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/127961
" Gardner Racing rider Dan Stanley (right) looks on as Crow prepares a ti re for the night's rac ing at Hagerstown, Maryland. Crow say s of Stanley, " We just want to win ,'and right now I think that we've got the dude to do it. " That was the sta rt of a dream night for us. I mean, you don't go out and beat Scotty Pa r ker in a h ea t r ace "jus t because." And to see our bike ru n that good, that' s what it's all about. An d y o u've h a d to d o. it w it h g uys w h o, while th e y m ight certa i n ly be . cons idered up-and-come rs, are not exactly superstars in the spo rt yet. First, you had Dan Butler, and now you're work ing with Dan Stanley. How do you compare the two? As far as chass is set ups, they're tot ally d iffer ent. I co u ld pretty mu ch ge t Dan Butl e r d ia le d in r ig h t away, b u t it's taken me a few races to figu re out wha t Dan Stan ley wa nts , and sometimes he can' t tell me wha t he wants. I' m not su re if he knows. But sometimes you can tell. Parkersburg is the best exa mp le of tha t. We we re fast in practic e and w on our scra tch heat, but th en w e struggled in the heat race, and I asked him wha t we should do , and he d idn't rea lly say anything . He di dn 't want to tell me that he cou ld n' t ge t it turned an d that it wasn 't hooking up.comi ng off the corne rs. So I mad e abo ut three changes, and he went ou t and won his semi and then came all the way up to seven th in the ma in event. I guess ma ybe that was jus t some of my riding experience help in g us out. When you had both Butler and Stan- . ley las t year, there were a lot of people w ho immediately said that yo u were biting off more th an yo u could chew. Would y o u a g r e e with that sta tement? Yes . Ha ving tw o riders d id n't help us . Basically, I had a brand-new motor cycle si tt ing th ere with a J&M ch assis, a nd Bu tler couldn't get comfo rta ble on it. I had actu all y conta cted Terry Poovey about seei ng if he would come and rid e it ,t o h e lp u s sor t it o u t b e cau s e we cou ld n't afford to take Butler off of what we knew was wo rking for him alrea dy . Poovey couldn' t d o it, so we pu t Andy Tresser on it for a week, and we rea lly did n't lea rn an ything . But a week after that, Sta nley con tacted Steve and asked if we cou ld do anything for him. So w e figured that we'd bu ilt this third bike, and we might as well try and make a little bit of money with it. The problem is that when yo u have tw o young chargers like that , it's hard to keep up with th em. Tort (Tho m pson) helps me ev ery ni gh t. He' s m y righth and man , but th ere ' s o n ly ce r ta in . things he can d o. All the engi nes are my bag , and I' m the onl y one w ho does my ' stu ff. I don 't send them to Skip Eaken or anyo ne else. I just go t caug ht with my pants down on a couple of breakdowns that just shou ld n't have happened . I lost an oil pump in one - I hadn't lost on e in three years befor e that. It was jus t one of them things where I just got caug ht, and it was too mu ch. So when th e decision came to whittle back to one rider, you went with the new guy, Stanley, instead o f Butler. Was that your decision, and if so, why did yo u go the route you did? Me and Ste ve di scussed it, but the bottom line was that th e d ecision pre tty mu ch fell o n m y s ho u lders . We had actu ally talk ed to Davey Camlin a bit to start with , and I ju st figu red tha t I cou ldn't keep him happy, and I to ld h im that. It w as lik e our eq ui p men t , wasn't going to be good enoug h for him - that' s th e fee li n g I go t, and I d idn't want to walk int o that. Dan Stan ley just came to u s and said, "I reall y want to rid e for you guys. I love yo u r attitu de, and I'm not go ing to d o an ything until I hear from you ." So we d iscussed it fo r a while, and w e tal ked ab ou t But le r agai n . H is kn ee n e ve r would ge t healed , and I'll ad mit that I got a litt le com place nt with him. I started trying so me st uff ou t on th e bik es, com press ion ratios and .stu ff like th at. A n d h a vi n g tw o rid er s pro b ab ly robbed u s of a top -10 finish on the year. Dan Butler is a ' ve ry capable rid er, but we just looked at th e age d iffere nc e, and the fact that Stanley does this for a li v ing, a nd tha t he w as going to live righ t here by u s, w hich wou ld hel p w it h th e co mmunication, and we just d ecid ed th a t wou ld be th e way to go for us right now. You men tioned communication. Bill We rner h a s sa id that th e dialogue betw een hi m and Scott Parker probab ly wou ldn' t make a lo t of sense to a nyo n e el se if Parker was trying to ex plain wha t he wan ted d one to his motorcycle. Communication is the ke y. Do you feel that you're getting th at with Dan? . I th ink with what we've d on e so far, I th ink so . We fee l that w e're p retty far ahead of the game with new chassis and things. And as far as the com munica tion thin g, I learne d a little bit from him last year, so this year I had a pretty go od idea of wha t I was ge tting into. And it' s ge tting bett er every week. Critique your rider, using any means you'd like. As far as a racer, I think that Dan Stanley has the maki ngs of a cha mp ion if he wan ts it bad enough. I think th at his work e thic durin g th e week, as fa r as training and ge tting focused for the job at hand... if he'd pick up on that end , I thi nk that you wo uld really see it. He's su rprised to be r u nni ng wh ere he is rig ht now . He' s jumped up fro m (being) a-back-of-the -pack guy to w he re he' s w inning hea t ra ces . Sure, we' ve go ne backwards in the main eve n ts, bu t some of that has been my fault . Equipmentwise, it do esn't loo k like yo u guys are hurting for much these days. Th at' s true, and I've got to hand that to Steve . H e handles all th e finances, a nd he kn ows tha t when I go to bu y somet h ing, I'm a che a p b a stard . So when I d o go to buy som e th ing, it' s because we need it. As fa r as wanting fo r any thing? I've g ot a brand-new en gine in bo xes that I d on 't have time to put toge ther. We've go t p lenty o f pieces , My best set of head s is still in the box . . So wha t goals do you h a v e for th e future, with regar d to racing? I think a lot of that will d epend on what St eve w ant s to d o . But if Steve e ver wa nted to get ou t, with what I'm bu ilding here (his sho p), I'm going to be in it for a w hile. I love it, and as long as my family su ppo rts me, then I'll be in it. If they d idn't sup port me, then I wouldn' t be her e now . But they love goi ng to the races, and that's a big part of it. I' m going to d o this for a few more yea rs. I want to win . Steve wants to wi n. That's our biggest deal: We just want to win, and I think now we've go t the right dude to d o it. It's just go nna take a little bit mor e time . 1':\ 17