Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

INTERVIEW Castrol Honda team manager Neil Tuxwo1th By Darryl Flack Photo by Gold & Goose n the Castrol Honda press kit sits a age listing the achievements of am general manager eil Tuxworth. But missing from an extraordinary career including runner-up in the 1977 Formula Two World Championship, a podium finish in the 1973 Isle of Man 125cc IT, speedway, ice racing, sand racing, motocross, grass track, and trials results, is perhaps Tuxworth's crowning achievement:' eil Tuxworth - presiding over a group of people which John Kocinski has declared the best race team he's ever worked with." A short, nuggety man with a perpetually furrowed brow, Tuxworth is often seen hands in pockets, pacing slowly around the Castrol Honda pit, head down and buried in deep thought. And it was Kocinski's entry into the' Castrol Honda World Superbike team that would provide Tuxworth with perhaps his grea test challenge - not that he didn't have them before. When Honda announced the launch of its long-awaited replacement for the RC30, the RC45, then-HRC chief Yoichi Oguma SBid, "Honda will have no enemies in World Superbike racing." It was a comment that underlined that no matter how big you are, never lead wi th your chin. . For Tuxworth, things got off to a bad start when works Honda 500cc Grand Prix rider Daryl Beattie turned down the Castrol Honda ride. The up-and-coming Aussie saw the offer as a slap in the face : revealing that he just laughed at HRC officials - and then walked out to join Team Marlboro Roberts Yamaha and its GP effort. The RC45's debut year will be best remembered for Doug Polen's not coming to terms with the new V-four, and for a damaging fuel-infringement viola tion a t the Donington Park round that effectively snuffed out Aaron Slight's title chances. With Polen leaving under a cloud, Simon Crafar joined Slight and, despite more-consistent results, Carl Fogarty successfuHy defended Ducati's honor, with Troy Corser second and Slight third. Fogarty made a surprise switch to the team in 1996, fueling his bitter rivalry with Slight in a bid to prove who was the better rider. The outcome proved inconclusive after Fogarty racked up more wins despite a miserable start, while Slight finished one spot ahead in the championship - third. So, after three years of having "no enemies" in World Superbike but no championship, HRC bit the bullet and hired enfant terrible John Kocinski for 1997. Preseason rumors abounded that Kocinski would only deal with the HRC superbike officials, which threatened to split the team in two. Giving credence to this is Aaron Slight's recent claim that Kocinski "ran the team - he ruled the roost." Tuxworth reveals that he spent oon-.· siderable time figuring out why Kocinski had experienced such bitter fallingouts with previous teams and came up with a successful strategy to deactivate any grenades tllat threatened to undermine team stability, and ultimately Kocinski's undoubted brilliance. ow Tuxworth has another American rider, Colin Edwards 1I, to help adapt to the quirky RC45. Castrol is very disappointed that it lost its championship-winning rider to a Spanish cellular-phone provider, and will expect either Slight or the young Texan to uphold Kocinski's success. That's not forgetting the progress of Tuxworth's young charge, British sensation James Toseland, who will contest the World Supersport 600cc series this year. For the 45-year-old Tuxworth, who was listed as an "accountant/professional racing motorcyclist" in the 1977 "Who's Who of Motorcycle Road Racing," it will be another high-pressure year of implementing the honorary degree in sports . psychology he has picked up aJong the way. . Can you explain how the team works? Bas\caIly, we are a full factory team. The 500cc GP team is based in Belgium and we are based in England, so that is the start of the team. HRC do all the development and engine work on the bike. The director in charge in Japan is Mr. Kanazawa, then myself as the general manager and Mr. akamoto is the project leader, and everything goes through us. Mr. Nakamoto controls the development side of the bike, while the organizational and operational side is controlled by myself. Then, under me, we have a race-team manager who looks after the two chief mechanics, two engine builders, two chassis men, two assistant mechanics - so that's the team structure. On the peripheral side, we have Chris Herring doing press and PR, and we have a commercial manager. We also have three people working in hospitality, we have a race-team secretary and a parts person..It's a very big team . of 20 people working at the ground level. . What's the ballpark budget per year? About £6 million ($10 million). [s that the budget for '98? It's about £6 million - it goes up and down a little bit. We obviously control costs as best we can. We have good staff and we like to pay them well, so they're things we can control. But we can't fix airfreight, hotel bills, fuel prices, exchange rates and the like. How many of the team is at this preseason test at Phillip Island? The majority of the team is here. The