Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

I"erry lIance By PAUL CARRUTH ERS PH OT O S BY HENN Y R A Y ABR AM S t' s rare when you 're midway through an interview and th e interviewee drops a bombshell. Right out of th e blue. Wh en I pos ed a sim ple question to Terry Vanc e, I figured I'd get a sim ple answer. I did . But it wasn 't the one I was exp ecting. " Hey , Terry , what's up for ne xt y ear? " Simpl e enough. Th en the shoe fell . "Th is will be th e last year that Van ce & Hines and Ducati will work to gether: Van ce said , rather non ch alantl y . It 's true. Just like that, you can scratch th e Ducati from behind the words Vance & Hines. Th ere is no m ore Vance & Hines Duc ati. Vanc e & Hines HarleyDavid son ? Vance & Hine s Yamaha? Vance & Hin es Suzuk i? Van c e & Hin es Hond a ? Va nc e & H in e s Kawa sak i? Van c e & Hines Aprili a? Now it see ms that any of these are a po ssib il it y . Va nce & Hines Du cat i? For get abo ut it . A ft er a fo ur-yea r rela tio n sh ip with the Itali an marque, Van ce & Hines wi ll race .with a different brand next year. Wh at brand ? Well , that rema ins to be seen. Although th e pairing never won an AMA Super bik e title, Vance & Hines Du ca ti won pl enty of race s. Starting slowly with Thomas Stevens as the team 's only rid er in 1997, the team put it self on the ma p in 1998 with the arri va l of Au stralian A nthony Gobert. Gobert gave the team th ree AMA Superbike wins in '98 and also caused a bit of tu rm oil when both the I 30 AUGUST 16, 2000 ' cu e I e n e FIM and th e AMA suspended h im after he tes ted p os it i v e fo r m ar iju ana . Van ce, how ever, beli ev ed eno ugh in Gobert to give him a second chance, and in 199 9 the Au ssie retu rned , j oined by defe n din g AMA Sup erb i ke Champion Ben Bo strom . T he team was hot - red ho t - winnin g six AMA Sup erb ik e Na ti onal s (w i t h b oth bi k e s qualifying on the front row fo r ea ch and eve ry round - wi th the exception of Gob ert 's no sho w at th e fina l round ) during the season and both legs of th e U.S. rou nd of th e World Supe rbi ke Ch ampio n sh i p at La gu n a Sec a. A nd B o strom came up just sho r t in his attempt to win the A M A Superb ik e ti tle . T he Gob ert er a b r ou g h t p l en t y of h ighs, matc hed by p lent y of lo ws to the Vance & Hines team. T his year, th ings didn 't g et any easier when Bostrom wa s sn atched awa y by th e fac t ory to co m pete in World Supe rbike , replaced by Tro y B ay liss , wh o was also l ate r sna tc he d awa y b y t he b ig t e a m. What Vanc e ha s end ed up with is St eve Rapp and J ohn Kocinsk i, th e latter another one who has brought p lenty of ups and downs to the tea m . Th e beat goes on. Or at le ast that 's what w e learn ed when we sat down and chatted with Vanc e, cl ueless as to the bombshell he was read y to ann ounce. From the outside looking in , this appears t o be a rather strange season fo r Vance & Hines Duca ti. Yo u l o s e B en Bos t rom , y o u get Tro y Bayliss, you l ose Troy Bayli ss , you get John Kocinski... I think , em otionall y , there ha ve been very highs and there have been very lows. It all goes bac k to [Anthon y) Gobert . If everything would have gon e well with him, he wou ld have end ed up on the factory t eam with [Carl l Foga rt y . A nd B en [B o st ro m ] would still be here racing for us th is ye ar and we 'd p robably ha ve Ben and [Troy ] Bay liss or Ben and [Ste ve] Rapp. So th ings co uld have been co m ple tely different , but th ey weren 't. Bay li ss en de d u p her e when Ben went there - to World Superbikes - and we were reall y happy wit h T roy . He's a grea t gu y with a great attitude and a ton of tal ent. We reall y antici pated that w e'd win a lo t of ra ce s. Unfortunately , things wo rk ed out for th e factory and I understand why they did - and I think th ey did th e right thi ng . T ro y is a big t alent and obviously the wo rld sce ne is a lot more important than the U.S. is. And