Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

GUEST EDITORIAL B andy M ota yR am ell, right now we ' ve got some p sychol ogica l warfare going o n between Max Biaggi and Mick Dooh an in 500cc G rand Prix racing . sually, Ma x is the guy w ho has the ost to say , w h ile Mick s tays pretty lu iet . When he tal ks, it's usually about tires and sus pe nsion, and engines. Now I'll probably ge t myself in trouole wi th Mick and Max for tal king about his , but here's what I see goi ng on. For some time no w, Max has been talking bout how he's a rooki e with no experience in 500cc racing, w hich is true, and 10W he has a privat e bik e wi thou t the ackup and spec ial bit s th at th e works RC ri ders - Mick, Alex C riville and adayu ki Okad a - have. Ma x has also een talking a bo u t h is lack of testing 'me on a 500 at most of the race tracks. mewhere alo ng the line, Mick star ted 'ettin g tired of hea rin g this. And I think ax knew that and kept it up, in part to nnoy Mick a nd in part - let 's be fair ause a lot of it is tru e. Th en, afte r Ma x won in Brno a n d ick crashed, we star ted hearing from he Itali ans th at Mic k ha d given so me intervi ews on TV an d in the pr ess sayng all kinds of stuff . ow, I don ' t rea lly n o w if this is tru e or not b ecause I aven' t seen the ·TV s tuff and I ca n' t ea d Italian, but p eo pl e I trus t ha ve 131 ra nslated so me of it for me. In one 1 an paper , Mick said, "Max is made of lastic, he' s not a real person." And th en it has Mick as saying , "Ma x sho ul d ge t sponsorsh ip from Kleen ex for next yea r ' 0 he can wi pe his eyes w hile he's givng his excuses." I don' t really kn ow if Mick sai d that e was goi ng to win all th e rest of th e aces, but when yo u ge t into a war of o rds in th e Itali an press, th in gs can et ou t of hand - a nd also the translaion s of w ha t Mick says might n ot be ccurate. The Grand Prix of Imola was th e first ace Mick in which has ridden since he tarted talking, and it wa s abou t as close .0 a perf ect race as I ha ve ever see n. It oes n't see m to pa y to get Mick mad. Mi ck d idn't get th e p o le , a n d h e, as n' t eve n sec o nd o n th e grid, pu t ven thou gh he was only th ird - he was he guy who d id th e m ost la ps in th e ow 1:50s and high 1:49s in th e d ry Friay session . I felt th e sa me abo ut thi s ce as I felt go ing into the [ararna race: I hou ght Mick wo uld smok e 'em. But we all remember what happened at [arama. Ma x pushed M ic k off line in the first co rn e r, a nd then he tangle d up with Simon Crafa r, who was o n th e o ther si d e, and he went dow n a nd got no points. If that hadn't happened, I think Doohan would have cleared off at [a rarna because he' s s o damn good on bumpy, ro ugh, "rid e 'em cowboy" kind s of tracks with u ps and d o,,'11S an d lowa nd medium-speed corners w he re he can slide the bike. I thi nk Jea n-Michel Bay le's ge tti ng the pole was great. Af ter bei ng o ut so long wi th a head injury, espec ially with a ll th e problems tha t th a t b rough t, I th ink it's fan tas tic that in o nly his seco n d race back , h e put it o n th e p ol e . He's not read y ye t to keep up a hot pace for a ll 45 minut e s , b ut h e ' s ge t ti ng ther e. I also want to talk ab out Al ex Barros. If he hadn't tan gled with Criville in th e first co rner a nd run wid e, I think both he and Criv ille woul d ha ve been r ig h t in th ere in the be g in n in g with Mick a nd Ma x. But Mick was jus t so good a n d so aggressive on the bi ke . Even on th e las t lap, I saw Mick riding so hard and spinning up so much tha t I thou gh t, " Ma n, h e' s pun ish in g th at bike. Tha t th in g could break!" It didn't break, th ou gh , and Mick really m ad e a sta temen t. He may be right the re wi th Max and Alex in po ints, but h e' s o nly finis he d eigh t ou t of 11 races - wi th five wins an d three seconds - and yet he was just four poi nts b eh ind Ma x goi ng into t he Catalunyan round . Bo th Max and Alex have finished all the races. . Again, I don't kn o w if Mick really sa id thi s, but according to the Itali an journalists, he said: "I didn't finis h three races, so that's 75 points lost." If