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McWilliams ca me into ra c ing in the 500c c class, riding a YZR Yama ha - not a Roc or a Harris, but one of the o nly fac tory bikes that ha d esca ped into private hands , t houg h far fro m th e la te s t m od e l. He stayed with Team Millar until 1996, by when he was on a Roc, with a best finish in 1995 of seventh in France. When he left, it was on good terms . "I'm one of the old school: he said. "I've never had to bring money to a team to get a ride. I always had a justifiable wage, and always done okay , as a privateer. I'm not at the top of the ladder in terms of IQ, but I'm cleve r enough to know how to keep the sponsor and the team manager happy . I've only ever left a team when I felt I'd reached the boundary of what could be achieved there . Joe Millar and I are still good friends ." The move was to join another Ulster team , run out of Belsta ff with the support of Queens University Belstaff (QUB), long-time racing fans, with an interest in research and development of two -stroke eng ines . For two years , he rode a Honda, with a memorab le best resu lt of second in the first-ever German GP at the Sa chsenring in 1998. But he kept bumpi ng up against the problem of his age . That, and his unfashionable nationality. That , he told me then, was why his request for a factory NSR Honda was tu rned down in 1998, and again in 1999. "l had the wrong passport, and the wrong date of birth. It wasn't because of bad results or a lack of abili ty : he sa id. Now , he still thinks the same way . "I don't think I'm blowing my own tru mpet when I say I think I've proved I can ride any bike, and be a contender for the championship." That was his hope last year, when the team finall y left Honda in frustration to take over one of tho s e semi -works Aprilias that occu py a gray area of mechanical virtue , somewhere below the full factory m a c h in e s b ut su ppos edly somewhere a bove the bikes yo u ca n bu y over th e counter. As is often th e wa y, the b ikes turne d o ut to need a fai r bit of sorting b efore th ey a chieved re lia bility , a nd te nth overa ll with a best fin is h of third in Holland a nd fourth in Ital y were rath er d isappointing . At th e e nd of th e year, he left the te am , far from certain wh at h e would do next. "Aga in, I left be c ause I'd reached the boundaries," he admits . "The team had got a fast ma chine , but they still had to fund everything themselv e s . There wasn 't an y bitterness about my deci sion . For m y part, I needed to see who else was inte reste d in me." And now came a lucky break. At about the sa me tim e , English marketing entrepreneur Martin Wilding was putting togeth e r a c o m ple x deal bring ing th e prom ise of terrestrial TV c ove ra ge of GPs in Brita in, if there co uld be a British rider in the 500c c cla ss . Various other plans invo lving Chris Walker on an Erv Kanemoto -run Honda o r with Modenas ca me to n ot h in g . Now , wi th a bit o f h e lp fr om Dorn a ( ru more d to have pa id a hefty s lice of m o ne y to Aprilia to s ecure the dea l), J e remy became the second ride r for Aprilia's ligh twe ight V-twin . "I was al re ady tal king to Aprili a. They had offered me a World Su perb ike ride o n th e ir V-twin . That was quite te mpting. because the bike had m ade a good debut with a not particularly good ride r. I was also look ing at the cha nce of riding a factory 250 , and I was at a meeting at the factory in Noale in Decem ber whe n the 500 op portu nity ca me up . I took it, be c a use every ride r wa nts to be in th e 500 c lass - it is the pre m ie r class. I still love 250s thou gh. " At first , McWilliams was the ju nior in the team - if for no other reason th an that he ha d s igned up late , when the fac tory's pla ns we re already well adva nced around ju st one rider, Harada. "At Aprilia, everyone gets the same, whether they are doing well or not. But I only got the new 2000 chassis for the Spanish GP, because they only started building it late." By then, he was already giving Ha ra d a a hard time . "At first, he and I didn 't get on too well. Now we do - he and his wife are a really nice couple. I can understand how he felt at first. I'd have been a bit put out if I'd been in his position ." As to the way he 's been beating him , amassing 54 points and two rostrums in I0 ra ce s and six finishes, while Harada ha s got only 2 6 points in five finishes , and a best of ninth