Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

T he most surprising thing about Kenny Roberts' first win is not that it came in his first ride on the factory Suzuki. After all, Kenny has been right there with Mick Ooohan and John Kocinski and Max Biaggi as either the fastest or one of the fastest in all the preseason testing. For me, the real surprise is the manner in which he won. He only needed a couple of laps to get past Kocinski and Alex Criville - and then he just smoked' em. You could see on the last lap, when Kenny shook his head as he came up to the last comer before the checkered flag, that he could hardly believe it. He didn't really know what to expect when he got here, but he knew he was ready. Physically, he's trained harder than he's ever trained in his life. He's worked hard on and off the bike since winter testing began, but there were times over the winter when 1 got the feeling that when 1 was talking to him, he was asking, "Am I doing good?" It was like he needed confumation that he was really doing this, really breaking Mick Doohan's record at Phillip Island, really running right up there - the quickest or almost the quickest everywhere he went. 1 was at Daytona this spring, talking to his dad. Kenny Sr. smiled at me and said, "1 got a call from Junior, and he beat Mid's record at Phillip Island." "What'd you say?" 1asked. "1 told him to back it off a little and not to show his cards, too soon," Kenny Sr. said. But in Malaysia, Kenny couldn't help it. He showed his cards, and nobody else had an ace in their hand. This is one of those times when everything just seems to be coming together for Suzuki. They are a hungry team and they have a hungry rider. I've worked with little Kenny a lot over the last couple of years when he was riding for Modenas, and the main problem he had in the past is gone. He's stronger than ever. He used to fade in the middle of races, but in the heat of Malaysia he was just as strong at the end as he was at the start. I started this column by saying that what most surprised me was how easy it looked for him - how much he won by. Well, maybe a lot of people were surprised that he won SO early, or that he won at all. 1 think because he was riding a bike that wasn't competitive for the past two years, people- didn't pay much attention. Kenny has a lot more experience than people think, and he learned a hell of a. lot dealing with the problems of a prototype bike like the Modenas. In Malaysia he put it all together and it worked. 1 was talking to him after the race and he said that he had looked at the video of the warmup session when he was running with Ooohan. He was surprised to see how smooth he'd looked. "1 sure didn't feel that smooth," he said. '1 felt like I was rough and ragged and having trouble sometimes getting the bike where I wanted it. But when I looked at it on ta pe, I said to myself, 'Man, if I look that smooth when I'm working so hard to get around, just think how smooth I'd be if I could just back it off a bit and concentrate on being smooth and fluid: When 1 got past John . and Alex and Max, 1 just concentrated on staying within myself and being smooth, and I started pulling away." Once Kenny got in front, he cracked off a string of 13 laps with never any more than three-tenths of a second between them - and the difference between the slowest and the fastest lap of the string of 13 was just half a second. That's the way it goes when a rider has really got it all working. It's the kind of performance we're used to seeing from somebody like Mick Ooohan. Now, that's got to be a surprise, but why don't I feel that surprised? I mean, this is a kid who has only ever led a 500cc ra.ce once before, and that was at Donington Park in 1996. And he only led for six laps before starting to drop back and ultimately falling off. 1 call him a kid because I'm getting ready to tum 40, and I've seen him growing up in the paddock, running around at our feet. But here he is out front and 1 kind of hold my breath and wonder how he's going to deal with all this pressure. I mean, he's never won a GP - and here he's sitting out front with a fiv.e-time World Champion behind him, and a fourtime 250cc champion, and another guy who's won World Superbike and 250cc titles, yet he's not making any mistakes. In fact, he's pulling away and lapping in 2:07 while all the rest of the guys' are slower and less consistent in their times. This is just one race, but you just feel that he's going to be up there all year. Next comes Montegi, a track he loves and where he's been real fast in preseason testing. 30 YEARS AGO... I knew Kenny was training hard with Dean Miller, as "Deano" is working exclusively with leam Suzuki this year as trainer for all three riders - Kenny, Nobuatsu Aoki and Yukio Kagayama. When I finally saw Kenny after a couple. of months of working out, I 'was impressed. I was looking at a different kid. He's lean, but he looks stronger and his muscle tone is better - you can even see it in his face. And you see something in his eyes, too. The mind is a reflection of the body, and when you work hard to perfect the body, you also improve th.e sharpness of focus. Before testing really got under way he asked me, "Randy, do you think 1 could train with Mick sometime?" And I thought to myself, "He's not thinking about anybody else. He's looking to the master to find how to make himself better." I had told him before that he should think just about beating Mick. I said that if he aimed high and focused on Mick, and then he fell a little short, the worst -he would be is second. But when 1 saw him later, 1 realized that I didn't have to tell him that anymore. He was working to race Mick. He never actually got to work out with Mick, but they did work out once at the same gym, and Kenny said he saw that Ooohan was working as hard as it's possible to work. I've seen Doohan work out. Back before his accident, he was a runner. Now he can't run, but he pushes himself