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/127950
By Henny Ray Abrams Photos by Gold & Goose 00 ~ ..... o riyuki H aga a n nounced h is arrival on the World Su perbike .. scene by wi n n ing three of the first four races. They were bravad o perfo r ma nces on th e mu ch- m ali gn ed Yam ah a YZF750 that had man y of the World Superbike regulars sha king their heads. Opening the seaso n at Phillip Island in Australia, Haga split wins wi th former Worl d Cha m pion Carl Foga rty of the Ducati Performance team. " What he did th ere d idn ' t rea lly impress as much as wh at he did at Doning ton," Fogarty remembers. "I thought that was pr etty good. " When th e tour hi t t he co ntinent, Haga held off a determined Troy Corser, an other fo rm er World Ch ampion and th e Don in gt on Pa rk tr ack record hold er, in bo th races a t the tricky East Midl and s circuit in England. What he did on Satu rday night made his race feat even mor e impressive. The night before the race he was in a pub, drinking with the boy s. First tw o beers, then three gin -and-tonics. Riders a re n' t kn own to be sa in ts , but m ost eschew alcohol of any sort during a race week end. To toss back th at much th e night before a race is unh eard of. To win the races the next da y is beyond words. Haga is unapologetic. "It relaxes me because I like drinking," he said throu gh a n interpreter. "Every day in Japan, I go ou t and dri nk wi th friends." To man y Japanese, visiting a bar after wo rk is consid ered an essential pa rt of the workday. He likes 1980s d isco mu sic bu t wouldn' t think of goi ng to a disco . Yamaha World Superbike team manager David e Brivio says that Haga crea tes "a good atmosphere among team members, even though he doesn ' t speak English. When there's a party or din ner he mak es it enjoyable, makes it fun for everybody." "Everyo ne is a friend (in the paddock)," he says. "All riders are friends. In Japa n, rid ers stab each other in the ba ck . Here it 's comple tel y different. They're all good gu ys . They feel like friends." Even though he speaks little English, he tries to put wo rds together and say what comes ou t. "It forces people to underst and me, even if it's nonsense," said Haga. After se tt ing s uc h hi gh standa rds, th ere wa s nowhere to go but down wh ich is w he re he wen t, q uic kly a nd vio le n tly , in practice for th e Itali an round at Monza. Now, as he settles in for th e lon g haul , which Haga will show up at each sto p on th e tou r is an xiou sly awai ted . Will it be the one from Au stralia an d Donin gton, or the one from Misan o? He can win both races on a da y, or he can cras h out of both, as he did in Italy. One thing is certai n: He has the sort of natural talent that is very rare. What he d o es o n a m ot orcycl e is a lmos t unique; mostly it brin gs to mind Anthony Gobert , another yo u ng rid er w ho mad e a splash on the World Superbike scene by riding harder than anyone erse, The rid er w ho has seen th e most of him is his teammat e Scott Russell. Russell rod e the Yamaha last year and Colin Ed wa rds II rod e if for the last three, but ne it her of th em was abl e to d o w ha t Ha ga did in hi s firs t race as a Wo rld .Su perbike regular - win. H e is uncon ventional in a no t her sense, this 23-yea r-o ld fro m Aichi Prefec tu re . Haga refutes the notion th at training is essential. He admits to training very little, onl y "chicky-chicky," he sai d through a n interp re ter, one who couldn' t contain his laughter. "Was that jiggy-jiggy or chicky-chicky?" Yamaha 's Grand Prix media man Rupert Williamson was asked . Either way, the meaning wa s conveyed : Haga trains through recreational sex. Not to put too fin e a point on it, but his sli ghtly doughy figure says little about his powers of seduction. One look at him tells you he is a little different. At Albacete, the fourth race of the year, his hair was a fading Kawasaki green . He said he'd tried black and gold; this was just another hu e. There are the d ouble earrings in the left ear. The flash watch is a Rolex Subm ariner. The rider he most resembles, according to his rivals, is Anthony Gobert. But Dunlop's Da ve Watkins, a vet eran of both the Grand Prix and World Superbike tours, thinks ther e's ano the r rid er he brings to mind . " H a g a r em ind s m e of (Ke vi n) Schwan tz," Watkins said. "He seems to be able to get arou nd a race track six d ifferent way s and come up with the same lap tim e. Ke vin ' co u ld d o that. Kevin was more imaginative. He hat es losing. And he d oesn 't seem to be hard on tires." Russell pr efers to think that "he's like a Japanese.Gobert, isn't he - kind of, in a way ?" Russell says he's a "a young, hungry kid over here in Europe. We were all > there at one stage in our career. Some of, us made more of it than others. I think! tha t this series, mo s t of the guys out there now are all over 30. We got this you ng kid who s tep ped in, and he 'll saw the front end off anybody. Some of us are more strategic racers, I think. And he' s more ju st seat-of-the-pants. You pass him and he's going to f-ing pass you back. "I think that more or less he's with-