only people that we don't have are the commercial manager, raceteam secretary, hospitality and the truck drivers. Do you look after rider selection? I get involved with that. Certainly, the contracts with the riders are' done through HRC, but I get in volved with the discussions around August, September each year about rider selection. Obviously, Aaron's been with the team since day one - it's ·one position we've never had to fiJI .and the other has been changing every year. Although I have input, the final decision lies with HRC. I cali make recommendations and they may ask for my feelings, but it's they who pay the rider directly - whereas we control the payment for the rest of the staff from England. Why are you based in England? In 1993, when they (HRC) were looking for a team to work with, they picked our team. In 19911 did the World Superbike Series on a very shoestring budget with Carl Fogarty (on a Honda RC30), and we actually beat the factory-supported Rumi team with only one bike and one mechanic - the three of us slept in the truck. Fred Merkel was their rider and we actually beat him in the championship, so we must have done a bit to impress Japan, and they decided to pick our team to do it, and our team is based in England. Does it work well from a logistical point of view? People always ask, "Why England?" But the Suzuki World Superbike team is in England and 80 percent of Eormula One c'1r teams are in England, so there must be some reason why we're all there. There's a lot of expertise in England at making and developing things - not that we need that at the moment, because most of the stuff for our bikes is made in Japan: We're in a quiet part of England where the cost of living is quite low, and rent and rates are low, so it keeps the cost down for Honda. We're quite happy to be based there. From the development point of view from this test, for example - were there any priorities? For Colin (Edwards), it's a new procedure. He's the new rider in the team and has to learn the bike/team setup, etc. Whereas for Aaron, he knows the mechanics, the bikes - he knows me - so he's been testing updated parts to get his feedback. Colin's' tried them, too, but he hasn't even got a base setting of where to start, so it's a matter of rider familiarization after a long winter layoff. It's also where the first race will be held, so any information will be useful. The weather's on our side and there's three days to test different items. So we do have a plan of what we:re going test and how we're going to do it. Are these '98-spec bikes? Yes, certainly. Any changes? I'm sure you're aware that we've been experimenting with a conventional swingarm instead of the mono. A final decision hasn't been .made yet as to which one's best. Aaron's fastest lap.s have been on the single-sided swingarm; I'd say at this stage that Aaron tends to prefer that one - not that he's given up on the conventional one; maybe it needs to be designed a little differently. Colin at this stage prefers the twin-sided swingarm, and he feels like it can be modified a bit. The riders from the All-Japan Championship Honda team are also here, so we're getting a lot of feedback - we're gaining in some areas and losing on others (with the dual-arm). The final decision will be made soon, but it will be up to Japan to decide which one they want to make. ! What was the thinking behind teslihg a twin-sided swingarm? !> To make the bike a bit more rigid at the . back. Obviously, with two arms holct..m'g the wheel, there won't be as much flex, so it may improve tire life. . Has that been the case? r This is a hard place on tires anyway, and we initially thought that we'd get better tire wear with the two-sid~d swingarm, but as the test has gone on, we haven't found a big difference!' It may have been a little bit better, but not noticeably. . You've got the Superpole qualifying system for qualifying this year... That's new to us all; we've been discussing that. Yes, it's another idea I think it will create plenty of interest, basically. I'm not against it at all. It seems to be popular at the Suzuka 8 Hours. Yeal1, I'm sure it will go well. It's something the riders are already used to. Since Michelin says it hasn't made qualifying tires, how are they handli:ng it? We don't know at this stage; we're going to have to wait and see. What role did John Kocinski play in the development of the bike? Well, Aaron has done the most development, I have to say, because he's been with the team for four, going on five years now. Aaron knows the bike better than anyone. If we go back to the very beginning with Doug Polen and Aaron, Doug never really mastered the bike, never really coped with the bike. He was an older rider, probably been Ducatis too long, so it was the wh6\e thing that didn't work out for him. The second year, we brought Simon Crafar in. Simon knew the bike very we11, because he'd ridden for Team Rumi, and he did a very good job for us. Th'"en Carl Fogarty came along, complete1y different style - no sharing of information between Carl and Aaron, becaase

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