got 25 test days scheduled and I'll be able to
find out any problems
with the new bike early.
We'll have some time to
get things sorted out. I've
seen the blueprints on
the new bike and everything has changed, the
chassis, the engine and
the suspension. It's the
most drastic changes I've
seen since I've been with
Yamaha. Now we just
have to bring it out and
see if it works.
Michael Doohan started
the season by winning,
ala. Wayne Rainey in
previous years. How
important is a good start
to the season?
The beginning of the season is really important. If
you fall behind in the
beginning it's really hard
to catch up with the way
the points are. Doohan
went out and won the
first four races and I fell
down again in the fifth
race. You've just got to
hang in there tough the
whole way. I learned a
lot last year and the main
thing I learned was to
never give up. There
were times when I was
pretty depressed, but the
team kept me going.
They never got down
and they never stopped
working towards giving
me a better motorcycle to
race.
Is there a race you could
classify as being the best
for you this year?
Barcelona was definitely
the best race of the year for me and one
of the best of my career. I beat Doohan
in the last couple of laps when he was
really on a roll. Only a few people, like
Kenny Ro~~ts and Dean Miller, know
what we were going through to get back
to the point of beating him. But then I
busted my ass again in the next race in
Germany. I'll tell ya, this year had a lot
of high and low peaks. We just
regrouped and did the best we could
and it all started to come around.
What are your feelings in regards to
the new "Big Bang" engines vs. the old
style engines with the regular firing
order?
I thin)< the big bang is the way to go. We
(Yamaha) were the last to run it. I tested
it and it didn't feel good, but we took
two teeth off the rear sprocket and it
was instantly better. It's just got a lot
more low-end torque. It's like an open
class motocross bike - you shift it at a lot
lower rpm. But it took us a race to figure
it out. I think having just the one power
pulse rather than two is good. It makes
it easier to predict tire spin, and it makes
for a smoother power band. When you
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