so hard in the gym and on the bicycle th,at it's inspiring just to see it. ow, looking at the other guys, I'd say I was pleased to see John Kocinski on the pole because he's working hard ,to get back up front, and we all know how hard Erv Kanemoto works. It's too bad John and Norick Abe went down, because I'd like to have seen if they would have fought for that second place with Checa and Criville. Criville had a tire problem in Malaysia. I didn't know it at the time, but he was lucky to keep third place from Doohan. Another lap and he would have lost it. But even before the problem with the rear tire, Alex looked like he was having a lot of trouble keeping the Honda from running wide. John was as well, and you could see that Sepang didn't like the Hondas much. Checa looked real good, and SO did the Yamaha. It was turning in better and seemed to be staying on line better, but Max surprised me because he looked like he was behind the bike all day. He was making little mistakes and looking like he was about to make a big mistake. but that m'ay have been because he wasn't used to riding that fast on a full fuel load. When he got that burned down a bit, he was looking a little better, but still not as good as Checa. Then there was some electrical malfunction and it stopped. I think Mick knew when he got here, and maybe even before that, that this was going to be tough. He's been saying that this is going to be a long season, and I think he's got himself mentally prepared to be second or third or fourth sometimes - but to keep getting points. He's been saying for a year or more that Honda was falling behind Yamaha, and now, at least at the first race, it looks like both Yamaha and Suzuki have caught up. I know Mick doesn't like having pe0ple follow him around in practice, but I told him on Sunday evening after the r~ce, "You know, Kenny is going to be out there in practice looking to follow you, and you know that that's what you'd be doingyourself if you were him." 1 know J did it when I first came over here. Back in 1979, I'd latch on to the rear of Kenny Sr:s Yamaha any chance I had and, man, that helped me! It's too early to say anything yet, other than to note that in Sepang, Kenny had it all working and he made the most of it. Montegi should be better for the Honda guys, but the Yamahas and Suzukis have gone real well there, too. Montegi is going to be a big test for the brakes because there are some real hairy downhill braking sections that are going to be exciting - especially if anybody gets in too hot. And just because Monte- . gi has some long, fast straights doesn't necessarily mean that they are going to be "Honda lanes:' Remember: The Yamaha was the quickest in a straight line at Sepang, and the Suzuki is no slouch, either. Midi's right. It is going to be a long season - and maybe a great one. Former SOOcc Grand Prix star Randy Mamola and longtime Cycle News contributor Dennis Noyes will be coUaborating to bring us Mamola's thoughts throughout the 1999 Grand Prix seaSOtL .. Editor _ IlAY 13, 1969 I I on ~ ::E 96 20 YEARS AGO... IlAY 9,1979 10 YEARS AGO••• IlAY 3, 1989 ur cover featured the battling CZs of Bruce Baron and Mike Pera in 250cc Junior action at the Saddleback Park MX in Orange County, Cali1ornia. Pera went on to record the win... Overseas, Joel Robert (CZ) went 1-3 to claim his second 250cc MXGP of the year in Switzerland. Marcel Wiertz (Bu)) was second overall, and Don Rickman (Bull was third overall... Meanwhile, Bengt Aberg (Hus) recorded the win at the Austrian SOOcc MXGP... Mert Lawwill (H-D) won the first AMA National half mile of th.e season in Cumberland, Maryland... After struggling for much of the season, 1968 U.s. Nati nal Speedway Champion Rick Woods (Eso) returned to form at Whiteman Stadium in Pacoima, California, winning the main event and setting a new track record... Some 605 riders took part in Southern Cal's Twentynine Palms Run to benefit the City of Hope Hospital... Jack McLane (Hon) won the 9O-mile AMA National Enduro in the Finger Lakes District of upstate New York. peedway was the name of the game, and we brought you extra feature coverage in the form of an interview with Costa Mesa Speedway promoter Harry Oxley and a riding lesson with multi-time U.S. National Speedway Champion Mike Bast. Our usual Speedway Week coverage was also in place... Elsewhere, Bob Hannah (Yarn) stunk up the show and lurched closer to his third AMA Supercross title by winning both rounds of the series at the Pontiac Silverdome in Michigan... In the Trans-Atlantic Match Races in England, Team USA did what the British press said could not be done, waxing a "vastly superior" Team Britain. Umm, yeah, sure. .. Team Yoshimura's David Aldana and David Emde won the AFM six-hour road race at Ontario Speedway... We featured an AMA Grand National dirt track series preview that foc,used on the rookies. Among the pink-cheeked kids in the photos were Scott Parker, Ronnie Jones and Wayne Rainey. ith the good, ,the bad and the ugly that was the 1989 U.S. GP now a matter of record, American road racing fans could look forward to our MA National Road Race preview issue. Inside were synopses of the various classes and maps of the. circuits that made up the schedule... Team Honda teammates George Holland and Jeff Stanton were the men to beat at the Hangtown ational MX in Sacramento, California. Holland won the 125cc class, and Stanton the 250cc class... Larry Roeseler (Kaw) overalled the Shasta Dam National Hare Scrambles in orthern California, and Scott Plessinger (Kaw) won the Brown Jug 100, round three of the AMA GNCC series, in Brownsville, Pennsylvania.. Joel Albrecht (Kaw) and Tommy Clowers were the young studs at the NMA World Mini Grand Prix in Henderson, Nevada, while old pro Dave Thorpe (Hon) rode to an inspiring victory while peering through swollen eyes at the second round of the World Championship 500cc MX Series in France. _ O S W

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