Cycle News

~ e l!") 00 Q') ...-l ~ 0 • !""'I l-< ...... ~ ...-l 0. '"' .... (Jl :;: 0 z 0 I- > ::; 0 " '" (Jl 0 I- 0 X 0.. This year, LaPorte will concentrate on winning the 500cc National MX Championship. He rides supercrosses, but hasn't made it into a final yet. on such tight budgets, it 's even more difficult for an American to race in Europe. In America, the only real fac- tor y bikes are Hondas and a couple of Kawasak is, but they are sp lit up be- tween a ll the classes. What th ey do in Europe is take a ll th e factory effort tha t wo uld've been used in the 125s and 250s and combine th at into one class - th e 500s - whi ch th ey th ink is the mos t important. Last year th ere were eight or nine factory bikes, not including the factoryHusqvarnas and KTl\Is, in th e 500s. By tak ing all the bikes and putting th em into th e 500s, th ey create an ult ima te class - th e Kin g Class, as th ey call it in Europe. When th ey have 13 or 14 factory According to laPorte, there are few openings for fully-sponsored factory riders. "For everybody else, it's a matter of degrees of support:' CN: Whodid you talk to about going to Europe? LaPorte: I ta lked to Mark Blackwell when he was working for them at th e time, and he suggested to the factory th at Harry Everts and myself ride the 500cc class for Suzuki in th e moto- cross World Championships. It was my goal, to race for theWorld Cham- pi onships after winning the National Championships, and I was willing to give up all my connections in Amer- ica to do what I wanted to do . I think a lot of (American) riders are hung up on th is securi ty thing; they would never take th e chance of leavin g what th ey have to go somewhere else and start racing again - bu t that was what I was doing to race for the World Championships. CN: What was the response from the factory? LaPorte: They said that th ere was no wayan American could win the World Championship, that it was too diffi- cult to live in Europe; I was in sulted by the whole th ing. In 1978 I almost won the Carlsbad GP, and I thought that with my technique and expe- rience, I could've done as well in Europe as I had in America. Anyway, my real chance came in 1981, when I was riding for Honda, to show everybody th at I could win th e World Championship. So, we went to the Motocross and Trophee des Nations, and th e team was suc- cessfu l. In fact , I had th e most points of any rider. Suzuki and .Yarnaha were there, and th ey were impressed. But Suzuki was too tight a t the time, and th ey (the factory GP MX team) were run by Belgians. They would never have wanted an American rid- ing on th e team in Euro pe. T here's a lot of poli tics involved 26 (in GP motocross), and I want to expla in something: Not very many people realize it , bu t even if you're o ne of th e best racers in Amer ica , and you want to race the World Cham- pionships in Europe, i t's not th at easy. CN: Why? LaPorte: Because Honda, for exam- ple, is made up ofMalherbe,Geboers and Thorpe. T hey're good, and th ey can win the World Championship, which means th at one of the Honda riders from America has to bump one of them off th e team. T hat's not going to happen l It 's because th e team managers are European - Eng- lish, Belgian or German - and they're going to say th at you' re going to take a position away from one of th eir guys. . But I was lucky enough to be friends with (Yamaha Motor Corp. U.S.A. racingmanager)KennyClark e, and he really believed that I could win the World Championship. So I got support from Kenny to the Yamaha factory, saying, " Danny LaPorte can adapt real well , he'sa good all-aro und racer, he can win the World Championship. " T ha t was my connection to th e GPs, and at the time I knew that ano therAmeri can at Yamaha wanted to race in Europe, but I don't know who i t was . Also, Heikki Mikkola was pushing for me because he saw me at th e two races. He saw that I was really aggressive and thought that I could win. So, my way into the GPs relied on timing. Still , th e factory wasn 't sure if th ey wanted me or not; th ey were sti ll deciding between me and an English rider. Even after I had won at the Motocross and Trop hee des Nations, beat all the other Europeans, won th e American 500cc Na tiona l Championship, I sti ll had to show that I really wanted to do it. Even now, because the teams are