Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Rider of the Year Valentino Rossi months with Jerry going in and know ing what the bike needed to be and how it needed to be to get the most for Valentino to help him the most . And that certainly was a huge benefit to Yamaha. To be able to say whether Valentino would've been World Champion or not without it, you never know. But for sure, it cut that whole development program in half, Without a doubt. Jerry knew, and Valentino, too, but they knew what they needed to win. They knew what they were going to be competing against. And that 's priceless. Garry Taylor Maybe, I'm just guess ing, but maybe [factory influence] comes with a price tag. Maybe there's someone clever enough at Yamaha to say, "We're paying him this much money, we ought to liste n to him." Do n't forget the crew. He's got the most succes sful crew, especially crew chief, GP racing's ever seen. It' s all a package. Who's to say which is the strongest and weakest part of the package? Because if you don't have the whole package, you don't get the win. Kenny Roberts Sr. [Honda] has always had the same problem in my op inion, and I've said this a hundred times. They 've got six bikes out there, six different ways to make it proper. They don't have a guy like Valentino who can put it on the rostrum every time, that's what they don't have. Freddie Spencer I think without a doubt, and the same I always said with Erv [Kanemoto], that it's a 50-50 thing. I think with Jerry [Burgess] know ing exactly what Valentino needed , they probably shortened up the development by six 28 JANUARY 5 ,2005 • CYCLE NEWS Kenny Roberts Sr. I think he [Rossi] could do that with a lot of peo ple, but you have to have the tru st in your people that work on it. I had that with Kel [Carruthe rs]. If Kel said, "Man this is a pro blem," Isaid, "Don't wo rry about that, do this, do this, do this." And we just had that trust , where [Rossi] has that with Burgess. If they lost Burgess, he still has the talent and still has what it takes to tell everybody. If that trust disappears, when you're leading the race and you think, "I should cool it a little bit," that's a second and a half a lap. When you still have the same talent , you still have the motorcycle, the tires are still okay. You think, "Ishould coo l it a little bit," it' s a second and a half a lap. A trust thing is very important. Freddie Spencer I think without a doubt the way he approac hes the race, he seem s to have a plan. It's something I always tried to do, when I was at the top , was going into the race, knowi ng exactly what you were going to do . Knowing your competition, where they' re weak , where they 're strong . Knowing how the bike's going to work with a full fuel load, when the tires are good, when they go away. And his ability to change and adapt to the conditions. Kevin Schwantz Looking at consistency, looking at all the times that he does , even when he's not the fastest guy on the track . Everybody knows, nine times out of 10. he's the most consistent guy out there. That's what I used to do . I used to say,"Well, okay, Wayne's [Rainey] faster this weekend, but in that session he only did two of those laps that were that fast. He wasn't eight or nine or 10 laps within half a second of that . He only did really two quick ones and was about three-quarters of a second off that consistently." You can really tell a lot by loo king at those time sheets. Kevin Schwantz I just think he's got more want than anybody out there right now. He just seems to try every time he's on the motorcycle. To what I see in him, I just see more des ire and more want than most of the guys out there have. That's strictly speak ing from a distance. I'd go to some Grands Prix, but I didn't go to any since Ge rmany. And that's probably more a Suzuki-based answer than it is across the board. The more I sit and loo k at it, I think that's the scenario everywhere.

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