Cycle News

INTERVIEW DANE WESTBY P92 ran the same times, but he was already gone, you know?" Westby is widely known as the 'Wolverine.' While part of that nickname has to do with his trademark muttonchops that evoke those sported by the pop- ular Marvel Comics superhero, it's also in acknowledgement of the way Westby regularly carves his way up through the field. Of course, those heroics are often necessitated by poor starts, a weakness that has haunted his game for years. "I'm not sure what my deal is," Westby said. "I get a pretty good jump off the line and then I'm just slipping the clutch too long and they just pull right on back by. So now I've got a little bit different tech- nique where I can let my clutch out all the way and use the throttle to control it like I'm supposed to. "At Barber I was trying the new start technique that I had prac- ticed at home with my buddies and just throw some new stuff at it - my start just wasn't work- ing out. You know, I didn't get like a phenomenal start - but I got a 'good-enough' start. I was off the line in sixth and I was just able to sit on those guys and pick them off one at a time." Westby capitalized on his im- proved-if-still-average starts to strike twice. His double victory in Alabama emphatically signaled the primetime arrival of the Yama- lube Westby Racing Team. "Oh man, it was amazing," Westby said. "The first one - that champagne was the best thing I ever tasted in my life. And the sec- ond one - it was interesting how the vibe slowly became different. Obviously, everyone was really excited and jumping up and down and the celebration was great. But then after that we were all kind of looking at each other and were like, 'okay, now the real work begins.' We were just confined in our cage before that and now we've been unleashed where we can make things happen." With his twin triumphs, Westby also discovered another perk of being the lead rider on a small family-run team - a flexible bonus structure. "My dad has this bike he's been trying to sell and I told him if I got the double, he'd have to just give me that bike," Westby said. "We bet on that, but it was kind of a joke because I've never done that before - never even gotten close. And then I did it, so now I've been out riding around on my new streetbike. And that's kind of how it was - it seemed so far away and then all the sudden the hard work paid off - and now there's even more hard work ahead. "It looks polished on the out- side, but it's still just a brand-new effort. Taking home the two wins was really turning a new page. I went from being a good rider to realizing that I am as fast as any- one in that field. It's a great feel- ing going to Laguna and Ohio and New Jersey knowing that we have a chance every single time to win. We're not an also-ran, we're winners." Not merely a race winner, Westby is the man with all the mo- mentum and increasingly looking like a full-fledged championship contender. "That's a pretty good feeling too," he said. "I haven't been talking a whole lot about it, but it's definitely in the back of my mind… we definitely have a chance. If we do really well, we can make it happen. We can maybe bring this thing home." CN The Westbys check out the action trackside.

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