Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

CHICANERY B enny Ray Abrams yH f the AMA tak es no actio n against Anthony Gobe rt for failing an FIMadministered d rug test then the end resu lt o f th e w hole ugly inciden t is this: He will have ad m itted to smo king marijua na, bee n thrown ou t of an FIM even t, humiliat ed the Vance & Hines Ducat i team, cost them untold ten s of thousands of d oll ars, to say n oth ing of th e hundred s of manhours pu t into t hi s single ra ce, shame d his mo ther, w ho came from Australia to see her son race, and pu t a b lac k eye on th e sp ort. And h e' ll walk away scot-free, lau ghing all the wa y to the bar , w hich is where he was o n Friday night after ge tting kicke d ou t of th e ra ce, a nd ag ain on Saturday, because he hadn ' t been able to su fficiently ass uage his gu ilt the first night. To me, that' s un conscionable. For th e record, I, like most babyb oom er s, sm oked weed at one tim e. We all did . If an yon e in their late 20s to late 40s te ll s y o u th e y d idn 't, they' re eith er liars or gee ks or both. It wa s wh at yo u did in hi gh schoo l, w hat you did in college. It was wron g, but so wa s d riving drunk, w hich we have all d one at one time or anoth er. Some still do. And the d amage to socie ty from drunk dri ving is well documented. I know of at least two 500cc World Champions w ho tried cocine. I gave up the bon g in my mid-teens for a very simple reason: I didn't enjoy it. If I liked it as mu ch as, say, doughnuts, I wouldn't have quit, but I did. In my profession, the onl y danger from smoking pot is th at you might lose track of the keybo ard. I can imagine hacking away at a story in yet another stra nge hotel on Sunday night, stoned to the gills, and crying ou t to the editor , who's working on the other bed, "I can't find the 'Q: dude." Ours is a low-risk sport, unlike rae- . ing. Racing is about a lo t of things, paramount among them being trust. You have to tru st that the guy go ing around th e ou tsi de of yo u in to turn one at Brainerd, on th e rev-limiter in sixth gear, has full control of his facu lties. Th e rid ers I spo ke with about Anth on y Gobert at La g u na Seca weren' t so su re. In my opi nion, Anth on y Gobert is a n idiot. There's no getting around it. A nyo ne who w o uld jeopardize his rid ing career by smoking dope, knowing full we ll tha t he was go ing to be tested , is an idio t - plain and sim ple. A bit o f h is tory: For th os e wh o d on ' t know, the reason An th ony Gobert is racing in the United Stat es this yea r is that he failed a drug test about th is tim e la st yea r w h ile r a cin g a works Su zuki fo r the Lucky Strike Su zuki team. Th e test was ad mi nistered on beh alf of the Suzu ki World Championship team. As at Laguna, he was told in ad vance - whe n he left the pr evious race in Brazil - that he would b e test ed wh en h e a rr ived fo r th e British Grand Prix. No t that he might be, but that he wo uld be. And he was, and he failed with flying colors. Mu ch has bee n made o f th e fac t that it wa s a team -adm inister ed test. The conspiracy nuts would like yo u to believe that it was all ma de up, that he 1:Iid n't fail any test , th at the Su zuki I tea m was un derperforming and they needed a reason to jettison him. Tha t' s cra p. Ce rtain ly there was tension in the team. Shouldn' t there be if.a multimillion d ollar operation is relying on a kid w ho has already failed one ur ine tes t? Th e team had h ir ed a fo rmer racer, Stu Avant, a ew Zealand er, to baby-sit Go be rt. It may ha ve been a good idea to th em, but to Gobert it was an insu lt. He d idn't need anyo ne wa tc h ing over him. He co u ld tak e care of himself. Appar en tly not. And the FIM agreed . At the fall FIM cong ress in Athens, the Road Racing Com mission (CCR), . of wh ich AM A ro ad ra ce m ana g er Ron Barrick is a member, passed a resolu tio n und er th e headin g of "Doping" specifically ad dressing Gobert. It' said, in part, "In ord er to assu re th