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/128626
know something by September or so - exactly what our plans will be for next year. So it def in it ely will not be D uca t i. It will definitely not be Ducat i. You have to understand Ducati's situation now. They are a public company , so they have other responsibilities than just winning races . One of those is controlling costs . Racing against Honda, Suzuki, Kawasaki in the world and in the United States is a major financial burden . Ducati has an American rider on the world scene and they probabl y feel that i s good eno ugh exposure for the American market , and they use Ben or whomever they choose to promote their product. You have to un derstand you have a board and the shareho lders want to know what the situa tion is regarding how the stock price goes an d w here it needs to be . T he only th ing yo u can do is either inc rease sales or cut cos ts . I' m sure they are b ac k ed in to a co rne r here and have t o m ak e some serio us cha nges for th e next fou r or five years. Are you te lling me t hat y ou don 't think there will be a Ducati team here next year? I ca n't speak for Duca ti. I don't know exactly wha t they will do for next year. I think they are getting ready to issue a press release outlining their plans for next year as far as thei r involvement. I think it's important for me to go on record as saying that our relationship with Ducati has been , without question, the best relationship we've ever had with any m anufact urer over the years. T hey have been very honest with us and very straightforward . They've done every single thing they committed to doing. It's a tough one for us because we 've really enjoyed working with them and they are great guys. The passion they have for the sport is obvious. Con sider what they do - racing against those other teams like Honda and Yamaha, considering the ir size and how competitive the ir bikes are - and it's pretty incred ible. It goes a long way about how those guys run tha t raci ng de pa rtment . Never, ever have I gone ho me thi nking that I wished I hadn 't do ne the deal with Ducati. They 've go t the best bike ou t there . Since you won 't tell me who you are negotiating with , can you tell me if your new t eam would be in addition to tea m s that are al ready in the series, or would it take ov er an ex isting team? I don 't know tha t yet. We ' ll have t o wait and see. There is a lot of negotiating that has to go down befo re those things come to comp letion. Here at Vance f, Hines, we want to be in a position where we can w in races and win cha mpionships. That's the main goal for us - regardless of what other things go on . When we signed with Ducati , we tried to stay completely away from the relationship that they had with [Era ldo] Ferracci. That wasn't our business. They called us , they wanted us to race their bikes and that's what we did. From a busin ess sta ndpoi nt , aren't ther e better bran ds than Duc ati for you t o be involved with? I don 't know if that 's the case or not. For starters, the Ducati is a very neutral bike. A lot of people like Ducatis no matter if they are Japanese bike guys or Harley fans. It's pretty neutra l. Really, for us , with the size of our company , the most impor tant thing is to expose t h e brand , and the brand is Vance f, Hines. Whether we use one kind of bike o r another isn't that critical because it doesn 't directl y rel at e to this exac t pro du c t sa le . W h at it m ean s is th at we're goi ng to ge t ex posure fo r th e Va nce f, Hines b rand and th at ' s re all y what we' re t r yin g t o do wi t h eve ry ave n ue of racing w e ' r e invol ved in - whe the r it is Pro Stock drag racing, Top Fuel Harley -D avid son s, or our road raci ng . Which form of the sport in which you 're involved brings you the most exposure? T hat 's a reall y hard q uestion because all three of our si tuatio ns have televis i o n ex p os u re. I thi nk the AMA program br in gs us a lot of exposure becau se it has a de dicated televi sion pr ogram solely for it . T ha t is a very big package tha t hopefully we will be able to co nti nue . I wo ul d say tha t the AMA package is defini te ly u p th ere. It j us t de pe n ds on what kind of fan you are . We want people to un der stand that we have quality products and that we're involved in racing at all different levels. That's wh at is helping us grow. Agai n , w ithout k n owin g your p lans for next year - I t ak e it t here could also be the possibility f o r mo re exposu re t hrough Vance & Hines runni ng other cl as ses . Absolutely. That's also someth ing that we 're considering and trying to decide on . Obviously, for us - me and Jim Leonard - we want to race at the top level. That's certainly im port ant to us. Where do you st an d w ith Steve Rapp at this point? First of all, I think his crew has done a g reat job for him this year. His bike has be en very fast and well prepared and they 've done a fantastic job . I thoug ht that las t year he lacked tha t - as far as sup port goes - and that's one o f the rea so ns why I signed h i m . We ' re a little disappointed th at h i s results haven 't been be tter, but we ' re try ing to get