Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

John Kocinski By Henny Ray Abrams ohn Kocinski finally got what he always wanted, but for how long? Since moving to the World stage in 1990, with a 250cc world Championship for Yamaha in his first year, Kocinski has been a nomad in search of an' oasis. The Arkansas native who moved to Modesto, California, as a teenager to learn from Kenny Roberts rode for the Marlboro Roberts Yamaha team as Wayne Rainey's teammate in 1991 and '92, finishing fourth, then third, with a win in each season, but clearly not relishing the role of second fiddle. The 1993 season was even worse. Kocinski was tabbed by the Lucky Strike Suzuki team to spearhead the factory's re-entry into the 250cc class. His debut was auspicious, a shadow second to Yamaha's Tetsuya Harada in Australia at the season opener. After that there was frustration on all sides, which came to a head halfway into the season at the Lucky Strike Dutch TT in Assen. Kocinski finished third, less than five seconds behind the winner, but he wasn't happy. What happened next has never been fully explained, but Kocinski stopped on the course, blaming a gearbox problem, .and he didn't make the podium, embarrassing the Lucky Strike team at their home Grand Prix. It would be his last race with the team. The next time he showed up at a Grand Prix was in Brno, the Czech Republic, and he was now teamed with Doug Chandler and Mat Mladin on Giacomo Agostini's Cagiva team. Fourth in his first two races ahead of both of his teammates, Kocinski proved he could J still ride a 500. The year's highlight came at Laguna Seca, where Kocinski gave Cagiva their only win that year. The year's final race was in Jarama, Spain, and Kocinski was on the pole. He also set fast lap and he might have won had race leader Shinichi Itoh not succumbed to Kocinski's pressure and crashed just in front of him. Mick Doohan won his first 500cc World Championship in 1994 and Kocinski finished third, two points behind Yamaha's Luca Cadalora, after winning the season-opening race in Australia. It wa§n't enough to get him a job in 1995. Kocinski raced little that year, though he rode an Erion Racing Honda 600 to second at Daytona, returning to the track full time in 1996 with a ride on the Ducati World Superbike team. That led to the Castrol Honda team, where he gave the team and the RC45 its only World Championship in 1997. As a symbol of their gra-titude, the team recently gave him his title-winning machine. That performance earned him a SOOcc seat on the Spanish MoviStar Honda Pons team in 1998. It was a year of struggle that only added to his reputation as a difficult and mercurial rider to work with. . Like most riders, he's always wanted to ride for tuning genius and multi-time World Championship win.ner Erv Kanemoto. The two Northern Californians worked together once before when Kocinski, after he had been let go by Suzuki, tested the Rothmans Honda NSR250 that Max Biaggi was riding in 1993. It took more than five years for them to get together again. The only problem now is that there's no money. Kanemoto's genius is mechanical, not financial, and he hasn't been able to attract sponsorship for this team. The San Jose native took out two loans to pay the early 'bills and has said tha t if the team doesn't find funding, their season could well end after next weekend's French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard. Rumors that they were on a performance bonus program with Honda Racing Corporation (HRC), basically a lifeline, were just that - rumors. Which is almost a good thing. The first two races resulted in two crashes, and the third wasn't one for the resume, either. At the Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez, Kocinski showed an early flash of brilliance, only to be slowed by tire problems. Using a softer front than virtually anyone else, Kocinski wasn't able to keep up once it began to slide, very early in the race. After dropping to seventh, he quickened his pace, turning his fastest lap three from the end and moving to sixth. The Honda NSRSOO has always had a bad habit of understeering and running wide out of the turns. It's especially problematic when you can't make a hard front tire work, something Repsol Honda's Alex Criville was able to do to make his NSRSOO a winner in Spain. For Kocinski to excel, he'll have to have faith in the harder tire. All of which puts Kocinski in an odd place. He finally has what he wants, but if the team doesn't find any money, it may soon be taken away from him. QHOW did you come to this team? I've always wanted to be in this team, but it was always a situation where we had to find money to organize A it and finally, last year, after Max (Biaggil went to Yamaha, of course the spot was open, and I knew that I wasn't going to be staying on 'for another year "'Jith the (Sito) Pons team. And I think it was just a si~ation that we've always wanted to work on the same team, and we were just going to try to find a way to make it happen. you weren't Q goingdid stay know youthe Pons to on with team? team is full Spanish and honestly believe that Sito is A Sito'sIbusiness, anot for racing,team, there for and, HOW for me, I go for the racing pait, he goes for the business part. So, already you can see it's a dead-end street. Let alone, I speak English, they speak Spanish. That was another problem. It wesn't a good situation. YOU said at one point that you were racing for HRC within the Pons' team. The thing is, .you have .to 'fry to . think about everybody's position before you start saying things. Of course, Honda, I think, tried to help me in Whichever way they could. But, in the end, I was still in that team and even, I think, for the Japanese sometimes it was a bit frustrating. But it was a situation where you're there and all you can do is what you can and just ride it out and wait for a better chance. Q A was it something you Q donesince the first time couldn't get to the bike? A-Ever I've ever sat .l'"\.on an NSRSOO, I've never been very comfortable. People always talk about superbikes and how they don't handle and they don't work and they're just ·out ""ime street bikes. But I remember the first time I rode the NSR in Sugo, after I'd just won the World Championship, and I lapped Sugo faster on my superbike than I did the NSR. Because you confident in the Q Ifront end? were NSR definitely think the A needsarea.that improvement in, the some handling But sometimes handling can be affected by other things. It's not just that we need 'a new frame or we need this or that. It's just a combination of things. In Superbike, I was priority one, and T came to this deal and I was priority seven. Things don't happen too fast when you're priority number seven. In reality, that's how it really is. No matter what a paper says, that's how it is. In Superbike, there's two Hondas. In Grands Prix, last year, there were seven Hondas. And I'm the new guy in. When anybody takes a new job, they doaft start out as president. At what point did you realize that you wouldn't get what YOru needed? I knew early on that, for sure, we were going to have to do something to where I could be more comfortable on the bike. Clearly, I feel that I didn't have much time to adapt again to a 500. I just needed to get what I had working better. I've experienced this before at other factories, and a lot of times it's all about timing. You've just got to hope that the timing aspect of things works out to where you can get e~erything in line. Q A

• Cover