then came Koci nski. Q A Q A VIl's W hen we signed John , w e thoug ht we would have a good shot of winning j us t about every race we went to , but unfortunately w e co u ldn't get th e b ik e set up the wa y he need ed it , and we've been st ruggling . I th ought for sure w e 'd start w in n in g races wi th John . I th ink that wa s naiv e on m y part because yo u can not underestimate these guys in the A M A - Ml ad in , Du Ham el , Ni cky [ Ha yden ]. Th ese gu y s are great riders, and you 're not just go ing to throw so m eb od y on th e bike a nd g o w hip ' em . Bayl iss got he re fro m riding a Ducati with Du nlop s, so he knew th e story and he was pr ett y much up to speed when he got he re. In fa irn ess t o John, it takes time to get up t o spe ed . I th ink J ohn is goin g pr etty go od now , so h opefull y we ' ll be all ri ght in thes e next tw o races. T here are rumors indica ting that K ocinski may not be at those last two race s .. . don 't see why he wouldn 't be at those races. Q AI Well , what about his con cerns regarding tires - after his problem at B rainerd? I ask ed h im abo ut that last ni gh t , th at some b od y ha d wri tt en th at h e wou ldn 't do t h i s or th at. I to ld h im , 'John, let' s squa re up on tha t so we' re on the same page.' I tol d h im that D unl op has been a sponsor of m in e fo r the las t 12 years and they are going to continue to be a sponsor of m ine, hop efully . I to ld him th at they will give us th e tires they choose, no t wha t we tell 'em. A ll the AMA guys ge t the same tires. I asked him if that was a problem an d he said , ' A bsolutely not .' Let 's see , Anthony Gobert, John Kocinski... late ly i t seems that Van ce & H i nes has become the haIfway house for trouble road racers. T hat' s what J im Leona rd say s all th e tim e - that he shoul d put his psych iatric sig n hanging out front. It seems th er e are always so me issues with these riders . That' s wh y Ba y li ss w as suc h a great thing an d a breath of fr esh ai r. He had a great atti tude and was a great guy. An d he cou ld go reall y fast. It's toug h. The situ ation with J ohn is that he has a certain way of look in g at thi ngs and doing things, and I can 't c hang e that. It 's j ust like the situation with Gob ert . A ll we can do is ha ve the best b ik e we ca n pos sib le gi ve th em and pu t out 150 pe rce nt. If th ey don 't appreci at e that or do n 't thi nk we're do in g a good job, I can 't fix that. YOU liked Gobert a lo t , even though he let you down during his tenure with the team . Would you ever consider taking him ba ck? l don 't know th at I would ever say never to him. I think if Anthony made so me changes in his life. I th ink it' s rea ll y im porta nt to know that I have always been a fan of Anthony 's. I th ink he's a good guy. I th ink he 's made some m istakes, and I feel bad fo r him because he has so m e p ro b lems. He has a few th in g s h e ha s to wor k out. M y ow n father had some of those same p rob lem s and he had to work th rough th em , an d I understa nd how hard it is on A nthony. I don 't know wh at I would do in the future , bu t definitely th is y ear I wouldn't even co nsi der it. I th ink I'd have to see some ma jor cha nges in Antho ny 's l ife and I' d hav e to k now for a fa ct before I wo u ld even co nsi der it. E ven th en p eo pl e wou ld probabl y th in k I' m crazy , bu t I li ke Anthony . I th ink he 's a good guy, and I think he 's got gob s and gobs of talent. T ell me about next year . What's the sit uation with the te am? Do y ou have a contract with Ducati ye t for 2001? No . This year - 20 00 - will be th e las t yea r that Vance & Hines and Du cati wo rk to gether. We have two de als working r ight now with two other com panies th at we 're talk ing with about p roviding the serv ices like we do with Du cati. We just have to wait and see how those things pan out . Hopefull y , I'll A Q A Q A

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