Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

'ear and the top six from last year, the inis hing margins were closer last year. t wasn't like I di dn't have any competiion in yea rs go ne by. Agai n, A lex C riville h as won tw o aces this year, an d he's bee n more con is te nt th an Biagg i and he' s second at he moment. But nobody's been talki ng bout him . T h e forgo tten man of the World Cham pionships. A- (Laughs.) Yeah. And it's a bit of a !-\.shame, because Alex is super-quiet. e need s to sa y... a word or two so peoIe rea lize he 's alive. Max is the o ther i de of the coi n. He says a lit tle bit too nuch, so it tu rn s around and bites him here it hu rts. . Wha t's been in teresting thi s yea r is, I vas 25 po int s beh ind a t the sta rt, then 1 at back to a position where 1 was chal enging for the lead , the n 1 was knocked . own ag ain . Fortunately enough, Biaggi nd Cri vill e had not-t a o-good results here (a t [a ra rna ). Then I got into th e ead , and then 1 cra shed ou t myself . And et withi n a ra ce I w a s back again in ont ention, and w e'v e won the cha rnpimsh ip with on e round to go . Those 'uys both dropped a round - so realistially , we 're four races in fro nt. When I oak at it that way, it's no d ifferent than n the past. I haven 't been riding any d iffer ently han in th e past. 50 w hen I' ve won, it lmost seem ed easier to w in; but when ' ve be en st ruggling, it' s been with the ike. Th at ' s m ore within th e m achine han an ything else. When the bike's been vorking go od, I' ve ac tua lly surprised yself that I' ve been able to get away. In he past, people were com ing wit h me. Biaggi ha s done a great season; I'm ot doubting that. The guy is a good talnt . (Dooha n's g irlfriend , Selina Sines, ho is sitting next to him and read in g, akes her first so und of the in terview h umoro us surp rised gasp .) I w is h I idn't have to say tha t, because he'll just ake that in and explode a littl e bit more. But realistica lly it's just like any othe r ·eason . 1 d on ' t feel lik e I' m ha ving to aise my ga me. It doesn't motivate me, but it'd be real ly nice to achieve that. Realistically, the guy's a legend, and it was done in a different era - but he didn't have seven o ther MV Agust as racin g against him , and a whole bunch of oth e r co m p e t it iv e motorcy cles . I'm no t downplaying his a chie vemen t of e ig h t championships and 68 races, but in this day and age it 's no t somet hing anyone wo uld set as a target. It ' s th e sa me wit h m e . It' s g re a t to ac hieve wha t I ha ve , a n d to brea k a record here an d there, bu t there's so me o ther kid that' s goi ng to actua lly do one better than m e somew he re d o w n th e track. There are 17 rac es ne xt year, and if I e nd up , a ft er th at , on e o r two races down on him , then 1 mi ght co me back a no the r ye ar. (La ughs he artily. ) But if I'm still a fair w ay away, it' s not something I'm chas ing . A The bike ha s not been entirely to you r satisfactio n th is year, has it? No, not at al l. I think becau se tw o years ago HRC d ownsized , but in the las t tw o ye ars th e Honda tea m has grown, as far as ho w man y bikes they su p p ly. Tha t's fantas tic for the cha mpi onsh ip , be cause no o ther factory d oe s th at. A lot of people give Hond a a har d time ove r it, but they're su pporti ng th e class . Wi th out th em, th er e'd be not so many competitive motorcycles ou t th ere. I think for next year if the same number of rid ers have th e mon ey for th e mo torcycles, even if Honda didn't want to su p ply them, they 'd do it. The y'd feel o b liged to for th e good of the s p o r t, because they know that Yamaha and Suzuki can 't do it. On the ot he r hand, it's left us a little bit sho rt-changed - especia lly the way the bik es a re th es e d a ys. Th e Re p