e riders who wou ld be suscep tible to run against Mr. Gobert in 1998, in the case wh ere Mr. Gobe rt participates in an FIM Cha mpionship or Prize event, h e s ho u ld be co n troll ed b efore th e event, for the w hole season." In othe r words, we're protect in g our riders from a threat. Every on e knew he was going to be tested, and yet it came as no su rp rise that h e fail ed . The unanim ous response was, "What an idiot." This is a gu y clawin g his way back to the top, getting his one big chance to show the world , or a t lea st th e World team owners, th a t h e' belonged o n th e World stage - and he blew it. Saddest of all is that he does belong at the next level. Anthony Gobert is an astonis h ing motorcycl e racer . Even his harsh est critics agree that he has a level of nat ural ability heretofore unseen. He can do things on a mo torcycle others can o n ly d ream of. Like n o 'on e before him, he knows exactly how m uch he can coax ou t of a mo torcycle, out of a situ ation. He goes fast and he doesn't crash. And he treats motorcycles well. I, among others, predicted he would win both races at Laguna Seca. If he made the grid. It' s not enou gh that he ' s fa st, he also has a very engaging person ality. In a sport wh ere the recent cha mpions have so metimes lacked cha risma , he's the type of ride r that people relat e to: A beer-drin kin g yob w ho says w hat h e th in ks, th en b ack s it up on th e tra ck. He's exceed ingly polite to th e fans a nd will sig n autographs until the pe n ru ns d ry, th en answer every pres s query p o lit ely, and pose for ph otos until the last camera's run ou t of film. Th is combination of personality a nd ab ilit y is rare, th ou gh Yamaha's Noriyu ki Haga and th e Ita lians Valentino Rossi and Max Biaggi come to mind. Unlike them (at least th e Italians), he d oesn't ca re. He si m p ly d oesn't ca re . H is wo rld ha s no th in g to d o with our world . By h is ac t io ns h e seems to be saying that he is immortal, and if he gets kicked off the Vance & Hin es team , he'll find someone else wh o wants him. The sad thing is, as long as he's fast, he'll have a job. Ducat i held a pr ess conference the day after Gobert failed th e d ru g test. Sharing the podium with Carl Fogar ty, Troy Corser, Pier- Fra ncesco Chili a nd Paolo Casali we re th e owners of the four biggest Ducati tea ms - Terry Vance, Eraldo Ferracci, and the owners of the World Superbik e tea ms, Davide Tardozzi and Virginia Ferrari . I asked the m if they wo uld sig n Gobert, knowing he'd failed a t least one drug test. Ferra ri was the firs t of th e forme r racers to answer. "I like very mu ch Antho ny because he's so fast," he sai d . "I d on' t know now w hat's happened about this really bad thing. We have to wait. Today Federico Minoli is there and you have to ask di rectly to the Ducati factory." Notice he d idn 't say "no." "Sure, I ag ree with Virgin io." Tar d ozzi said . "Anthony is so fast. [ really feel so rry for Terry (Va nce). But regarding next year, it' s not now the tim e to d is cus s a b o u t th is . S u r e Ant hon y' s fast; maybe so mebody will take him. I don' t know . Du cat i wiII ' d iscuss it." . Agai n, he didn't say no. Ferracci said : "I have no comment. I'm too old to figure ou t that kind of stuff. I leave it alone." A n d Va nce didn 't a ns wer, bu t more than likely he'll do w hat Ducati tells him. Is there a cha nce Gobert could ge t a ride wit h one of the Japanese fac to ries? I tend to doubt it. Even though that's what he lobbies for every time he 's on the pod ium, which, because of his enormous tal ent, is mo stly e very race these d ays. Th e ro utine is that he thanks Van ce for taking a cha nce on him, reminds th e te am of the times th e bike ha s fa il e d him , the n says h e want s to ri de a 500 cc Hon da nex t y e ar. I've talk ed to a num be r of Grand Prix tea m ow ners this yea r . They say the,only wa y he could po ssibly ge t a 500 Honda is to lease on e, a nd even that's sp ecu la tive. Wh o'd ta