Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128365
It would be somewhat of an understatement to suggest that Team Yamaha motocross manager Jim Perry has undergone a few trials and tribulations as the THQ AMA Supercross season has unfolded. With team superstar Chad Reed winless thus far into the 200S campaign and no Yamaha riders making a 12Scc West podium either, the blue crew may not exactly be in disarray, but it seems far away from the happiness it enjoyed while Reed was whipping up on the competition in 2004. We chatted with Perry at Press Day just prior to Anaheim III to get his take on the current climate at Team Yamaha. cn: How would you assess the performance of the Yamaha teams so far this season, both the factory team and the support team? jimperry: I think we've had our hands full. We've had a couple of struggles. Obviously the first race didn't go the way that we wanted, but we have been making progress, and things seem to be turning around, and we're getting there. It 12 was a little bit of a bummer having Tim Ferry get hurt, but Heath Voss has stepped up, and he is riding the fourstroke really well, and he is having some good finishes. cn: With all of the preparation that Team Yamaha went through and that Chad Reed went through. are you surprised that Yamaha has not recorded a win yet? jimperry: For sure. I mean, I think if you would have asked anybody how they thought that first race was going to go, they wouldn't have said that it would go the way that it went. You know we've been close. We didn't get the best start at Phoenix, and that jacked Chad up a little bit. He had a chance to win Anaheim II, and then he had a small mistake. He led [San Francisco] for a couple laps. I think it will only be a matter of time before he gets that first win. cn: There was some stuff going around on the Internet that you have complained about the lack FEBRUARY 16, 2005 • CYCLE NEWS of difficulty in the tracks. Are you aware of this? jimperry: No, and it's not true. The tracks are the same for everybody. Some weeks they are easier, and some weeks they are harder, and they are always changing. It has nothing to do with anything that I have said or that we [Yamaha] have said. Anaheim I was a wash, but then when you look at the next three tracks, they were almost the same as they were the last three years. [Editor's note: Cycle News checked with AMA motocross manager Steve Whitelock. who backed up Perry's claim that neither Perry nor any other Yamaha official had complained to him about the design of any of the tracks thus for.] cn: We're already a quarter way through the Supercross season. Looking forward. what challenges do you see Team Yamaha facing as we move Into the second quarter? jimperry: We just need to get back on form. It seems like our guys are all riding well. We spent some time at the test track [after San Francisco], and things are coming around. We just need to chip away, take a win when we can get it, and chip away at [Carmichael's] points lead.