Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Interview The fir.. . . By Henny Ray Abrams here was no offense meant; the fan was just trying to make s mall talk while Doug Chand ler pen ned his dis tinctive sig nature, and the nu mber , ,, '1 10, to the pos ter he was hand ed , "Is this you r last yea r?" the fan asked , a question Cha nd ler himself pon dered after last season, and one which others ha ve asked, especially in ligh t of his subpar early se a so n a nd the turmoil su r ro u n d ing hi s Mu zzy Kawasaki team. "No, I want to win that fou rth cha mpionship," the soo n- to- be 34-yea r-old th re e-time AMA Su perb ike Champion repli ed , and his recent results prove that he jus t rnigh t. > If it seems tha t Dou g Chand ler has been around forever, that' s because he has. Thin k of this: He was the Dirt Track Rookie of the Year in 1983 an d began roa d racing a yea r later . The road he's taken began wi th Honda and moved to Kawasaki - where he earned his first Superbike title in 1990. Like fellow Superbike Champions Wa yne Rainey, Eddie Lawson and Bubba Shobert, Chandler was d rawn to Europe w here he go t his feet wet riding a Yama ha YZR500 in a lo w -press ure t eam owned by Ken n y Roberts. The Lucky Strike Suzu ki tea m sna tched him up to be Kevin Schwa ntz's teammat e the next year, a nd that rid e led to two years on the Cag iva, wh ere he was handsomely paid to ride a d eepl y flawed mot orcycle. When Cag iva pulled ou t after the 1994 season, Chand ler came hom e to America, hom e to Salina s, Californ ia, where he was born and still liv es with his w ife a nd three child ren . H om e to rid e an Am eri can ico n, a Harley-Davidson. Hurt at the first race in Dayt ona, and a t a subseque nt test a t Laguna Seca, Chandler never go t a chance to work with the Harley team as much as he would have liked . When the vear ended, he went back home, on ce aga in, ba ck to Rob Mu zzy and the Kawa saki team where he'd earn ed his first and only title in 1990. It was as if he 'd never leTt. He brou ght the title back in 1996 and '97, and was in cont enti on at the final race in 1998 before a motor pr oblem derailed his bid for an unpreced ented fourth title. The 1999 seaso n has been traumatic. Before the seaso n started, Chandler let the team know he was unhappy with the pace of development and so me personnel issu es and threat en ed to wa lk ou t. Th e team sta rted wi th a handicap and didn't recover until Loudon , the co ntrovers ial New Hampsh ir e track w he re Ch andler wo n his firs t race in over two yea rs. The next wo uld come soo ner, only a few wee ks late r at Mid-Oh io, convincing any one who thought he was beyond winning th at th ey were w ro ng, n ot th at he pa ys th em mu ch a ttention. To say that Dou g Chandler is not a very d emon strative sort is a gross understatement. Friends make fun of his laissez-faire attitude, his imperturbable equa nimity; nothing seems to faze him. If yo u want to ge t him excited, as k him ab out his toys or his cars or his kid s. At Brainerd he proudly di spl ayed an im p ress ive s tack of phot os th a this nine-year-old so n Jett had shot on a recent off-road exped ition. We spoke at Brain erd, whe re the Kawasaki, for all th e improvements in handling, was no mat ch for the field . Cha ndler was never comfortable and strugg led to a LOth-place finish . With onl y one race remainin g, he's fourth in the cha mpionship, with no possibili ty of moving higher, and not mu ch likelihood of being cau gh t. For a rider who's used to winning, fourth jus t d oesn't do it. Q 28 You want to wi n ano ther champ ion ship . I I Yeah, I that's the whole of wa to continue. It's still fu n. ha vin g good tim A ther e ridthinkthe races. I'm still pointtheaendn tinglaste of out ing But toward year, I felt we had a good cha nce to go and ge t that fourt h champio nship, but it di dn 't happen. I was pr ett y d isappoint ed with tha t. I thou gh t we lost a rea l good op po rtu nity, and I thi nk if I wo uld ha ve d on e that , I d on't think my push or my d esire to race wo uld have been that high, at the time. Now tha t we're into this season, struggling with the first part to be competitive, and then once finally ge tting competitive, I realized it's d efinit ely given me the motivation to try to win tha t fourth championship - so tha t's ul timately wha t I'd like to d o. T h iS is th e first time in four years that you're actu ally out of it this late in the season. I don 't like being in this pos itio n, bu t it' s actually a lot easier, just because you don 't have the pressure of ha vin g to finis !l, wo rry ing about those othe r guys. Basically, yo u've just go t to go out there and try to win. Noth in g el se reall y matter s. It' s th e only o p tio n we have. It's a lot eas ier. So wha t; just go ou t there and give it yo u r best. If we wo u ld ha ve been in the fro n t th is year, it' s so mu ch mor e s tress ful. I kn ow. I can see it in Mat's (Mladin) face. [ know bein g in that situa tion final. ly for the first time, it's eatin g him up. It just does. It ate at me for th e last three yea rs . It 's just bein g in co ntention for the cham pions hip. Q A Q A Where did this "?" go. wrong? l think we jus t wer e slack righ t at the start. At Daytona you need som e speed, a nd we d e fin it el y d idn' t ha ve speed th ere. And it never really came. I mean thi ngs go t better her e and there, but we reall y didn't have any thing to wo rk wit h, SO all we could was go ou t ther e and d o some chassis stu ff. We definitely have a bett er motor cvcle. I think we have one of the better-h andling bikes ou t ther e tod ay. When that's all you can d o, that ' s the only thin g yo u can reall y go after. No w w e're fina lly ge tting so me parts, so the speed's coming. I sti ll don' t think we' re where we need to be. We were pretty for tu nate, I th in k, the last two wer e mor e of a technical type, rider's ty pe of track, no t so much horsepower tracks . We s howed good ther e jus t because I think all the work prior to that in the chassis paid off. So we came her e (Brai nerd) - I still think we sho uld be pret ty close, but it's going to be tou gh against those guys - th e Du ca tis are fast . I ran wi th Ant ho ny (Gobe rt) a little bit yes terday an d it was like, 'Wow: It'd jus t be nice to hav e so me thing tha t's running a little . bit better. w as there some point where you rea lized the championship was ou t of reach? At Atlanta I knew we we re out for su re wh en we DN F'd . Prior to that, at th e s ta r t of the ye a r, I thought this is just a wipe-ou t. Daytona wa s di sastrous and Phoeni x we sho u ld n' t ha ve don e that bad. I think w e h ad d ampner g o ing b ad o n u s o r so me th ing, because it jus t wouldn' t steer. Our result was way back th ere, w hic h it sho ul d n' t ha ve been . So me times yo u ha ve troubles like that. I almos t pulled in thinking we had major , major problems. But I went ahead and just circu lated and circu lated and finished . Q A

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