ke th e cha nce of rai sing $4-5 mil lion to b ase a team around a rid er w ho ha s shown not the slightest hint of res po nsibility? And would Honda even allow him to lease bikes? Could he ge t a ride with Suzuki? I wo u ld n' t think so . When Wa yne Ra in ey was lookin g for rid er s for th is year, and he had carte blanche, Go be rt wasn' t o n hi s lis t. It 's d ou bt ful Yam aha would tak e th e chance. O n S u n day aft ern oon a pres s release issued by Go bert showed up in th e Lag una Seca pres s room. He said he "was just wro ng, jus t pla in w ro n g. I d id ha ve a s mo ke a ft e r Loudon in celebration, which I didn't realize wou ld be considered a serious problem by the FlM." Can he be serious? The riders think not. To a man , th ey w ere o u traged . Th ey don' t wa n t to be on th e tr ack with so meo ne using a banned, illegal subs tance. To be fair, smo king a joint 10 d ays before a ra ce is not going to affect yo u come race da y. You could ge t high the day before the race and it wou ldn't show. That's not the point. Becau se the AMA and Vance have chose n not to test Gobert (though both cou ld at any time), we d on ' t know if he has ever raced under the influence. I tend to think not. From wha t I know of Gobert, he takes the race wee kend very serious ly. It's the rest of the week he has a hard time with. Gobert's mot her , Su e, wa s quoted in the release as sayi ng, "All he wan ts to do is put t h is beh ind h im and regain the resp ect of the fans and fellow racers for the excellent ride r and person that he really is." ow it' s up to the AMA and Terry Vance. Vance sa id he wou ld test him this week and if he pa ssed , he'd be on the bike at Mid -Ohi o. Mor e than one of his fellow compe tito rs don't think he'll pa ss an oth er test. He will likely be tested some time before every race. If the AMA d oes nothing - which, given the sadly litigious times we live in, is a d istinc t possibilit y - then Gobert will have gotten away with one. Can th e AMA react based on an FIM test ? We d on ' t kno w, even thou gh the AMA races under the FlM umbrella. At the very leas t he should pay his team back: He shoul d ask Terry Vance h ow much it cost h im to brin g th e team to Monterey and house and feed them, then write him a ch eck. He s ho u ld a sk Jim Leonard ho w many hundreds of man-hours he put in to build in g th e b ik e jus t for th is race, building parts that can only be used in World Superbike competition, and in running th e b ike on th e d yn o for countless hou rs to get the most out of the mandated unleaded fuel. Then he should multiply the hOUTS times $100 per, a n d write an other check. He shou ld find a wa y to make it up to the AMA an d th e fans, for di spa raging the sport in front of the world. Tha t's the easy part. If he has a shr ed of commo n sense, he s hou ld seek counse ling , and not just for what he may consider an isolated doping incident. He knows better. The team knows better . His fellow rid ers kno w bett er. The most widely abused drug in Am eri ca is alcohol, and the people I know who saw him on Friday and Saturday nights said he a p peare d to have made the m ost of the night. He is one more mistake awa y from being banned from racing al toge ther. As sa d as that m a y b e, it actually makes a lot of rid ers sick. They wou ld give up any thing to have an iota of his talent, to be able to d o w ha t he does rou tinely. They find it. ap palling th at he treats his magn ificent gift so cavalierly. The guess here is that I'll see him at Mid -O h io and ev e ry o th er AMA Superbi ke National. I al so think he has a very good.chance of winning the title. Mu zzy Kawasaki 's Dou g Chand ler is a few points a hea d , but he hasn't won a race yet this year. Gob ert' s won th ree and has been on the bo x e v ery time th e Du cati h old s toge ther. H ow does th is s o u n d ? 1998 AMA /MBNA Superbike Champion and drug-test failure - Ant ho ny Gobn ert. Get used to it. 71

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