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
-- N By Henny Ray Abrams Photos by Gold & Goose ~ 20 he wo rds Scott Russell spo ke held -Iess meaning than how they were ~ spoken. Scott Russell was angry, his comfortab le Georgian drawl now excited , profanities lacing his d iscou rse. He was angry becau se he hadn't been abl e to give Yama ha a World Superb ike victor y in his year a nd a half wit h them, t h ou g h h e was h appy tha t his n e w teammate No riyuki Haga had. He was angry becau se he was being written off, that people were go ing to rem ember him for wha t he was, rat her than wh at he kn ows he is. Yes, he 'd won the Daytona 200 for the record fifth time , second in a row for Yamaha , but the wi n had left him so mehow em pty; like it was too easy. The victory lap lacked the victo rious passion of previou s yea rs. If th ere was anyth in g w hic h enlivened th e 33-yea r-o ld Georgian, it was the progre ss the team had recently mad e wi th the bik e. New forks tested at the Italian Misano circuit indicated that it wa s getting better. The results hadn't come, but it fe lt bett er, it fel t like a motorcycle he cou ld win on - it was a feelin g he hadn't yet felt in his time wi th ' Yamaha. Now it was up to him, which is how he liked it. The thin g about Scott Russell is tha t there is no artifice. Bull--t is probably a better w ord. It tak es very little to animate him thes e days and the stimuli ar e everywh ere. There's his very successful teammate Haga; the "Japanese Gobert," as he calls him . Haga has given Yamaha so me thi n g he couldn' t. There is the agi ng Yamaha YZF750, a machine written off until Haga whipsawed it int o a nu mber of winner's circles. Th ere' s the cham pionship he feels he gave away to Ca rl Fog a rty in 1994 , a yea r afte r his only World Superbik e title, that on e comi ng the year after his AMA Super bike title. And there's mor e. The grea tes t cat al yst is his abili ty . Qu estion it at your peril. " A t th e e n d of th e day, if [ w ent h om e tomorrow, I' v e b e en World Champion - how many peopl e are going to be able to say th at ?" he asks . "N ot that p eople rem emb er so much thin gs like th at. But I'm not happy abou t it. There' s a few thi ngs that both er me. Thi s bot he rs me right now, havi ng to so me times wa tch thes e motherf-ers go away from me that I kn ow I've waxed th e fl o or wit h before a n d w ill d o it again. "I don ' t wa nt to be a failed ex-champion. I can' t be that. I don't even want to rem otely look like this, okay? I wa nt to go home befo re that happens. I'll know w he n it's time to han g up the leathers. I told myself years ago, when I can' t win any mo re I'm going f-ing hom e. It ain 't ab out the money, it ain 't about being a hero, because I d on't ca re fo r all the a u togra p hs. I'll d o it; I can pla y tha t p art, too. [ lik e w innin g, crossing the lin e in fron t o f eve ry b o dy e ls e a n d going, ' Yea h. We 're th e best o ne tod ay.'" The last time that happened was this past March at Daytona. After Am erican Honda's Miguel DuHamel took himself out of the race on the 17th lap, Russell was marking time, waiting to roll d own pit lane w it h the checke re d flag and sp ray so me cha m pag ne . H e 'd b een down that road four times before. When he rode aro und the track wit h the chec kered flag , he see med d evoid of spi rit, like it was more of a job tha n an accomplishmen t t ha t w ill likely n ev er be ma tched. " I thin k Dayt ona just go t so damn easy and nobod y to race with, that when I crosse d th e li n e, it ' s li ke , ' F---, it' s over.' That's w hy I wasn't jumping up and down," he reca lls. "This is al mo s t torture all dav for me." Im agine then w ha t it m u st be like tryin g to ride tha t same bik e on tracks that demand mo re of a machi ne against riders who' ve bea ten him regularly for the past year. As criticized as the Yamaha is for bein g outdated, tha t's not Russell's gripe with the bike. The problem is balance. " "I can still ride the way people used to look at Scott Russ ell when he rod e," he says. 'The problem is, I'm on a bik e tha t don' t suit m y style. I'm on a bike tha t just don't su it my style. I developed my style on a Kawasaki. He ( oriyuki Haga l de veloped his style on a Yamaha. Nobodv rod e that Kawa sa ki like I did, I don 't think. My style is more of a sit-up rela xed po sit ion in the corner. Th e Kawasaki had weigh t dis tribu tion to the fron t, wh er e the Yama ha doesn' t. It sitj; too far back in the frame. You can ' t fix it lega lly. They can probabl y tack w eighi on the fro nt, but then th e bike's overweigh t; we're alread y down on po wer so ou r h a n d s are pretty mu ch lied . We're probably one of the only factories ou t now tha t won' t cheat. Tru st me. Thi s is what I have. It's gelling a little bit bet~ ter. I' m begin nin g to be able to w ork with it. But it' s like sleepi ng with sOlheb od y else' s wife - it feels good but it don' t feel right. No t tha t I kn ow what tha t's lik e," he quick ly ad ded with a laugh. "Every lime I th row a leg over it until the (Misano test), other than Daytona, I d on' t get it . At Dayt ona I jus;