so l H ond a team isn't lik e a factory team anymore . It's like a H onda d ealershi p . Peo ple come to u s for what th ey need . We' re not homing in ory th e problem s we've go t a nd fixing th ose, th en hand ing it on to the support tea m s . We're one big tea m . Th is year we had some problems with the motors . It wasn't really until Czecho that we started testing anything to -counter that·- 10 races in. I think tha t's one thing we have to address. If anyone wi th any talent is put o n one of the other motorcycles, being a smaller team wi th a smaller tu rna round ti me.. . I' ve said to H RC that we' re a worksho p a t the mom ent, and we need to ge t back to being a race team. I full y und er stand the ir posi tio n, but we need to ge t back to the p oin t w here if we have a probl em , we can so lve it, then a race or two lat er the su ppo rt teams get it fixed . Q A It sti ll m a d e yo u change your mind a bo ut quitting? Well, yea h, th is year I've decided I , haven ' t actually ha d eno ugh racin g. I d on 't wa nt to stop. I'm still enjoying the rid ing and the winni ng . Max Biaggi idn't change my outlook o n the season. t the beginning of the year, 1 told Selia and my family. that 1 d id n't think I as goi ng to conti nue. Then it go t to the oint w here 1was enjoying it st ill. The la st th in g I wa n t to d o is s to p racing beca use so me body sa id I sho uld , ause I've won so much and it's time to stop . I'd still feel like the raci ng's not o m p le te ly o u t of m y syste m . I d o n ' t ant to be thinking, Sho u ld I go car rae . g? Should I d o so me thing else? As long as I' ve go t th e racin g gremli n in my blood, I'll continue to race motorcycles. But ob viously, as soon as I'm not capa ble of winning, or I feel that to w in I' ve g o t to do s o m e th ing a little b it sca ry , I'll ca ll it a da y. And I'll know' wi t hin m ys elf th a t eve n if I w a ~ to cha nge to a differ ent category or a d ifferent d iscip lin e, like cars or w hatever, I wo ul d n' t hav e that edge th at I u sed to have. 50 I'll be content. I wou ld n't want to d o w ha t Kevin Schwantz is try ing to do, or Ed die Lawson, or Wayn e Gardner. lf I have a passion to race, I'll kee p it in w ha t I'm pa ssionate about. YOU don't m ind the oth er riders getting the stuff? . l don't m ind that, excep t it' s a h in. d rance to u s fixin g th e problems . It ' s ac tua lly q uit e goo d in a way because I know, and the people in the o the r Honda tea ms know, th at we' re on t h e sa me b ik e s . It ' s m ore fulfi lling w he n yo u win a race to k now t hat there's seven other bike s out th ere. It' s not like I' ve go t a special machine that is the reason I'm wi nning. D oes Giacomo Agostini's record of . 68 wins figure at all in your mind? (Argentina was Doohan's 54th win.) TO be blunt, the Honda NSR ha s s tag na ted, really, and it's people like yourself who've kept it winning. A Q Q A Q W e ll , lo o k at Jea n- Mic he l Bayle on the Yamaha . He's out for' half the season or more, and whe n he comes back, he 's on th e fro n t row, a n d o n pole the ne xt ra ce . And Luca Ca dalora he had n' traced sin ce last yea r, and he comes back and nearly puts it on the p ole at [a rarna , and if th e bike hadn 't broken , he probabl y would have won it. 50 that thing isn 't too bad. When Simon C rafa r go t to a race track he en joyed, he could make the most of it, too . T he H on da m ot or is s t ill th e strongest, but the packa ge of th e Yamaha is the ideal at the mom ent. We need to w ork o n ou r handling and our ridability . • Ify ou w atch Assert foot age, a n d Sachsenr in g footage , yo u can see th e Yamaha s turnin g us inside out. Th e Hondas can only run one lin e, bu t the Yamahas can go muc h tig hter, and not lose a ny speed for it. . Ob viously, the unleaded gas hurt us more