Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

After that, Willow (Springs) was tou gh - just not eno ug h tes ting w ith those dual-compound tires . An d then we go t up to Sears (Point), aga in a track wh er e yo u do n' t necessarily have to have speed; our bike was good and we we re on pace. That felt good . I think that gave me and the team a littl e bit of mo tiva tion to w he re, yea h, if we can w ork o n thi s a littl e b it m ore, then maybe we cou ld ge t a win. And s tuff finally s tarted s howing up a nd th e g uys were getting more powe r back at Rob 's (Muzzy) . Things just started feeling bett er. Goi ng into Atla n ta I th ought we had somethi ng fo r them, bu t we lost a motor ea rly in the race. I kn ew tha t the season was don e for - becau se you can' t d o that an y more. I mea n you have to finish every race. You almost have to stay within the top five to be a con ten der. Mat had the best record going. I thin k he was on the podium ·a t just abou t all of them. I think he's had a couple that he's been off of. He's been steady. That's wha t yo u've go t to do. Any more, yo u always figure eve ryo ne was goi ng to have a DNF. But any more you can ' t have that. It's unacceptable. Q Com ing into th e year the team wa s an unk nown. was not getting lot testing with them. We kind of A..missed tough,hadona test. Iadon 'tofknowthethat hurt us our contro versy in off-season, so I the Dayt if 1t so much.at Daytona, becau se, regardless, we wouldn 't have had that much to try. Jus t spend ing the time with the gu ys - I think that's the biggest pa rt of it. When you have new guys, just kind of wor king together and ge ttin g used to each other help s. I thought we we re a lillie short on that. HOW the n ews of K . Q Idroppdid Rob team take the had been fruawasaki ing (Muzzy) for nex t year? A- think that was a surprise . It str ating f i for all of us. We never go t any word, no respon se fro m Japan on w hen we would ge t new stuff. Tha t kind of was the first word ou t of anyt hing that you ge t from them . We' re not going to ge t not hing else for the rest of the year or what? Wha t' s b een said about your style is that when the motorcycle is set up perfectl y you . can win races . Given the right types of circu its where yo u do n't necessarily have a long stra ightaway. Everything I've d on e in the past an d have ridden, if yo u kn ow yo u're down on speed you tend to focus more on chassis and yo u end up havin g a bike that will go throu gh . the co rne r fas ter than most of them ou t th ere on th e track - just giving a litt le bit down th e straight. And w hen yo u go to so me of those tracks tha t don 't have a st raightaway, it's fine. But you can only do so much on a track that 's got a mile-lon g s tra igh taway or a pr ett y l on~ s tra ightaway. I thou ght at Elkhart (Lake) we could have done a bit better. I thi nk I made a bad choice on the tires. The firs t start I had inte rmediates fro nt and rear and I was ha ppy wit h that cho ice. The second , and fina l, start I ran int ermed iate front. I d idn' t have any tro uble with the front, but I d idn't wa nt to pus h it too hard and d rift the thin g - I wa nted to finis h . We finished fourt h, but I felt we should have bee n u p at least wit h (jam ie) Hacking, for third. Tha t's my decision , my choice. I kn ow now we could have mad e it bett er, but I didn' t want to take the chance. Q A You had a to Q You alwayschance youuleave before you signedththis two-year deal. Do regret staying? thin k yo could have had so me ing A bell er. The grass always looks greener on the ot her side. I' m mad atmyself for d oing it, but, in turn, I' m J not. It's nice to come back and wi n a couple of races with the tea m again. I feel like I have an ob ligation with the m (Kawasaki). I d on ' t know, we had trou ble, bu t a contract's a cont ract, yo u work it ou t. You hope eve rything tu rns out - it wo rks out. But it's been a fru strating year. If I would' ve left, I do n' t kn ow if I wo uld've been on any thing a ny be tter. I s till feel that I can co m pe te over th ere aga ins t .the "(arid guys in su perbikes or Gra nds Prix, but it' s tou gh. It's so mu ch beller here in America than it was