place (in Catalunya, the only time he's beaten Jeremy), McWilliams is bo th ple ase d a nd not so happy . "You r te am m a te is always the first pe rso n yo u wa nt to be a t , because that's yo u r ya rdstick - how yo u m easure yo ur own pe rform ance . I've been s urpr ised with Harada . I e xpecte d to have a hard time with him. My goal wa s a lway s to be faster than him , and then see wh at he did . "I think he ha s made it e a s ier for me . If c ours e , I've got a lot m or e to prove than he has . And th is is a season when a co up le of tenths of a second make the difference between th e front row and the second or th ird . "So m et im e s I feel disappointed for Tetsuya . I'd prefer for him to do bette r - for April ia , as much as for himself. Whe n th e 250s do badly and one or both of us doesn 't get a good result. yo u feel bad fo r the Aprilia famil y. A lot ha s to do with confidence. When a rider believes in hims e lf, the confide nc e just grows and yo ur performanc e with it. The oppos ite has been happening for him ." Wha t about t h e b ik es - t h e new a nd th e old? McWilliams d e scribed how the o rigin al ma chine he ra ce d was more like a 250 - as yo u'd ex pect, si nc e the concep t was always develo ped a s a so rt of "super-250", while the ne w chassis and moto r a re a step away from that, to a bike that exists on its own te rms. "I think there's still a lot of potential with the Vtw in concep t ," McWilliams said . "T he new bi ke is getting bette r every race . They 've put in a lot of effo rt. Th e engine is differe nt, with a st ronge r c ra n kcase a nd gea rbox , and the c hassis is lig hte r a nd shorter - very different geometry, with a s ho rte r wheelbase . The weight d istribution is the ma in differe nce, with le s s weight transfer a nd better re a r gri p than th e old one . You can go in deepe r o n th e brakes, when you get the balance right. It's something we' re still working on. "To use the Aprilia 's power, you need the bike shorter for better grip. Though the increased traction does give you more of a p ro blem with wheeliei ng , especially when you' re using a short gearbox at a tighter track like Donington or the Sachsenring . T hat' s to d o with the na ture of the powe r - m or e to rquey a nd less revvy than a V-four. "Ha nd ling wise, it feels a lot quicker than a Vfour. Thoug h you can't compare it with the V-fo ur I had, which is nothing like the V-fours are now . I like it - my style is high corner speed and big lean ang les , so I su ppose it s uits me." While we are speaki ng, his two sons come in from playi ng around outsi de the m oto rho m e on parke d scooters . Both are blond , c u rly a nd c ute - J ack is si x, Za k jus t two . McWill iams ' wife Jill , a lso f-,"om Be lfa st, is ready with a plate of pasta. What is it like , I wonder ed , to go GP ra cing with yo u r full family ? "I c a n 't see how it would be e asier to le av e them a t home to go racing," says McWilliams. "They - the boy s - don 't see my jo b or thi s life as anything spe c ia l. It's just normal for them - a nd we keep it as normal as we c a n. Just an ordin ary fam ily that screams and shouts sometimes , a nd does all the normal family th ings. We make a point of c ooking the famil y meal in the motorhome , rather than going to the team hospitality. "We fly back and forth from Belfast during the season - a friend dr ives the motorhome for me . Even when I go te s ting , the family usually c omes with me. I've been very , very luc ky - I often th ink that if I had a nine -to-five jo b I'd see less of m y fa m ily than I do now ." McW illiams is far from ready to retire . but with the future o f the 5 0 0 c c twin perenn ia lly un c ertain , is als o no t s u re wh at he will do ne xt yea r. "I' m rea lly ha ppy wh er e I am, with the team a s it is , and as I said I th ink the 50 0 s till has a lot of p ot e nti a l. If April ia wa nts t o run t h e 500 V-t win again , I'd like to be on it." Another op tion would be a move to the Superbike team , to which he is not necessarily a ve rs e - since there might be a World Championship o n the tabl e the re . "T he d e c isi o n t im e is getting c lose , bu t a t th e m om ent I'm not s u re where I will be," was a ll he could say . "But I think I've pr oved , as I said befo re , th at I hav e the a bility and th e at titu de to be a serious contender for the c ha m pio ns hip. " CN cue I e n e _ so • AUGUST 16. 2000 39