than the other bikes; and Yama ha felt they'd had e no ugh of losin g a nd really worke d on th eir bike. The o n ly other ing red ient they need now is somebody to really punt the thing around . A Th e y mi gh t ge t th e dread ed Biag gi , though I b eli ev e the n ego ti ations aren't go ing smoothly, Surp rising. (Laughs .) Didn't I say to you once before - and now it's' o n the tape - " If so mebody di dn't hand him the pa per to wipe h is a rse wit h, h e wouldn 't know how to do it"? Q A Wh a t was yo u r high spo t of the seaso n? The' Australian race, for su re . And th e Ma laysia n race. Because Mick Dooha n was finis he d after Su zu ka . O r so so me people said. (Long pause.) Q A Q And th e wo rst? Na doub t, Czech oslovak ia. (He fell off o n th e first lap.) I ne ver re all y did get a handle o n exactly wha t w ent wrong th ere. We'd done two laps on th e tire, and also I'd passed pe ople on two different right-hand corn ers, sticking it in pretty hard, so I don't think it wa s a tir e thi ng . That'd ha ppe n on the en try to the corner, an d I'd alrea dy been on the ga s for a little over a seco nd when it w ent away, so it surprised me. I'd been comp lain ing abou t th e suspension all yea r. Th e o nly thing 1 ca n put it down to is, I w as on th e gas, and at the last mi nu te I've tried to sq ua re it o ff e ven a bit m ore, pullin g it a b it tighter befo re I sta nd it u p and sq u irt it harder. And maybe as I pulled it d own, with no weight on th e fro nt tire, it jus t fell over, That's kind of reall y taking it down to try and find a rea son. A W e stayed on a fter the rac e th ough w e didn 't hav e any new parts to test , and just d issected th at front su spens io n - with d ifferent parts and spacers and w ha t have you, to try and get it to w ork better , We actually did find something, ad justing the interna ls a little bit, that did g ive me a bit m ore con fid e nce, though eve n by the tim e we go t to Barcelona I still wasn't getting a lot of feel. [ararna wouldn't be a rea l high poi nt for me, eithe r. . Biagg i ran into y o u and yo u hit C rafar, an d yo u s u rp ris ed everyone by blam ing Crafar for maki ng yo u crash. Do yo u still have the same view on th at ? l sti ll d o, yeah . Ma x cam e up th e insi de, and I a lways w a it for peo. p ie to co me up th ere. If yo u' re o n th e o u ts ide, yo u ha ve to be prepared to change yo u r lin e . I p icked it u p fo r Max, but he (Crafa r) w asn't an ticipa ting it. H e d oe s n 't th ink h e ' s in th e wrong , and I d on 't bl am e h im fo r it. But at a co rner like tha t, I try an d pu t m yself in a safety position. He s hould have been aware that wi th 24 bikes com ing into a hairpin after doi ng 250 km /h that we m ight have to jostle for position. Afterwards he wa nted m e to s tay aro u nd and watch a vi deo, but I sa id to him, wa tchi ng a video isn't really goi ng to cha nge the ou tcome. I'm ou t of h ere. 1 wa n t to go home . H e was pleading with me, and I sa id, "Simo n, d on't w orry ab out it." Then, when I got back to Monaco, I heard ho w he said I'd knocked him off and so o n, I hadn't bl amed an yo n e un til th en, a nd I just responded to th at. Q A o ne last question: You must have been asked a million times how you find the motivation - because it is just astonishing how, year after year, weekend after weekend, you find the determination to race the way you do. Are you surprised by that? Do you understand it? Not reall y. I'm so me times surp rised th at I'm st ill ca pa b le of winnin g, but I'm not su rprised tha t I want to kee p winning. I feel the same as befo re I won a title, only more experienced. As soon as I have a bad res ul t, th at just makes me wa nt to work harder . I find it easier to win than to lose . 0 Q A 29

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