he d id say that, it may have go tten to Max. Even if we jus t give Mick three sixth places, he'd be leading the championship by 26 points. To ge t ba ck to the war of word s, I wa s told by reliable peop le th at in th e front-row press confere n ce in Irnola, M ick sa id s o me thi ng about Ma x be ing lucky he did n't fall off wh en he almo st let that victory w heelie get away from him. Ma x didn 't like th at a nd w h en it cam e his turn, he sa id, "It's better to fall off afte r yo u have wo n the race than to fall off try ing to win th e race on the first lap ." Th ey told me Mick' s eyes fla shed when he heard that. In a way, a lot more happened in th e papers in Italy than on the tr ack. On the track, Mick did what he ca me to do. He was like a boxer coming hard out of his corner a nd landing every punch he thr ew and never getting hit. It wasn ' t a knockou t, bu t the ot her guy - in this case, A lex - never h a d a chance. I've been talking about th e words between Mick and Max, but it's no t that I'm forge tti ng Alex. He just doesn't say anythi ng. He 's th e guy w ho stands in the back of the roo m a nd just wa tches and d oesn 't mak e a sou nd. He ans wers questions if you ask him so me thing, and he listens to w ha t yo u say - but he hangs back. Sometimes I think he hangs back w he n he races an d it makes me want to s hake h im an d s ay, :'C' m o n, let ' s go now !" W he n Alex finally ca ug h t Max, he ' passed hi m easily and s tarted to p u ll away and go after Doohan . Th at shook Max up a little bit - I thi nk. Max made one mi stake with his foot off the peg when Alex was chasing and th en , after Alex passed he made a trip thro ugh the gravel trap. But Alex just ran into a wall w hen he tried to ca tch Mick. Doo han just took a tenth or two-tenths every lap. Only on o ne lap did Alex pull back a cou ple of ten ths , an d then on th e nex t lap Doohan took four-te nths. It's d em oralizing to be out there o n the li mit and lappin g in 1:49s, faster th an yo u did in practice, and Mick is just pu lling away a littl e bit mo re every lap. Mick just did not allow Alex to have any ho pe of catching him . W h en you s ta r t ca tchi ng so mebody, yo u start ge tti ng happy and excited and you get th is emotio n and m omentum built u p, and th at ma kes yo u faster and faster . It's like a spi ri t inside of yo u, like a wildfire, a nd you ju st kn o w yo u ca n bea t the g uy in front of you. You forget you are fa tig ued, and yo u ju st ge t s tro nger and s tro ng e r and m ore focused. Mick used to get out fro nt bu t th en fall back in to Alex's clutches, and he lea rn ed his lesson when Alex bea t him two GPs in a row at Aus tria and th e Czech Republic in 1996. Now he won 't p lay tha t ga me . In Imola, Alex was really pu tting in so me good , fas t laps, bu t Mick just b roke his spirit. Mick's game in Imola was to just go so fast that Alex co u ld n ' t re st a n d couldn' t get any closer. When A lex finally gave up, Mick still kept up th e pace. It was rea ll y a perfect ra ce for Mick. I never saw him up out of the seat and I never saw him put a wheel wrong. I was talki ng to Kenny Robe rts - Big Kenny - a n d he said something that made me thi nk . It used to be tha t in a race there w ould be so me laps w he re the riders w ould kind o f take a rest vou see tha t in 250 and 125c - bu t here, Mick wou ld n' t let a ny bo dy rest, It almost looked like Mick was showing that if he had to, he cou ld have done a w ho le race in 1:49s. Mick has go t suc h di scipline and suc h int en sity. To ma tch that, yo u have to trai n an d be as d isciplined as Mick. He' s like a machine, and it's hard to upset tha t machine. The fact that M ick see ms to get angry w ith Max ha sn't mad e Mic k les s foc used - it ' s m ad e h im m ore de termined to wi n every race an d to leave Max behind . Sometimes it' s bet ter to let sleeping d ogs lie, and to no t get a guy mad . Now let's talk abou t Alex Criville. In 1996, Alex had a way of ra cin g Mick that worked . He followed hi m and then pounced at the end of the race. But in 1997 Alex tried the same stuff and Mick's a nswer was to fo rce the pace ea rly and break