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/127974
INTERVIEW , 500cc World Champion Mick Doohan H onestly, I still d on 't have a prob lem w ith Max . But I think when I said something in Italy, it was the rig h tim e. You can only put up wit h so much nega tive talk about so many incid en tal not h ings fo r so lo ng . I fig u re d it was ti me to hit hi m where it hu rt - at his hom e GP in Ita ly - and try and ge t him to realize tha t it's not tha t good to be on the receiv ing end of what he kept saying. I re all y don' t ha ve a p ro bl em w ith him per so nall y, but ever si nce the n he w on' t even say hello to me. So he's carry ing on a little bit ch ildish, I believ e. Ever since then, also, his season's started to fallapart, So ... I d on't think he's had an yon e say any thing back to him in the past, and I don't think he cop es very w ell. A Ove r the p as t fo u r se as o ns, for whatever reason, you've been able to aminate much more than th is year. T h is yea r - th e fuel 's probabl y a bi g part of it... (ln terr u p tin g ) Well, again, I think we haven't finished di ssec ting what happened th is season with Ma x. Okay, I ran off the ra ce track , bu t then t h e engine fail ed, and that gave him a 25poi nt buffer right there. At the next one, we were on pole position - that' s not too bad . We got fastest lap - that's not too ba d . And won it. The next race (Jerez second place) wa s no t too flash - but it took me a while to get used to the bike. For him, coming into the season, he got a better tran sition than any 250 rider in the past. We had 20 ho rsepower less than last year, and for the first time ever you can actually open the ga s with the bike still bent over - and this is what it took me so me time to understand . In the past, if you di d tha t, you'd crash. And I had to tell myself you can actually ride like th at. He's comi ng the op posite way - he rides like tha t already. I don' t know ho w many po le positions we've had th is yea r, bu t in ter ms of dominating practices, it wasn' t too far off. A /' By Micha el Sco tt Photo s by Gold & Goose ick Doohan 's 19 98 500cc World Championship was his fifth in a row. It might have been, as he p ointed out ea rlier in the year, his seventh, if he hadn' t broken his le g while mil e s a h ea d in 1992 . He needn' t have bothered . He needs no ifs or buts to confirm his sta tu re as one of racing's all-time greats. Doohan has built his mastery on two platforms. Firs tly, there is that of cou ra ge and riding skill . Never forge t that he learned how to ride a 500 the har d wa y, after a tal ent -pr op ell e d r o cket-s hip ris e through production bikes a nd su pe rbi kes . H e was a m ajo r crasher in h is d ebut season of 1989, but he d id n' t let that pu t him off. Wh ich reveals the key to his second pl atfo rm - the m ore im po rtant of th e tw o: a determina tio n so strong it could easily be classified as psychotic; a moti vation (as he p refers to call it ) that brought him up to the top levels and brought him back aft er the horrendous lega cy of that partially crippling crash, that pushed him to develop a thumb-c ontroll ed rear br ake because his ruined right leg can' t do the job -; a motivation tha t still today pushes him through a fitn ess-and-train ing regimen matched by no o the r rid er. The level of this inner drive naturally ha s its effect on his personality. During th e s ea son h e is pron e to b ecom e in creasingly terse; after the championship is over, he is a changed man expansive, frie ndly and relaxed . I took advanta ge of this for what is becomi ng a lmos t a tradition - the year-end Doo ha n /World Cha mpion interview. As always, it was entertaining and am us ing . Also revealin g. Doohan met an interes ting new riva l th is yea r in Max Biaggi - and tho ug h he could still clearly outride the class rookie, Biaggi will just as clea rly be that mu ch stronger next year. Doohan does n't say as much; in fact, he is at pains to deconstru ct the Biaggi legend. But the way the conversation keeps going back to Biaggi shows that Doohan is more than a little preoccupied with this newcomer whose balls are alm ost 'as big as his mouth. Stimulated by a year in which he again pro ved to be head and shoulders above all his rivals, and loo king forward to another in which it mi ght be even harder to d o th e same again, Doohan clearly relishes the prospect. YOU said earlier that the firs t and second titles were the mo st important, an d the re st were bonuses. But after Phillip Island this year, you told me yo u wanted thi s one t he mo st, because you really wa nted to bea t Max Biaggi. W e ll , yeah . Jus t fo r so me of th e r emark s h e ' s m ad e th ro u gh th e yea r. When so mebo dy is ve ry cocky, you like to see them knoc ked down, and tha t was what I wan ted to d o. My backgro u nd is to kee p your feet firm ly on the ground , and if you wan t som ethi ng , yo u've got to fight for it. I just w anted to see him ge t kno cked down. Q A Loo k i n g b ack o ver th e year, it ' s ha rd fo r an ou tsi der not to be pr etty im pressed by what Biaggi has don e. Yes, and no . If yo u tak e a realistic look, it's not th at impressive. If he beats Alex (Criville) tom orro w, he'll be second in the cha mpionship; if not , he' ll be th ir d . (In fact, C riville crashe d ou t a nd Biaggi got second overall.) Daryl Beattie di d th e sa me thin g ; so d id Wayn e Rain ey . D aryl w a s p robably more,impressive beca use he hadn' t bee n to Euro pe b e for e . Go back to Jo h n Kocins ki and Luca Ca dalora - tw o 250 guys coming in.. Luca w on tw o races in his first season - h ad a g reat season . Kocinski als o he won one or two races that ye ar, and w as d efinitely right there. Kocin ski wa s a bit cocky , but nowhere near as mouthy as Biagg i. The on ly real difference is tha t Max has been telling everyone how good he is righ t fro m the outset. You know, saying, like: " How grea t am I. I deser ve a pat on the back." Q A > 28 I don't w ant to dwell too much on Max, b ut w hat has it been like personally with him ?· Q Th e po int I' m ma ki ng is that th e ti m es have been much closer. 1t' s defini te ly th e fu el that's d o ne that. It' s mad e an average rider a lot closer. Wh er eas a full -horsepow er, fulllead ed machine - the guy w ith that littl e bit ex tra can make the difference. This year it's mo re like a su perbi ke ty pe of thing, in that you can find the edge a lot eas ier. The m achine doesn't spin anywhere near as aggressively as before, and the bike isn' t wanting to w heelie eve ry w here - a nd it ' s not w an ting to break traction the moment you open the gas. Q A. D i d n ' t that make yo u hav e t o t hi n k harder, a nd d ig d e ep er ? You're still winning, after all. Qu alifying's bee n a lot close r, bu t in th e race - it's the sa me people at the fro nt. Q A Finall Y on this point, th en has it , been more fun for you racing this way, or just mo re pressure? ll hasn 't reall y been an y more pres- ' , sure. At the beginning of this year. }" didn't really know if I wanted to contin-" ue t\hrace or not. It wa s like a tran sitioR year: Was it go in g to be my last yea r? 1 Am I goi ng to wa nt to stop? Ha ve I got l the mo tivation to keep pu shing myself? ' I g uess th e Biaggi bu llsh it factor help ed m oti vat e me as we ll. I cou ld n't live w it h so me of the things th at we re" bein g said . The n I s ta rted to enjoy the r riding a bit more. Th e m oti vation is always th ere. If yo u tak e th e top six results from this Q A »