Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

make a certain comment about how the bike might be handling through a ection of race track and I would use words and descriptions that I'd always been taught. But what my' team was used to hearing was, well, maybe not such a technical version of the facts, but more an emotional one. Like if I went in there and said, "Oh my god, it's all over the race track here and the back end's bouncing or doing this." And kind of wave my arms and jump up and down a bit. That, in some ways, is better. Rather than me saying, "Oh, I think we should change the spring or do this because it's doing that." See, I. was overstepping my technical expertise with this equipment. Now, if we were talking about a Yamaha TZ250, they probably would say '''What spring do you think you like?" In this case, I had to learn that it was better to tell them where or what I was haVing problems with and just leave the technical stuff to them. It's funny, because most people would think, '1sn't it nice that you don't have to think about that stuff anymore and all yo can do is ride?" Well, it is now that I really appreciate the skills that these guys have. There's so much knowledge on our team· especially with our superbike, because we've been running that particular bike for a while. It's better to just describe things as what your problem is and then they go fix it. You don't even sometimes know what they did. They just aid, "Well, try this, and it's fixed." Did that evolution in any way track your riding changeS? Absolutel y . All these things that I'm describing to you have been detrimental to my results, the mistakes that I've made and my inability to understand and my inability to communicate properly. AU that stuff has been a handicap that I've had. But now that I've overcome those mistakes, the results are starting to improve. And that just confirms that we're going the right way now. Q A Was it hard to not win? was mostly hard in life, not to I was before I started job Because A ll winner.whatfact, I wasthe rest of mythis Superbikewin. the biggest winner there was, wa a In because I never lost for two years straight. And, I was very aggressive and I was protective of my record and I was very committed to continuing to win. But the other portions of my life suffered greatly because I was tuck in that situation. A lot of people don't know this, but in order to do what I did • to win 20 races in a row - took a tremendous toU on my basic mental health, let'~ say. And I had to start withdraw· ing from things. If someone wanted to go and do something with me, I would have to say, "No, I have to do this, to work on the bike, to get ready for the next event." I wouldn't compromise. I had no compromise of any of my requirements, my training. my mechanical things, my sponsorship duties. Whatever, [ wouldn't compromise anything for anybody in my life. Well, that was great for winning races in that particular mode, but I found through new relationships that I've had with people that I've been able to start this season and last season that you can do both. My girlfriend, actually, was tl1e first person who ever came up to me and wanted to get to know me, back when I was racing 2505 for me. She didn't care about my record and I was like, 'Wow, I. didn't know that there was a me anymore underneath aU this." All I was was Rich Oliver the 250 Grand Prix rider, and then not much more than that at that point. Thank God for her, that she came along and kind of snapped me out of that and said, "It's okay, you can be yourself again and you're still going to be able to win." And that's kind 'of whatI've been able to evolve to now. I. still have that desire, as strongly as ever to win, but I also can step back from this and enjoy my life, the other aspects of it, my relationships with different people, other jnterests I have - hobbies, projects, things like that. And I still train the required amount of time, if not more. I've just been able to put a better balance on it now. Q Was there some relief when that string ended? to but down that point. A Oh, yeah. I hadtooowhere on go 25Omat'satallto.be the What's going happen next? Who's going a I had to first guy to beat Rich Oliver look forward to. ot winning more races, because after you win - I don't know how many races I won, 4O-something races - that's not what it's about anymore. ll's about ootlosing. And that's not a very healthy way to go through life at times. I'd rather now have the challenge of winning, because when I win one of these races, I'm going to be SO happy to have won. And it won't be just a relief. Where' before, when Sunday night was over and I'd won my 250 race, I was like, "Oh good, I can reaHy not stress out about this for another week or two until the next race." ow we'll have a week-long party after that first win. Q HOW much progress did you make during this off· season? I think I made tremendous amount of progress menA testingI schedulea that wetohad over the winterin between . tally. think I was able have enough time our to basically analyze what I did right and what [did WJOng. and basically kind of sharpen my focus on what was important and what wasn't in areas of my life that didn't have anything to do with racing. And then do the same thing witb my focus on racing. And, so, [ just kind of fine-tuned my program to where I think it's going to be the most.effective now. And I bad a great wintertime testing season. [ didn't get hurt and I was quick in most places, and [learned a lot about the 600 in a short period of time. I feel that I've really helped develop that program for the team. And I had a great training regimen going and I just enjoy it. I really accepted what's important and what isn't and went for it. Q Has your role on the team changed from what you were originally hired to do? l think that when I was originally hired, nobody knew what to expect, including myseli. Now I think that the guys have got to know me, they know where I'm coming from. They believe in me and they know how hard I try. They know how hard I train when I'm not around. They know how much I think about this stuff and bow badly I want to do this. And so, I think, they had to kind of learn that from me, over time. And I had to get to know them and understand what was important to them. And so, if anything, I'd say my role really hasn't changed, but it's just developed into a really great relation hip with the team. A Q Is there a first rider and second rider on this team? ot fact, it ever got that situation, we'd have to discuss that, A into thatI've ever been told.Yamaha'sI think if tobecause I don't think that's really what trying project. In As far as our road racing team is concerned, it's all fair going in and may the best man win. QDO you get along well with Jamie Hacking? like J"!,,ie. Jamie'S profes ional all way through. A lAnd what I like abouttrack, doingthat the