Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

dreamed I' d be do ing . For m e to bow out beca use I d idn 't reach the goal I wanted, screw road racin g, th e roa d raci ng community and the m ot orc ycling com m uni ty , it's kind of li ke taking all y o ur to ys and go ing ho me becau se yo u didn't get wh at yo u wanted . So God has helped me to see, ' Hey , is there something else there that I'm missing?' I can learn to do j ust about anything . I'm not stupid and I work pretty hard . I never dr eamed I would do this , so maybe there's something else here that I nev er dreamed I wo uld do eith er. Maybe run a team , I don 't know. "I just want to ride . I don 't know wh at I will do next yea r. I'm here t ry ing to fin d th at o ut. I' m trying to see if th ere is some thi ng there th at I ca n do. I do k now that wha tev er it is, I'll be able to enjoy it instead of j ust getting all m y toy s and leav ing . I just want one m or e try . Le t m e get back to the basic s: I like to rid e. I lik e m otorc ycl es. Construc tion work I ca n do , I c an m ake money out of it, and I can do a lot of other things, but motorcycling I like. I know that Mike Smith became a monster be cause he was afraid to lose wha t I really liked to do. " Oh, the pri ce of stardom . "A t th e time, it m eans a lot, but you don 't want to act like it does ," he said . "You do n't want people to see you focusing on it. The way I did it was like, 'Yeah, it' s no big deal , man.' But you know. You 're walk ing around in Tokyo becaus e you ride motorcycles. Especially when you 're dad has to ld you , 'Boy, take that m otorcycle and get rid of that thing. Get you a job. Get you a real job. Don 't be mes sing with that junk . All that's going to do is waste your m oney .' My mom and dad were both school teachers. Who would have ever dreamed that you could make a dime racing, much less make a living? You 're living a dream and you try to kee p doing that. I put a lot of pressure on guys like [Rob] Muzzy and [Er aldo] Fer racci, and even Honda . A nd yo u treat your family like crap too ." What Mike Smith would like is a Superbik e rid e fo r 200 I . His current team, D oc Sh o p j B eaud ry Motor sports , wou ld also like a crack at th e big time. Whether or not it happens remains to be seen but, even at 32, Smith has proven him self to stil l be a capable racer. In ad dition to his Pro T hunder exploits this seaso n, he 's also fi lled in admirably for the pas t few ye ars when Superbike teams need him . He 's ridden th e fa ctory Harl ey -D avidson , and he wa s there wh en Te rry Van ce needed him last y ear to fill in for Anthony Gob ert on the factory Ducati. One thing that is m issing in his ca reer is an AMA Sup erb ike Nat ional victory. You get the sense that he'd really like o ne more crack at it. "I wo uld like to go back to Superbike raci ng , but I'd li k e to go back and be able to enjoy it ," Smith said . " T h e peac e th at I want c o m es from being a b le to appreci ate life and the th ings th at God has given m e. If y ou don't remember that , yo u get caught up in trying to hold on to som eth ing tha t changes. Can I go Superbike raci ng and still enjoy m y racing? And not just that, but can I be a part of a team ? I've given 12 y ears, 15 years to th is rac in g and I've asked God , 'Surely th is isn't all for noth ing . Ju st so I can go ma ke some m on ey and act lik e a star .' Now th at not as ma ny people want yo ur autog raph, it's lik e, 'Why am I here?' Most guys q u it rac ing o r riding bec ause th ey feel like th ey ' v e reach ed the peak . I dig slid ing that bike in. I d ig try ~n g to rid e ha rd . I di g ridi ng ." Retirem ent isn 't some thi ng that seem s appealing to Sm ith . Especi ally since he wou ld still co nti nue to work , doing things th at aren't as mu ch fun as racin g m otorcy cles . "To retire basically wou ld say that I've achi eved my goa l in li fe , t ha t I d id everythi ng in life that I ever dr eam ed I woul d do ," Smith said. "I've been doing this since '8 7 and getting to know gu ys, but I'v e missed so much . Mostly th at's because I was alway s cru nc hing to "Th at was a perfect example of how m y desire to go to where I thought I needed to be to enjoy my life, hurt me," Sm ith said . "I got run off the track in tha t race. I was last and I k new th at I co uldn't affo rd to get smoked in front of everybody th ere. I went fro m last to fir st in four laps , but I just kept on. I got caught up in the 'I want to be somebody.' I'm m ore t han that now and that hasn' t co me easy . It co me s fro m broken legs and hitting m y he ad hard at M id -Ohio . You c an easil y get caught back up in that. It' s a bal ance. I don 't alway s do this, but whe n I walk th rough the pits, I see a block wall and I t hink, 'I co uld probably lay that block wall .' A nd t here's a lo t of sweat goes in mixi ng that co ncrete. Wh en there ain't nobody here at the racetrack and it's all clear on a Monday m orning, there ain't nothing here bu t th at o ld , hard, hot block wal l. It ta kes a lot of hard wor k , sweat and tears. I've sat in a Bob cat digging a 1500 -y ard ditch, saying , 'Surely th ere's m or e to this.' God gave m e thi s great ability, m y m om and dad didn't teach m e how to do this - is it just so I co uld see part of my dream and then fall away?" Sm ith doesn't hide his faith . He's a Christian, but he doe sn't pr each . He has his beliefs and he knows others get gone . Now I sit here and I wa ve at the gu ys from th e AMA, stuff that I would never do before because I was so focused on going somewhere else. It's so much different now, as far as th e enjoyment. "I' ve had big oppo rt unities that I could have either taken, or not. I'm glad I took 'e m because it showed me that I enjoy racing and it's given me the opportunity to do what I enjoy doing. It's like th is Pro Thunder. It's laid back and I know th e com pe titi on isn 't there, but those gu ys like to ride. They spend a lot of money and the y work ha rd . I see my brother-in-law Scott [Russell), and I don't want to go back to Superbike racing if I'm like that. If that will come inside of me and make me like that, I don 't want it. I just want to enjoy the people that I'm with ." Although Superbike racing is the lu re , Supersport racing is where Sm ith alwa ys excelled. It seemed at the time that if yo u put him on a com petitive 600 and j ust let him ride , he met success. If you gave him a bike that he could fiddl e with, he'd qu ickly fiddle him self right out of the hunt. "That' s right," he adm its. "I frustrat ed myself right out of some race s. The hardest thing for m e is to not be in cont rol. I like to be in co ntrol. I'm so scared of getting killed. It's scary sometimes rid ing . You wan t to win . I can shut my mind off and ju st go lik e that [hold it wide open]. I've seen myself do that and it's scary . I have to keep control of that. But I wo uld get so frustrated and I would lose m y riding ; like going slower to go fast. I wou ld lose that. I'd get so bound up that I couldn 't flow. I'd ride all right, but I wou ldn 't get the most out of what I had . As far as tin k ering with the bikes, I would leave it up to the gu ys and we either did have or d idn 't have the equipme nt. Th en I wouldn't deal with what I had. All the best riders in the wo rld , tha t's wha t th ey did . Th ey dealt with what the y had . "I still get stressed . I want to wi n and if there's gu ys go ing faste r than m e, I want to improve. But it's not the end of th e world . What I've fig ured out is tha t if I don't get to race aga in, if I can 't be a part of raci ng, whether it's swee ping the floors o r taki ng out th e t rash , it's a hu m bl ing experien ce more than anything. Whe n y ou get to m ak ing big bu ck s - $200,000, $300 ,00 0 - and yo ur dad never thought you'd make any m oney, yo u're brai n starts to do different thi ngs. It's like, 'I' m pretty coo l.' You start acting like that and yo u lose a lot of reality." He knows he was on the verg e of some thi ng big in 1993 when he hit the wa ll at Loud on and suffered a bro ken leg. He felt at the tim e that Grand Prix racin g was right around th e comer. have theirs. But how he go t his Pro Thu nder ride this year might make you believe in som e kind of divine intervention. "I was down at the pit wall in Daytona this year," Sm ith said . "I went down there to help with the cha pe l service, but I'm no preacher. I do the best I can and try to grow and it's not alw ays easy. It's to ugh. I had my sunglasses on and I was trying to do the best I ca n, but I'm boo-hooing behind my glasses. I was just li k e, ' Lo rd, help m e. What am I doing down he re , I'm no preacher.' I was j ust sitting there watching , saying , 'I'd like to race. I've been doing th is a long time and I've never won a Superb ike race. You ma de the mountains and the sky , surely you'll let me win one Su per bike race . Dale Q uarterley wo n one , c 'rnon. He hung in th ere, c 'rnon. ' But there's a lot more to life than wi n ning a Sup erbik e race . I j ust said, 'Lord, whe n I open my eyes yo u show m e where to go . I'm goi ng to tru st you .' And I' m not lik e th at. I don 't thin k that's how God would have us act all the ti m e, I do n' t k no w. An yway, when I ope ned my eyes there wasn 't an RC51 sitting there with my number plate on it. But I looked over and thought, 'I ca n't talk to that guy, I do n't even kn ow who he is.' As it turns out, it was Ma rk Sutton, the guy from DucShop. I j ust started talking to him and one thing to led to another and we worked som eth ing out. I guess what I'm say ing is that I'm here right now because of that situation. I would not be here this weekend if I had not talked to that gu y. That kinda blow s m e away , but things can happen with just a little trust." So now he's a Pro Thunder racer. It' s something he wo uld have t u rned h is nose up on wh en he was a yo ung factory star. "I never wat ch ed Pro Thunder," he said . "Pro Thunder bikes were j ust bik es that went out on the track and dumped oi l. Wh en y o u' re rid ing Super bikes, yo u' re go ing, 'Wh y do they let t hos e gu ys come her e and puke oil on our track .' Th at 's all when you're caug ht up in, 'I'v e got to get to m y goa l.' I see friends of m ine and they are going throug h that right now . Ni cky Hayden isn't one of th ose guy s. He kn ows where he's at. A nd Eri c Bostrom is not like th at. Those guys are j ust, 'Hey, ma n , let' s just ride.' But th ere are som e guy s wh o are like me w ho I w ish co u ld j ust enjoy wha t th ey are do ing . It 's like, 'Broth er, you are doing som ething that some guy s would sell everything th ey 've go t to have a little bit of excitement for one day.' We don 't realize what we' ve got because we are j ust try ing to hold on to thi s dream ." CN cue I e n e _ S • AUGUST 30, 2000 33

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