Alex. I kn ow that Mick trai ned harder than ever after 1996, an d I th in k Alex should have tra ined ha rder and worked to keep u p wit h Mick's in tensity. I was watchi ng Max in warmu p and I think he was holding back, not wa ntin g to s how hi s h an d , h o p in g Mic k woul d think he cou ldn't go faster. Max is good at mind games, too - but Mick see ms to h ave d ecided tha t he's go ing to p la y the real ga me that he kn o ws best. And th at is to go as fas t as he can in every session and in every race. If he m ak es a nother m ist ake or if h is bike br ea ks, it mi gh t lose, but o the rwise it loo ks to me like he'll d est ro y 'e m . Former Grand Prix star Randy Mamola currently works as a commentator on SpeedviSion 's coverage of the 1998 Grand Prix Series. His thoughts on GP racing can also be [ound weekly on th e Dorna websit e at www.doma.com. On e of the most popular 500 cc GP racers of all time , Mamo la fin- ' ished second in the 500cc World Championship four times. 0 LOOKING BACK~ .. 30 YEARS AGO... • OCTOBER 17, 1968 M o n tes a Cappramounted Bob Ha ger mad e the cover after he bagged a second -place fi nish i n t h e SOOcc Juni or class at the Ca rlsbad, California, motocross... Fred d y Nix (H-D) 'w as hot, as he won the I5- mile A MA Na tional a t scot Park . Nix, who hailed from Oklaho ma, was only he third rid er from ou t of sta te to win the event since 957... Sid Ca rlson (H- D) won a Tulare half mil e d irt rack even t o n a ni ght w he n several of the top AMA tars were on hand. Reigning Grand Nationa l Cha mpim Gary Nixo n (Tri) was there, and he qu alified for the ai n event before electing not to ride it due to poor ighting..: Evel Knievel had entere d in to an agr eem ent ith the Ce ntu ri Engi nee ring Co. to produce the motorycle that he wa s go ing to use for his Grand Canyon ump. A t th e tim e, Knievel was in litigat ion with Ll.S, epartme n t o f th e Int erio r as he sough t clearan ce to ak e th e jump attem p t. 20Y SAGO EAR ••. OCTOBER 4 1978 , he cov er heralded the coming of the Big Four's 1979 motorcycles, and we showed you what to expec t by publishing several photos of the new models... Garth Brow (H-D) became the first rider ever to win the San Jose Mile twice in a single season, as he held off Steve Morehead (H-D) and Ha nk Scott (H-D) to take his second victory of the year at the San ta Cla ra County Fairgr ounds circuit... Bob Hannah (Yam) won the opening round of the Trans-AMA Series at Mid-Ohio. Denny Sw artz (Mail and Marty Smith (Ho n) ran second and th ird overa ll, respectively ... We in te rviewed Bob Hayes, wh o was ho ping to get elected to the California Sta te Assembly in order to ge t the cha nce to work for cha nge in California ns' land-use rig hts... Team Honda swe pt the top three positions at th e Bol d'Or 24hour enduran ce race , with the team of Ch ristian Leon and Jean Claude Chemarin taking the wi n... M ike Baldwin (Yam) wo n bo th legs of the Form ula 750 Wor ld Cha mpio ns hip race in Mosport, Ontario, Ca nada, bu t Johnny Cecotto (Yam) finis hed third to clinc h the series title. T 10 YEARS AGO... SEPTEMBER 28, 1988 hanks to a two-mote sweep b y Ron Le ch ien (Ka w) , Tea m USA won its eigh th straight Motocross des Nations titl e in Fra nce . Rick J o h n s o n (Hon) an d Jeff Ward (Kaw ) co mp r ised the res t of the winni ng team ... Also held in France was the 63rd In te rn a t ion a l Six Da y s End uro, which was won by, well, France. Team USA finished nin th... Defe nding cha mpion Dave Schultz (Kaw) landed the Pro Stock Bike title at th e N H RA Ll.S. N at ion als a t Indianapolis Racew ay Pa rk... Dave Roper bagged three race wins and tw o Hist o ric C u p tit les a t th e eig hth a n n ua l AHRMA Stea m bo a t Springs Mountain Road Races in Colorad o... We presented a historic rest ro sp ective of legendary race p rom oter J.e. Agajanian and his fab led Ascot Park, w hich was celeb ra ting its 30th year o f host in g Na tio na l moto rcycle races... Ho nda gave us a preview of its 1989 motorcycle lineup, whi ch was being headlined by the funky PC800 l~ Pacific Coast. T .. .. ~ a t:=: ~ ~ 87

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