h im to und erstand what he need s to do to ste p up to the next lev el. He's had a fe w to ugh br ea k s - th at ho rrific cras h at Road America and the pro bl em at Br ainerd. He was on th e front ro w and had a horribl e start and work ed real hard and then ha d a tire p roblem. I think by the time we get to Willow he' ll be looking rea lly good . I think h e needs to be more aggressive in the beg inn ing and ge t the results earlier in the year. There are only so many seats ava ilable for these superbike guys. You have to get the job done, especially when you're on a D u c a t i because everybody knows the bike is good. Is picking and choosing rid ers , and ultimately si g ni ng them to contracts, one of the mo re diffi cu lt pa rts of being a te am owner? That's one of the things lowe to Anthony [Gobert] . Before Anthony came to Vance f, Hines, we never really had an ybody on a permanent basis Colin [Edwards] was with us , but he was still young . Anthony came to us as a World Superbike winner and he really helped people recognize that we could support the program as professionally as anybody and keep the bike out front. If you look at our program in 1999, we were on the front row with both bikes at eve ry single race we entered. I think for us, rider-w ise, we wa nt t o be in th e pos ition to get the best g uys we ca n get, but obviously that d epend s on th e budgets. If you have the budget, you ca n m ak e a lot of th ing s hap pen . If you don' t have the Hond a bu dget , you j ust have to deal with it and p lay yo u r cards the best you can . What do you think about the doubleheader weekends? Is it cost effective t o have two rac es at one round , rather than make two trips? Absolutely, but the bottom line is that you're working the c rews t o death . If you take the Honda guys , they have the Superb ike and Supersport team - they're running non-stop from the time they get to the track . It's reall y hard on 'em. As a fan, I love the double races. I think it's the greatest thing in the wo rld, beca use you get to see racing on Saturday and Sunday. But, I th ink they need to sp rea d them out - instea d of hav ing three d oubles ri g ht in a row . That' s j ust mu rd er. You can't carry enough engines in you r transporters to even support those eve nts. Yo u look at Lagun a, we had to pu ll out early afte r Saturday to ge t to M id ·Ohio. If th ey could spread the m out a little bit, it would m ak e it way bet ter on the t eam s. You've been around this block many times for many years . Is there anything you would like to see done differently at the AMA Nationals? I thin k th e sport is do in g well, bu t I wou ld like to see th e season le ngth en ed a li ttle bit , so th e races hav e a little bit m o re d ista nce betw een them . I thi nk Speedvi sio n has do ne a great job, and I'd like t o see th at p rom ot ed a li ttle b it m o re. O ne of th e th ings I th in k th at is a m istake is th at they promote the 600 races as highly as the Superbike races, and I think tha t' s a mistake. I'd like to see the AMA say t h at there w ill be no contracted factory rid ers in Supersport - and just have those guys in Superbik e. I think it would elevate the status of the class and the fan base. Peop le wou ld be able .to watch and rea lize which is which, and realize that the stars are in the Superbik e class. So would the factory teams support a 600cc Supersport guy, or not at all? I think the factories should use satellite teams to support that cla ss - a lot like Honda has done with Er ion Racing. T hat way that 's just a Super sp ort team and the factory takes ca re of Superbik e. But I also know that the 600s are rea lly important to th e fac tories w hen yo u loo k at ma rket share. It' s some thing that t hey have to be involved in , but I do n' t kn ow tha t th ey h a ve t o h a ve N icky [H a yd enj o r Miguel [Du Hamel] on 600s. I thi nk it's just a m atter of wan tin g th eir bi kes to wi n, but if they co uldn 't get those g uys to ride them an d they had some sup po rt g uys, th e cream of the crop would still rise to the top . And you always thought that Ducati should have been permitted to race i n the 600cc Supersport class with the 748 ... From the beginning , I thought they should . But they [the AMAj slammed that door so hard it wasn't even worth try ing to open it. I think they should try to get as many different bikes as they can in that class - not just Japanese inline fours . But that's the AMA's deal. I think they've dropped the ball on a lot of th ings th is year - and I've always been on their team , pulling for them , an AMA sup porter. I think Ron Barrick and Merrill [Vanderslice] do a good job, but they are just overloaded . There is so many th ings that are demanded of them and they are stretched too thin and need to have some people thinking about stuff down the road instead of just going event to event. In closing .. . A Well, I thin k in closi ng with the Ducati thi ng it's importa nt to say th at th ey ' ve been great to us an d we 'v e done eve r ythi ng we can for th em and th at 's tha t. I th in k I k now why they are do ing what they are do ing, bu t that's up to them to say. CN cue I e n e _ S • AUGUST 16, 2 0 00 31