t have to come in line in order for it to happen. I'm not saying you have to wea r the same color gea r, or you have to carry a lucky thing like the same T-shirt and all tha t cra p; it's jus t that you ha ve to fol- lafferty served notice at the opening round in Cali forn ia that he was going 10 be the rider to beat. low the same setu p, the same proced ure eye ry time. Okay, what is it? What's the secret? Everybody wants to know. I th ink to everyone it' s goi ng to be something d ifferen t. I mean, I think yo u have to have luck o n you r side, you have to be lucky at it, in some parts , but then agai n, you d o n ' t. I rea ll y don't think there's something you can preach an d tell so meo ne how to d o it. If there is - well , yo u have to want to do it, more than anything, and you ha ve to work a t it to the exclus ion of everything else, on yo ur ow n, because eve ry bod y' s different. If I told m y broth er how to w in a National, it' s not goi ng to wo rk. I thi nk you have to d ecide on wha t's best for you in your s ituation. For ex amp le , working with AI, and wanting to race Su nday, and ride as hard as I can, I figured out that I don't like traveling in the box van for three d ays before I race. I have to keep from getting bored and burned ou t, so when Sunday com es along, I' m hu ngry, and when I get on that bikeSunday morning, I don't think about, "Man, I gotta ge t paid , I galla w in th is ra ce ," I don't think about , "Ma n, I gotta get my p ic ture in th is magazine." Wh en I sta rt in the morning, I wa nt to be the best, and I want to bea t all 380 of the rid er s that are here tod ay. That' s wha t I' m thi nk ing : tha t I can do it, an d I want to rid e my KTM. When I s howed up in Georgia , I cou ld've rid d en for days. When you do it, yo u have to have all these things fall in to p lace and in order, mentally and phys ically. Okay, I have two words for you: Randy Hawkins. Rand y is the bes t at wha t we do . And he's bee n the best, he's in the sa me category as (Dick) Burleson. Randy the perso n is a very frie nd ly , ve ry h elp fu l end uro rider. Ra nd y the ra cer knows how to do it - he knows how to play the game, he knows what it takes to w in . He' s got the formula down. He may have been off a little this season wi th the new bike, but he' s going to ge t everything sorted out , and he' s goi ng to be hard er to beat than this year. . So how does it feel to beat him? It feels good - it feels real good . When I was s tarti ng out, he was th e man. He knew what it took to pull it off when I was growing u p, even jus t a few yea rs ago, and I always wondered w ha t it was going 10 be like if I cou ld rid e against Randy and th e other fast guys. Jus t watching him at Delaware, or one of the other local Nationals, Ran d y was the gu y. If I was ever goi ng to do well, he w a s th e man I woul d have to beat. Thinking back to then, I woul d have never beli eved I co u ld be w here I am now. Ther e's no way. You've said many times that one of your heroes i s Kevin Hine s. What about him? Kevin was always close to hom e; he was an Eas t Coas t Ch ampion . He' s a lways been friend ly and help ful to me and my family , and w he never we've gone up there an d gone rid ing and things, like last yea r at the Six Days camp, he's just a fun guy to ha ng out with. I remember when they had the Wren tha m ationa l, up in New England, Kevin was on the minu te behind me, and he caug ht and passed me in the first section. I was bugg in g out; I was thinki ng, "Hey, I win local races - what's up with this?" So I was bu stin' my butt to try to stay wit h him all da y until I finally died in the last section. I remember a fterwarp s, he said to Jack, "You' ve got to ge t that kid on a training program, because he'll be able to do some thing." Havin g him say that meant more to me than an ything else a t th e time. That was Kev in H ines saying that maybe I knew how to rid e! I have so much respect for him . He's always complimented me, been a friend; at the Six Days this yea r, we had a lot of fun . He w as chasing for Rod ney Smit h and he wo uld look at the tim es and tell me it' s all right, relax, take my time, and then later on we'd get going, and he'd tell me to shut up and twis t that thing! He'd look at my throttle and ask, "Is that thing broke?" Then maybe I'd do a test and I'd come around and he'd give me the thumbs-up, saying , "Good tes t, Rod ney only got you by four seconds," or something. He knew wh at it took to motivat e me, and I really ap p recia te all his help. Kevin is the man. So what about the Six Days? You finished 23rd in your class; wh at did you learn there? The experience wa s grea t. I learned a lot. I learned I have to pr epar e more for the Six Days than I did this year. What ab out KTM ? KTM has come a lon g way. They' ve had nothing but im provements on the bikes since ' 95, and I reall y like th e bikes. I didn't know much abo ut the '98s, but now that I've ridden th em in the Six Days, I know they're a happening bike. I really like the bikes, reall y like working with KTM. I like dealing with the people - Rod Bush , Brian in parts, Mike Rosso, Tom Komar. To me , they ' re really goi ng forward in what I do. T hey don't ju mp arou nd to a bunch of differen t se ries ; they have me in end ures, Plessin ger in GNCC, Smail in the Fou r-Stroke races, a nd they co nce ntra te th eir p eople on w hat they do best. Eve ry body at KTM knows w ha t it takes to help us ou t, help us win races, and they do it. It's har d for us to find a 'way to thank them tota lly for w ha t they do, but in my case , I feel like I've thanked them by winning them this champio nshi p. I mean, I rode, bu t I didn 't w in this champions h ip - KTM did . Rod Bush, Tom, Mike, AI, Brian - it too k everybody's help to do this . What about AI Randt? At one time you two had a real love/hate relationship. Al was very d iffe rent to me. H e was new a t what he was doing , and I was new a t it also, and he tho ught , "Hey, this is wha t I need to do. " And I kind of d idn't want that to happen; I fought it to ' some extent. I don't blame him for being that way. We both had to feel each other o u t, and figur e out, "Hey, th is isn't working. What do we need to make it better?" We sat down at the beginning of this yea r an d told each other what we did n't like about last year, and we changed the wa y we did thi ngs, and my fee li ngs toward s him cha nged quite a bit. Now we ha ve more fun and are havin g a helluva lot bet ter tim e. No w we win races! AI's been aro u nd. He' s been arou n d th is series ma ny t im es a n d helped me wit h the inside line on a lot of things; I mean, he knows th e races and the peo ple, and that' s a big help. I defi nite ly wan t him to be a part of my racing from he re on out. As long as he wa nts to d o it, I'm his rider. C~ 31

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