VOL. 50 ISSUE 50 DECEMBER 17, 2013
Even in the last race I had a full
race plus three- points advantage
before we started. Sylvain kept
me so honest in race one and
the championship could have so
easily gone to race two. But we
did our job, kept a clear head and
race two was all about enjoying it.
Second position is not bad to top
off the World Championship and
I think people would give a lot to
be given that chance to win.
You came to World Superbike a few years ago as part of
a 'golden generation' of strong
British or British Superbike riders, and all of them have been
successful. But only you have
won the World Superbike title.
Why?
I have got my head screwed on
and I am very down to earth and
I appreciate a good motorcycle.
Many riders always feel the grass
P95
is always greener on the other
side. I believe that is fertilizer and
bullshit. I think I have had a good
upbringing and I appreciate this.
Many times in the past I have
been compared to these riders
that I have come through different championships with, and I am
always the underdog and the one
that doesn't get mentioned. That
in itself - call me bitter or whatever
- I use negative comments to my
advantage. If anything it gives me
more motivation and more drive
to beat those people. Even in recent events Kawasaki and myself
were very strong in Magny-Cours
and one rider said something
that fired me up. It was the comment that basically… it was the
way the bike was that gave me
the wins. I used that to my advantage. Perseverance with that
type of attitude has paid off and
it feels good. There have been
many critics of me over the years
and I could have said something
back, but today is the answer to
all those guys. It definitely tastes
sweet.
At what point do you think
you went from being just a Kawasaki rider to being the Kawasaki rider?
I am not sure. For a couple of
years I was riding for Kawasaki
and I was the rider that was overlooked. There was Chris Vermeulen and Joan Lascorz and, luckily for me, Paul Bird had some
massive belief in me, which has
proved to be absolutely great
for me and Kawasaki and I will