bikes, like they do in the first six or seven GPs, th e riders a re really pumped. Take Broc Glover on hi s Yamaha agains t th e only real factory rider in the 500s in America, David Bailey, who's also a very fast rider, and multiply th at by seven or eig ht other motorcycles. then you see that it becomes very difficult for produc- tion motorcycles to win in th e 500cc GPs. Basically, now, and in the three years since I fir st went to Europe , I th ink rhere'sJess than half the full factory posi tions ava ilable to race in . When I say " full fac tory," i t means factory motorcycles, money, tru cks, mechanics - 100%support . But now i t's kind of hard to defin e a factory rider, because th e factories are getting th e importers to take care of every- thing themselves and find outside sponsors if they ca n. So " factory rider" is not the rig ht name for i t, anymore, unless you're Andre Mal- herbe, Geboers. Thorpe , Bailey or O'Mara .. . For everybody else, it 's a matter of degrees of support , since th e factories, for many reasons - budgets, especially - ca n't supply th e hand-built bikes like they used to. Now it 's up to th e di stributors' rac- ing teams to make th e most of th e production racers and get appropria te sponsorshi p to get them through an entire season. CN: When you finally got to Europe in '82, how were you ab le to get there. and what was living over there like? LaPorte: After th e Motocross and Trophee des Na tions, I had an oppor- tunity to race again in America. It was a big decision for me to give up everythi ng in America, where I had my roots, and move to Euro pe,which was new and exci ting. I don't get off on doin g th e same thing over and over aga in; I like to win to do over again. But I've always been looking for something new. There was tha t one spot, one void, that had never been fill ed in my life, and th at was going to Europe. =- that' sokay So I said, " It doesn 't ma tter wha t I had here before, but I'm going for it." I was sti ll waiting for Yamaha in Europe to decide who they were going to take. T he 500cc class was what I wanted, because I was a 500cc rid er, but th e only posi tion th at was open for me was in th e 250cc class. So I said that if I can prove myself in th e 250cc class , then I couId ride the 500s. I was in Austra lia when Yamaha sen t th e contrac t to me in Ameri ca. My mom signed it for me and mailed it back to them. So I was set in November of '81 to race th e GPs in '82. And th e only th ing I thought that I had to prove to th ese guys was that I could win, and th at 's what I did all year. I was think in g one th in g, and -that was all th e American riders were tell- ing me th at once I got to Europe I wasn 't go ing to make as much money (as in America). Well , money (in Europe) co mes in more different di rections. You have other sponsors, helmet sponsors, clothing and boot compa nies in Europe , th at three or four years ago were paying riders quite a bit of money - and still are. You've go t oil companies, lik e Elf, Shell and T exa co, who sponsor a lot of riders in Europe. The third biggest source of mon ey in Europe is start money from the races, which can vary, depending on your name, how well you do, and how well you 're liked. It can go from $1000 to $5000, and in Europe you can race almost every week all year round, sometimes Saturda ys, Sundays and Mondays. I think it averaged out to $2000 or $3000 for every race I rode - and that's guaranteed start money. A lot or promoters in America believe that if th ey paid start money (to riders), th ey wouldn't get a good performance. I don 't beleve that. I know now for a fact th at sometimes it (sta rt money)makes you want to race more. It 's like. "T hey're paying me forthis, so I've got to do good," And I think that when you're a professional, you're not thinking about that (start money) - you want to win. When you sta rt thinking abo ut money, you slow down, because it breaks your concentra tio n. With start money as part of my income, I can say, from th e time I left America in 1981, when I made $150,000-$160,000, it almost doubled in 1982. So, when they talk about th e money th at can be mad e in Euro pe compared to America, I say that it can be just as good - i t just depends on your sponsors. • (Continued next week)

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