when I was last there. There wasn ' t any mon ey to be made. I mean, the first chance you go t to go to Europe you jumped at it and go t out here jus t because there was so mu ch more money. And now , it's still that wa y a little bit, but not nearl y what it was . You can de finitely prolong your career over here and make a good livin g doing it. Keep it en joyab le for an extra nurn ber of yea rs rather than over ther e, My last year over there, when I reali zed I wasn't go ing to get anything else, I was pr etty down . I wasn' t sure if I cou ld n't eve n race an y mo re if I had to come back over her e. Any rider, you ge t a bit of an atti tude. It' s almost kind of dem oralizing to have . to ste p down. You ' feel th a t you s ho u ld n' t h a v e to s tep to tha t level. You 're be tter than th o s e g uys, you ' re abo v e t he m . Your position is ove r there. Th at ' s o ne o f t he hard est thin gs to do, is ge t away fr o m it and just go on about yo u r b usi ness . As ' Io ng as yo u ca n still . get on a mo to rcycle and have fun, I th ink you'll be successful. But when you let that eat at you, yo u' re not goi ng to go an y where. You ha d to come ba ck to a tea m (Ha rley -Davi dson) that wasn't that competitive, which made it tha much hard er. I didn't mind that so much. It messed with me, but I think the in jury (a brok en tollarbo ne at Dayton a) mad e me feel ab out th e whol e d eal, ju st becaus e I wa sn't as useful or productive. Then I re-broke my collarb one testing at Laguna. I was pret ty mu ch worthl ess. I felt bad, because I thou gh t I could have mad e so me good improv em ent s and goo d direction s for them and go t the thing a little bit better, It was just a bad yea r all the way arou nd. A Laguna Seca is an place for you. You seem to Q either win there oroddwas ve ry there luck. resuItyou have bad Do think your championship lost as a of . your World superbike crash? Or do you think it was Loudon? Or neither? I'd say neither. I think that last race (at Las Vegas)we were a co ntender. And the las t race we wer e doi ng what we needed to do. I kind of go t behi nd Ben . and Eric (Bostro m) and just kind of bided my time an d then kind of slowed the pace down. I just kind of started to step it up, and no soo ner than a lap or two later my feet were slipping off the pegs. It was im possible. A I wa s wondering if the injuries you had at Lag una cost you points in Mid-Ohio or Brainerd? A- Yeah, we gave them a lo t of points. I do n't know, f i you can' t poin t the finger at an y on e thing. It was a toug h deal. To be ab le to ge t th rou gh all of that and still have a shot at it in the las t race, to me, as long as you can mak e it that far , the last race is the firs t race and that's the race that's going to mailer. You throw everyth ing else you've done out the window and you jus t race heads-up. Goi ng into that yea r we did that with . Miguel (DuHa mel) . Our first year back, in 1996, we trailed him by, I think , a point going into Las Vegas and I di d n' t mind it. I either wa nt to be head s-up eve n, or a comfo rta ble lead . Tha t in-between stuff I think works at you a lot mor e to where go ing in, if it's pretty eve n, if yo u 're w it hin a poi nt, then it's the one race that yo u really, really have to focus on. Then everything you've d one th rough the yea r, it don 't matter. You're he re, you 've got to do this one race. I like that. I've got no problem go ing into the last race like that. To me it's a relief going in kn owing you're right there for the cha mp ionship. Eve ry thi ng you've do ne through th e year doesn 't mail er. If you can d o that one race, it' s all wo rt h it. All th e work's pa id off . We go t two ou t of three, which really isn' t too bad. Q Q What about next year? A- Really, it' s a bit ea rly to do those things. I kind of 1""\. expected it to be all so rted ou t by now , just becau se the re' s so man y open spo ts. I though t all the manu facturers were really goi ng to get them selves sorted out, but it's draggin g on. It's still kind of all up in the air. I met Mik e Prest on (the new Kawasaki team man ager) a nd we had a pretty good talk at Mid-Ohio, but we hav en 't go t to sit d own and go over