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/128637
Scott Russell e - B y PAUL C AR RUT HERS PHO TO S BY B LAKE C ON N ER AN D H ENN Y RA Y AB RAMS o r the past two years, Scott Russell has liv ed like a hermit in the paddo cks of the AMA Superbike Series. If you didn 't see him on the racetrack , or on pit lane, or on th e scoote r run t o h is m otorh om e, you didn 't see him at all . He was hid ing ou t , embarrassed by his ra ce results and frus trated by th e fa ct that he could n't do any thi ng to improv e the m. Th e show m an , t h e Scream in ' C hief, t h e out going and c onfident racer who won th e 1992 AMA Sup erb ik e a n d 1993 World Superb ike Champi onships was gone . He was a sha dow of hi s former self, rid in g a factory Harley -D avi dson VR1000 and struggling to finish in the top 10 . Or finish at all. "It was hard to put th ose leathers on eve ry day ," Russell ad m its . In th e paddock , he was off th e rad ar, a mi ssing person . On the track, he was off th e rad ar gun , struggling on a m otorc ycl e th at i s sim pl y o u tcla ssed . It wa s a long two yea rs. But with h is new deal, th e Georg ian say s th ose da ys are gone. Welcome back , Mr. Dayt ona . F 14 N OVEM BER 1 ,20 0 0 ' C II C I e Scott Russell sp e nt p lenty of time on pit lane trying to figure out ho w to make the Ha rley-Davidson VR1000 work for h im during his two-year t en u re w ith the team. He and the team were unsuccessful in doing so - now he's h o pi ng a fresh start with Ducati will put some bite back in t o his career. Ne xt year, Russell w ill rid e factory -bac k ed , exVan ce & Hin e s D u c a t i s f o r the HM C t e am . He 's ec static about th e pro sp ect of getting ba ck to where he once was - at the top of the heap . "It was em barr assing for m e to go out an d ge t beat like that," Russell says of the last two traumatic seasons . " I've never fi nished t ha t f ar ba c k o n m y wo rst da ys. It was hard fo r m e to deal with tha t, so this is defi nit ely the chance I need ed to pu t m y nam e back on th e top of the leaderboard wher e it belongs w he re it's been th e wh ol e t im e. T hat's what m ak es m e th e happ iest . Thi s is wha t it's all about. T h is is f o r m e - it 's n o t t o p rov e it t o e ve r y b o d y else because I thi nk they k no w I've do ne well. This is for me - t o come back and beat up on som e of these yo ung gu y s." Th e y o u nger g uys a re p len t i ful , m ore so th en when he went on his Harley hiatu s. Young gu ns lik e N icky Hay den , Kurtis Roberts , Jamie Hacking and neVIl' s Eric Bostrom to name a few. Plus the grizzled veteran Mat Mladin - the two-time AMA Superbike Champion who will defend his crown in 2001 . Not to mention men like Aaron Yates , Doug Chandler and M iguel Du Ham el. Russell has seen them all . He 's been passed by all o f th em in the pas t two years. And it hasn 't sat well with him. "From what I can see, the y are going faster, but their b ikes are faster," Russe ll says of the opposition. "Their bikes run good. They 'r e riding 'em good, but the ir b ikes , compared to wh at I' ve been riding, ar e 10- 15 mph fast er o n any g ive n week end . You c an 't compete like that on this level. The gu ys tha t a re ru n ni ng up front are definitely rid ing good Nick y [Hayden] and Mat [Ml ad inl and the rest of them. T hey' re ridi ng good, but it's nothing I can 't do . I c an't wait to get up the re with 'em and mix it up." Russell speaks with co nfidenc e again when he discusses nex t year. He believes that he can erase th e m em o r y of h i s p a st t w o seaso ns w i t h h is fans , tho ug h he reiterates oft en in co nve rsat io n tha t he is do ing this fo r him self. He's right in believin g that he' s don e eno ug h fo r everyone else . Winning AMA Sup erbike and World Ch ampion ships should be enough . He wants to be remem bered for those times , not for running around at the back of the pack . He think s he has the chance no w wi th Ducati to make amends, to m ak e it all good aga in in Russell-land. " Raci ng at the fro nt is wha t I do ," he says matter of factly . "It's wha t I've done my whole life. That's what I've ba sed m y whole racing career on - beating the next guy. That's the only reason I went back after the first and second time I ever went ra cing. I like that feeling more than the money , the stuff that comes with it - the fame, th e autographs. It never meant anything to me. T he on ly th ing that meant anything to me was w inn ing the rac e. Period. That's exactly wha t I want to get back to. I'm going to pick up right where I left off with the Kawasaki. That's what I plan on do ing ." Alth ough th e two ye ars w ith Harl ey -Dav idson were d isma l, Russell refuses to badm outh the team . The motorcycle? Well , that's someth ing he's willing to take a few shots at . T he pairing had a hate-hate relationship . He simply could n't rac e th e VR 100 0 and he admits it. Was it the chass is, the engi ne .. .? " It was a combi na ti o n of both ," Russell says of the YR. "T he chassis was very stable up on the front end of the bike , but it was almost too stable . T he bik e felt very wide and heavy at the front, and the n when yo u pu ll ed the tri gger... no thing happened . It m ade it real tough to ride the bik e fast . T he bike had loads of co nfi de nce on th e fron t tire, bu t that's where it ended. The bike wo uld not tum q uick into the corners , it was lazy going into comers - it made me late almost every time. Basic all y , you j ust had to slow down to ride it . Pascal [Picotte - hi s team m ate of two years who is still with the team] was able to find a little niche where he was a little bit happier with it and ran a little bit bett er - j ust inside th e top 10. But to m e, that's no wa y to go racing. It wa s painful. " Wh il e th e VR has tak en its share of hit s along the wa y , th e team has also been the blunt of j o k es with in the AMA Superbik e paddock. Russell , however, defends those who wo rke d on th e YR. - I wa nt t o make su re th at I d on 't bad -mouth those people here," Russell said . "T hose guys are gr eat gu ys. I met a lot of g ood people tha t wo rk for Harley -Dav idson , and I che rish th at. On th e other hand , th e res ul ts were just t erribl e a nd th e bikes weren 't g etting any better. It was a de ad end - a dead -end d eal. There is no reason to say anything bad abo ut those guys. Th ey tri ed . They did the best they c o uld with w ha t they had to work w ith. The development of the bike was j ust idle - it didn't hap pen . And so that's why they didn 't move forward .