can be adoing Jamie is he very polite, civil person off the media events, this, doing that. When we get on the track, we'll go race each other. But he leaves it on the race track and so do 1. And Tommy Hayden's the same way. We all congratulate each other when we do well and, of course, each of us wants to be the quickest or the winner. But we don't eem to have any friction. Q Do you share much information? share lot o¥in.formation because we're all Abit differenta style, and that helps sift We all havelearning, especially with the 600 program. a litthrough settings tle We quicker. A lot of times we all end up pretty close· lap times and bike setups - but we all take our different paths to get there. What's real good about our team is that they allow you to take whatever path that you see fit that works for you. And they also know each of our peJsonalities and our habits, and they know that I'll just go out and go for it off the first session. And they know that maybe it takes a session or two for Tommy to warm up, but then he'll be just as fast. And Jamie's got his approach, which is pretty similar to mine. We're aU pretty well understood now.by the team. Has riding this bike and waiting for the R-7 affected you in any way? . lnitiaUy it did. When I saw the new R-7 at our Yamaha dealer show, I was standing by the turntable, looking at that and going. 'That's what [ need, that's what I need to improve this year." Then it didn't come as early as we'd hoped. You're kind of [eft with, like, "Well, are you going to sit around and wonder how great you'd i:?e on that, or are you going to buckle down and improve yoursell on what you have?" Our superbike has been competitive in World Superbike, it's been competitive with Jamie on there, with Tom Kipp on there, with some other riders. Scott Russell is a great example of how competitive our bike is. I can't sit there and ""y it's the bike, [ have to say it'S me. Sometimes it sucks to have to say, "You suck, Rich - you need to get on the gas," but that's what I said to mysell over the winter. New bike, old bike, to me it doesn't matter. As long as I've got something underneath me that I can work on, and the team can work on, I'm ready to go. Q A ut there are tracks that clearly don't favor your bike, wouldn't you say? eah, we have our good tracks and our bad tracks like ost of the bikes out here. Ws funny· Daytona, being a high-speed track, favors our bike: We've got a lot of power. We've always had top-end speed. We lack sometimes on acceleration on tight circuits and sometimes we lack over bumpy circuits. But, all in all, it's a good package. My goal this year, in the beginning of the year with the old superbike, is just to rack up as many points as I can and put myself in a 9J position where I can do something at the end of the year with an R-7 - if I get an R-7. And if I don't, well, then, 1'm still better off than if I. was in a hore. That's kind of the goal. u seems that the setup is pretty critical. If you miss it Q a little, you can get pretty far behind. A-r think with all the top superbikes, it's probably that fiway. WeU, yeah, some of the other brands may be a little more forgiving. Our bike, though, [ think once you do get it set up pretty ,,\,e1I, we don't change it much and that's a good sign. I used to be like that with my 250. l'd find a setting and it would work at Loudon and it would work at Daytona. It was funny, but once you found those sweet numbers and the sweet spot where the bike liked to be, it was pretty well working about everywhere. But, yeah, it is critical, especially on our Superbike. Where did you get it right!ast year and where didn't you get it right? We probably only started getting it working good for me towards the end of the season, maybe the last two or three rounds - Pikes Peak, Vegas, that time period there. We started to kind of come to grips v.~th what worked with my stuff. I had a little bit different seating positio.n on the bike than Jamie does. Jamie hugs the front end a lot and I sit a little bit more in the middle, more like Scott Russell and Doug Chandler. And so I needed a little bit different setup than Jamie did. But we found it, and then things started going a lot better. Q A That sort of takes us to Daytona this year, Were you surprised at where you finished? No. I wa~ happy, though. I wa n't surprised. I had tl1at thought in my mind all winter: that I wanted to get on the podium at Daytona. I knew that we had the package to do it. We had, basically, the Scott Russell type of bike. The bike won the race the year before; why houldn't I be able to win on it? Q A QBecause his was a World Superbike machine. A-Yeah, but I think in some ways our setup was even betfiter than theirs. But Scott's awful good. I was very happy to be running third. [ had made probably 15 mistakes during Speed Week. I rode way too hard. I rode with a style that's incorrect, especially at Daytona. If you think about a high. comering-speed style, it's like the worst place you could use that style, And then I crashed in the race, late. And countless other setup mistakes, and mistakes of various importance. So this year l said to myself, "Well, at least I'm not going to make those mistakes," and I wouldn't let myself make those same mistakes. And l started leading practice boards and [ qualified seventh overall, which is pretty good. We were all in the 49s and it was pretty close, except for' Anthony (Gobert), who ripped off that incredible 48. It just went like dockwork for me. I rode at a pace that I knew I could conserve my tires and my bike. I knew I wouldn't make any mistakes or fall off. I rode with a totally different tine around the track than I had before' a line that was very helpful in conserving the tires and keeping them cool. Did you pick up anything from Scott Russell last year? Yeah, I picked up as much as I possibly could. I used everything, everything I learned from him. I don't want to say exactly. Let's just say that Russell has a concept of what it takes to ride a machine around there for 19 laps in a row and then get another set of tires. And I looked at what he does, and why he does it, and a lot of things are pretty subtle. His line around there isn't quite a bit different from everybOdy el e's: where he shifts his bike; how he runs his bike around the banking; where he drops down off the banking..Things like that, I just started picking up. And [ started to apply as many of those as r could. That was the difference for me this year. [owe a lot of credit to Scott. He was really cool about things when we were all on the same team last year and he was helpful with letting me watch him. Even when he was riding his bike this year, he still • runs pretty similar lines. I try to watch and see. I feel that he's the best at Daytona, obviously, so 1 try to emulate him. Continued to page 40 Q A .~ "'« 15

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