Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

INTERVIEW Cycle News Rider of the Year: 500cc World Champion Mick Doohan . • '-- 4 ) ick Doohan took another stride fo rward in 1997. With h is fourt h 500cc World Championship, his record number of consecutive pole positions and wins per season (a d ozen of each in 15 races), he moved mor e firm ly in to the all-time Hall of Fame to take his pla ce alon gsid e the greats Agostini and Hailwood - a marvelou s ach ieve ment. However, the step in ques tion does not depend on statistics. It is more perso nal, and less objective . The new status he achieved was that of Living Legend, and Dooh an d id it not so mu ch w ith his string of victo ries as by the man ner of his whole seasons. For a fourth yea r he was virtua lly unopposed . Althou gh there were some clo se fin ish es and even a co u p le of d efeats, Dooh an cou ld basicall y ha ve . cruised and still won . H e d id not. Th e 32-yeiH-o ld Au stralian's ap proac h remained the same as if he had had to fight for every inch. He put in ma ximum effort - not only for eve ry race, but also every practice ses- A B ~ § - sion - indeed, every lap. In this way, he demo ralized and dism antled the competition. At the same time, there were sev eral a mong the m w ho were lea rning from the ma ster, and Dooh an' s superiority served also to elevate their st andar ds. We spo ke .to him afte r he'd wo n the titl e, at the fina l race in Aus tralia , the d ay before his only bot ch of th e yea r. Lead in g his home Grand Prix in hi s usu al fas hion, Dooh a n com mi tted an un for ced erro r an d cr ash ed. It was so' rare to see that it was har d to believe. We s po ke a bo u t hi s m ot ivat ion , abo u t his rivals, abou t th e one race of the year that he lost throu gh being beaten (by Tadayuki Okada at Sentul - the other d efeat was the re sult of eng ine prob lems at Jerez). We also spoke abou t his plans for the futu re, and the streng th of co m mitme n t required for each new seaso n. Dooh an was in a rel axed frame of min d, the struggles and the tension of the fight for the title behind him . A pri ckly intervi ew subject at other times, he is reliably articu late, expansive an d tolerant in ou r year-end conversa tio ns th a t have become a regular fixtur e. This is all part of the dutiful and increasingly successful effo rts h e makes to accom modate th e media and the fans, thou gh he continues to think that side of it is a bit silly. Why, after all, would anyo ne wa nt a piece of paper with his nam e scrawled on it? H e is a priv ate p ers on , h app iest whe n he is on his boat , with the throttle wid e open and his passen gers scream ing for mercy - or when he is on his Honda in the sa me cond ition, and with his rivals d oing the screa ming . First off, your motivation th is year has been p henomenal. How on earth do yo u keep it up year after year? By Michael Scott Photos by Gold & Goose I've always had a good deal of mot ivation by myself. It rea lly is the racing that keeps me going - the will to want to be th e fa ste s t. Everyone' s go ing fast out ther e, but I want to be the fastest. I enjoy the racing mor e so now than - well, not mor e than I ever hav e, bu t I'm reall y en joying riding . And I don ' t re ally ha ve a lack of motivation to get up in the morning and prepa re myself to go racing. I could stop now. I co u ld h a ve stopped two years ago. But I reall y do feel lik e I' m st ill learning, an d that probably moti vates me as well. Still learning what? Elements of skill and con trol, or what? Experience mor e than rid ing : race craft. Also abou t the machine - I feel like I'm evolving . I d on 't feel I'm peaking. I'm still working - I change my tack here or there; I try this and try that and see if it doesn't work. I enjoy that side of it. And the racing has definite ly been far from boring thi s yea r, and so that's also kept me enthusiastic. You are notoriously toug h on yourself

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