Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Interview By Gordon Ritchie Photos by Gold & Goose ccording to the record books, preseason testing, and the experience gained along the wellworn SOOcc Grand Prix road he now travels for the 11 th year in succession, Mick Doohan is once more a white-hot favorite for this year's SOOcc World Championship. It was a similar situation at the start of 1998 - but obviously someone forgot to tell Max Biaggi. The four-time back-to-back 2S0cc World Champion was still a raw SOOcc rookie come the first round at Suzuka, but that hardly mattered as his red-andwhite NSR rocketed away in the early laps to record his maiden SOOcc victory. Notice - and the odd dollop of humble pie - was served to the racing world at large: Max The SOOcc Rider had arrived at fuJI speed and with his piercing black eyes firmly focused on the man who has matched him title for title in the previous four years. Although it transpired that the view Max usually got of Mick thereafter was from the rear, as the Aussie disappeared into the (admittedly near) distance, everyone acknowledged that the latest Monkey on Mick's back had sharp teeth, a sharper tongue, and levels of self-confidence matched only by the Champion himself. Ten years behind Doohan, and "only" on Erv Kanemoto's special works-supported customer version of the very NSRSOO Doohan had himself created in his own sometimes spiky image, Biaggi obviously needed an edge. Yamaha A Max Biaggi offered him a potential edge: a fullworks YZRSOO. Biaggi took it. And he took a great deal of Marlboro money with him as well. The desire to paint Yamaha YZRSOOs fluorescent red and white has proved eminently resistible to Marlboro for the past couple of seasons, as the prospect of race and championship wins went up in nleandering trails of bluish smoke. The luI' of seeing Biaggi - one of the biggest media magnets the GP world has ever seen mounted on one has now proved to be entirely irresistible. What kind of guy attracts this much attention and wields such influence over sponsors? Meet Max. The Yamaha Guy. Interviewing Max Biaggi can be a tricky business. Everyone from every form of media and from every country in the world seems to want to speak with him. But, despite a raging flu, probably 10 previous TV interviews and photo shoots earlier in the day and a (thus far) indifferent showing at the IRTA tests in Jerez, Biaggi sits at the head of the dinner table in the Marlboro tent. Shivering and sniffling, there he is, enhancing his public image even while he eats his exquisitely prepared pasta. "This kind of experience makes ynu strong in the mind," he said. "You know you are not 100 percent, but you arc still her riding the bike." And his mind is clicking away with characteristic brightness and clarity, despite the fact that he is obviously not fit. In fact, the obvious question is, Why is he here at all, when there are many more tests planned for him to sort out his new YZR? "1 have a big responsibility to give Yamaha race wins," Biaggi said. "1 have a cold and a fever, and two days ago, before we start testing, I called them and said, '] cannot come, 1 have a fever of almost 38 degrees.' They said, 'We need you, because we have so many things to test.' I said, 'Okay, test. You have so many riders.' They said, 'No, we want your comments, you must come.' "For consistency, they want the same rider to refer to. That's the way you build a winning machine. That is the way Honda is. They take the information always from Doohan." This unbreakable link in the development of the whole NSR project means it is, without question, the bike that Mick built. But it is also a potent force for anyone with the talent to harness its full powers - li ke Max did in 1998. "Mick is very Honda. Ten years. Can you believe I was so close to beating him in my first year? On the same type of motorcycle," says Biaggi with some pride - and some prejudice. So can he overcome the second most successfulSOOcc rider in hist9ry this year? "1 hope I am the man to beat Mick," Biaggi said. ''It will not be easy, because I change my team and bike, and the bike I have chosen has not won the title since 1992, with Wayne Rainey. Last year they only win one GP of the 13 - with Simon Crafar, and for a tire reason. So in all honesty, there is some gap to close. "1 never lie, because this is not my true style," Biaggi continued, "so first we mu t improve our bike to make a standard close to the Honda, because the Honda is good at all tracks. The Yamaha is sometimes very good, at some other circuits it is very difficult. This (Jerez) is the worst track for Yamaha. Who knows why? The last eight years, Yamaha has never won here. Wayne Rainey, who was so strong, was always beaten by Schwantz or Dooha11 or Gardner." (The last Yamaha winner at Jerez was Eddie Lawson way back in 1988.) On present form, it does not look like Jerez will offer Biaggi a chance to add to his 199 tally of two SOOcc GP wins, as the four 1999-equipped works Yamaha men - Biaggi, Carlos Checa, Simon rafar and Regis Laconi - were all struggling at the A11dalusian venue, while orick Abe (on '98 kit) has been fast everywhere. Has Max tried the 1998 bike yet? "Because we are the factory team, we have the chance to use the 1999 bike from the first test," he said. "Theyasked if we could test the prototype of 1999. Tomorrow (the final day of tests) we will test the '98 spec. We try to make the bike work better, to list one good point. Right now we are not stronger (than the opposition) on braking or acceleration or chassis. We have no one good point where we can put a base. So we must find this base first and then work around it. ow we are looking at where we can do this." Earlier tests had Biaggi a wisp away from Doohan at Mick's resurfaced home venue of Phillip Island. "Phillip Island was great - we went quick, mega-quick - but here... I already knew we would struggle, because at Phillip Island they told us that it would be very hard for us in Spain. Because of this, it hurts less'"

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