all the stu ff and actually see what kind of mon ey they're going to have. Hopefull y, I'll be able to do that next week when I ge t home. I kind of expected all that to be d on e and sorted by now, but it ha sn 't. I guess if Las Vegas wou ldn't have been canceled we would have had an other month of the series. T h ere was a rumor th at you were goi n g to d o so me th ing w ith Ap rilia, po ssib ly a rid er-manager type deal. Does that appeal to you? _ Q Yeah, I want to s tay invo lve d You always thi nk if A aboutdother athingsortosodo. Ithithink. yo uI was to pursu e try in g to rive car me ng basicall y start from grou nd zero and have go t to go throu gh. That's a tou gh deal. You spend so man y yea rs, dedicated so mu ch of your time to ge t to where yo u' re at toda y and to have to leave all tha t and start from scra tch aga in to pursue some thing else, that d oesn 't really appeal to me. I feel I can be, if I'm not a ride r, I still can be very productive as a rid er's consu ltant or do so met hi ng to help ou t some of th e guys coming up here in the Stat es. I would like to have my own team. I think I cou ld do it. Yeah, I tried to talk to Aprilia a little bit , but never really go t a d efini te respons e o r a nswe r fr om th em . I th ou ght that they wou ld sho w a bit of int er est - jus t because th ey're tryin g to push a street bike and I feel that we have the biggest mark et in the wo rld and this would be a goo d spot to pursu e tha t, an d I never really go t a solid response fro m them. I kind of blew that off. An you that like to e in Q Thadtaswouldsaidcard you 'dtohave one.ridYeah, the U.S. they GP a wild neat. compete". the U.S. GP wou ld be bu t be to A given Grandbenea t,justJustjus t tohow ab le staccompete in any Prix to see you k up wi th if the other guys. I suspect it's the same as .when we had the cha nce to d o World Superbike at Laguna . I think for everyone in this padd ock tha t sho uld be yo ur numberone race . Ou r series cou nts, yea h, but when you can go out there and race against the guys that ru n the wo rld, that' s where yo u've go t to prove you rself. Tha t's whe re everyone looks at . If they can do that, you can ge t more offer s an d our series is acknowledged a little hig her u p as far as prod ucing better riders. YOU knew at th e s t art of th e y e a r that y o u wouldn't be do ing Laguna Seca. Bu t given the way our bikes were running, I d idn ' t care too much. Q A Wh at about the Suzuka 8-Hours ? an Q ed aboutcoupleco-rider. rs ago , bu t youYou hadconoffer a of yea were cern your They wa nted me to rid e wit h (Piergiorgio) BonternI wo uld A pi.been tea mhavewith say , have d onYanagawa oldr liked to e it if I cou ha ve ed (A kira ) (Simon) Crafa r. I thought me and Simo n co u ld ha ve do ne a good job beca use we' re fairly close in size and so the set-ups would be very similar . Bon tempi, he's a good rider, bu t he's just a question mark to me so I kind of bowed ou t of it. I wo uldn ' t mind do ing it. I've a lways enjoyed d oin g it, as lon g as yo u get the suppo rt and have a decent bike, it's great. They haven' t asked the last two years . I don ' t know, you talk bad about tha t kind of stuff, you do n't d o it for a while, after a while you miss it. Same with the Gra nd Prix. I've bee n away from it now for a wh ile. I d idn't care abou t it. But now, you 're still wa tching and the guys that you raced wi th are up front now, yo u just wonde r if you can still d o it. You' d like the cha nce, not so mu ch to find a rid e over there to do the whole year, but jus t d o one or two races to see how you stack up with the guys. Have you th about tryi ng Wild Ca of the final O at onewould ought GPs this year?to get ajuggling rd ----That be nic e to d o, bu t that's it. I lIiii III I III .. 2 Q .;, Especially if the Atract over her e.you're in goingmiddl e ofn negotiating a ... con They're to frow on that really .n ~ big as far as a risk . If you' re bickering mon ey-wi se and N you want to go off and do this, you put you rself at risk. ~ I think tha t would be hard to do . That would be neat to , g> do, bu t I don 't think anyone wo uld let you do that. eN « 29

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