Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

FastlJog.com's Will Davis you're going to be the man to beat over anyone else. I mean, here's a guy who is the series champion, and he is talking you up. Size up your competition for 2001. I think that Rich [King] and them [Harley) are going to be better too, but I see problems there. Looking at it, I know what Rich wants, and I know what he needs to go fast, and I don't think that he is getting it. I can look at the way that his motorcycle is working and see that. He and Werner were going to work together, but I can see who's getting what they want over there. Whether they're going to change that this Winter, I don't know, but if he comes out riding [the setups) what he has been riding at the majority of the tracks, then he's going to suffer. That's just my own personal opinion. As far as Chris [Carr], I see where he is going to do a little road racing, so that tells me some things. Hacker is going to be good, and Kopp is going to be good. But I don't really see anyone of the four, or anyone else who steps up, as someone that I've really got to wonry about as long as I go out there and do my job. Are you getting all the tools you need to do your job? And then some. As far as my motorcycles go, I've got the best motorcycles that I've ever had. Last year, we had two motorcycles that were Jjke what I wanted, but my mile bikes were not what I wanted. Then you go into the season, and you find that out, and it's hard to make some of those changes that you need. But by the time we got to the second Springfield [weekend], we did, and we ran the bikes there the way I wanted. And you went on to win your first career Grand National mile, which also happened to be the richest race of the year. A STORY AND PHOTOS By SCOTT ROUSSEAU ometimes it is easy to figure out when you've done something that was way overdue, like interview Will Davis. The last time that we spoke, it was 1996, and Davis was a legitimate challenger for the AMA Grand National Championship while riding for Total Control Racing, and he appeared on the verge of taking his first title. Since then, he has switched rides twice and is still on the verge of taking his first title. Except for a head injury suffered in a bizarre softball accident during the 2000 season, his motorcycles, not Joe Kopp's, might very well be wearing the number one of the Grand National Champion at the season-opening Daytona Short Track. Like in previous years, Davis thinks that he will be a serious contender for the championship, but listening to him this time, it is pretty evident that he firmly believes that he will be champion. It may come from the tone of his voice or the words he chooses, but Davis projects a confidence that is charismatic enough to lead you to believe that he will achieve his goal in 2001. Time will tell, but Will Davis clearly appears to be ready to rock when the green flag drops at Daytona. I've named you as the man in my dirt track preview story this year. If you had to give me reasons why you think that J made the right choice, what would they be? What is it that you showed me last year that makes you think that you're just going to kick everybody's butt? 26 FEBRUARY 28,2001 • cue • _ n I don't know. Maybe you looked at the times in the heat races from everywhere we went, and I was the fastest guy there. That's just plain as day, from Daytona right on through to Lima when it got rained out, to right before I got hurt. I won two before I got hurt, then I came back and won the one right after. Everywhere we went, timewise, I won every heat race and got a holeshot in every race. There wasn't a race that we went to where, when the heat races were over, we were sitting on the back of the truck gOing, "What are we going to do? We've got to catch up to these guys." In years past, that has been the case, but I went over all my notes again and again this Winter, and there was never a race like that. There was that one race at Sedalia when we popped the clutch, and then Vernon, New York, where we blew up the bike that we were good on and then struggled with the other one. We know what we need when we go back. But this is going to be a new year. We've got new stuff, but so does everybody else. You think you were ahead of the curve last year, but not this year? I don't know why not. We aren't changing anything, and last year we were fast enough, plenty fast enough. But you've got to have some luck to win this thing. We missed two races last year, and that's what blew it. But I don't see any reason why we can't be that fast again. J didn't really give a lot of thought to you being champion until J spent some time with Joe Kopp this winter, and he kept saying that he thinks A s Q AYe p. Q And how did that make you feel? You have downplayed your lack of mile victories for years, but even though you suffered severe heat prostration after winning that race, did you even remotely feel like you had gotten a monkey off your back that day? Probably so. I really don't know what the gratification was in winning that race. I never did have to prove anything to myself. It didn't hurt your pocketbook any. (Laughs) That was the best part of all of it. But just to say that I won a mile... This may sound stupid, but I still say that the real race that weekend was on Friday night [Springfield Short Track]. That was where the real riding came in. On the mile, I've led every lap there before except for the checkeredflag lap. This time I led the right one. I just look at mile racing like the Daytona 500, where there are a lot of cars capable of winning and there isn't one of them who can say that if they do their job 110 percent that they're going to win that race. It's just circumstances. No matter how good you've got it set up, there's always someone who can slingshot past you or run it in underneath you. On a half mile or a short track, if you cut a good enough corner, that

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