Cycle News

lint, the mach to Kawuaki. What were JOUI' _ for IeaviDg a pI'OftD machiae to cIneJop a DeW GP bike? Ah hah. Old DeWS. Well... 1 had, what is no IIeCn'l at this point, some problems with the management at American Honda. One of the major reasons was I felt I wasn't getting any PR and therefore had no future with the company. After finishing second in the world I wanted a longer term contract. They weren't willing to offer more than a one·year contract. That told me they had no faith in me as a rim. I didn't know what they were going to do. Honda sometimes goes into and out of racing. 1 didn't want to ride the bike another year and then be out of a ride and have the pressure of trying to fmd a new ride really fast. So 1 got some contract negotiations going with Kawasaki through Bryon Farnsworth, a good friend. Things staned going together and we came up with a long term package. Kawasaki has always been good at the PR pan. The Kawasaki guys are the ones on TV getting the pt'CSII. As far as the bikes, the '78 Honda was really fast, but it wasn't the best handling bike. There were one or two that were better. Kawasaki showed me diagrams of their new suspension and early models. Looking it over I thought it could work. 1 was really sur· prised when we went testing in Japan. It really worked. We had a bit more problems than I expected getting ready for the season but we IOned everything out just in time for the first GP. So 1 think the change might have looked drastic on the outside, but for myself it was what 1 really wanted. A longer contract, more publicity. How 10Dg is the contract? Two to four years, depending on what I want to do. If 1 want to continue racing the third year I can, if they want me to, or 1 can do development work. You certainly Weft more visible as lOOn as you made the mach, The Kawasaki ads appeared everywhere. That's very imponant. I've been racing a long time, trying to make a good living and win the World Cham· pionship. I'm in Europe all the time with few stories on the GPs, just lOme feedback through Cycle News and many don't even realize that I'm racing. As a result I don't get as many outside sponsors either. Working as hard as I have, I cenainly want to be rec~ed as one of the top riders, and ifnobody knows I'm riding ... You ltarteel a new traiaiag program last wiater, How did you fed when you went to Europe last March? 1 felt atronger and more prepared to win the championship than 1 ever had in the past. I bad run quite a bit and done some training camp stuff when 1 rode for Husky. With help from Dean MiUCr last winter I went a lot further than I had ever before. "With Andretti win- ning, Kenny Roberts, Bernie. ..Amen'ca has the hot guys nght now. I'm the only guy who d,,'dn't win. I blew ,,·t. " The rqJOI1I we got al JOUI' lint iater- uatioDal ride before the GP _ had you fiaiahiag 11th and getting lapped. Then you hurriedly flew back here and then on to Japan. What _ the ItOry there? in the frame. All the other teams mow how long their frames will last. So we wen: going to change after three races, figuring that was a pretty safe bet. We really weren't prepared to change it after two races. It just 10 happeDed they chaIIgm the track OD ua in Sweden. They had IS jumpa. 1 won the first moto after a bad stan. 1 ataned ahout 25th in the second moto and had just caught the guys up front with seven lapa to go. I was ready to make a drive to pall them all because I really felt atrong from the conditioning. And just about that time 1 went over one jump and the frame stretched a litde bit and caught in the ground. I really went into the handle· bars heavy and pushed them 10Cl8C. And then after every jump they would slip 10 1 would have to shut off and lift up on them. But I said: Damn it, I want to win. I got signala from Steve that all 1 needed was fourth place to win overall 10 1 passed Rond for fourth on the last lap. I had the GP overall with about four corners to go when I came down a hill with a litde dip and the frame gave away. That was the fmt low point of the season. At that point I was rolling right along. Nobody else had won more than one moto and I had tht:ee wins. I thought it was going to he cake. "Well, after being over there in depres- s£on landfor all that t£me, I'm just Uke anybody else. I like to get back tofantasy land here, and then I start havingfun. " And then we went to Italy and that's . second moto. Right in the mechanics' area was a Like 1said, we had a few more problems than I had anticipated when we got over there. All our testing had been here. The GP season was approaching. By coming back here we could malte any changes we wanted at the machine who and go to Saddleback to see if they worked. In Europe you don't have that advantage. It just taltes longer to get thinge done. We didn't have the time to talte that slow European pace. We wen: really happy with the bike inJapan and we flew it into Austria. It got there just one week before the GP. Everybody at the international races thought it was really funny that I had changed from Honda to Kawasaki and the biltcs weren't working at first. At the first GP we were still a litde under· poweied, and I got a bad ltan. I was 25th on the first lap and fmished fifth. I had another bad stan, about 15th, but passed everybody to win the really fast, rough lCClion. AD the bikes wen: really getting out of control, but my bike went through there faster than anybody's. From that time on you could hear it in the pits that 1 wasn't a big joke and the bike wasn't a pile. It handled better than the other bikes, and we already had them worried there at the fint GP. Our plan was to do that at the internationals and really psyche them out that they didn't have a chance against the new bike. but it didn't tum out that way. What size was the engine at the time? It was a 590. We were a litde down in horsepower, lilte riding a 1SO in the 250 class. 'There are no pz'ts; £t's not like Amen·ca. Just 18 m£ll£on ,,'d,ats walk- ,,'ng £n the p£ts. You can't even tum around and grab a wrench becausetheressor.ne guy stand£ng ,,'n your toolbox. " Where _ the Datatop? From there we went to France and I was really confident because of my conditioning. Did HeKki'1 iajury make you more confident? With the bike problema, my mind was off anybody else. I was confident in myself if I could get the bike ready in time. So at France I finished one·three and won overall to move into the lead. From there we went on to Sweden. 1 _ won the fmt moto and had some when the problems really staned. At that point ... 1 blew it. I had a good stan but 1 clipped a pole and bent my brake pedal all the way around and I had to stop to fiX it. I went back to about 12th and I could only get founh. Then in the second moto I had a problem with my sboclt. The ..-mbly plant didn't tighten the nut enough. Nothing broke. it just kind of fell apan 10 1DNF. So, 1 arrived here for Carlsbad in third instead of leading it lilte I wanted to do when I came back to theStates. So we got to Carlabad, and everybody already 1tnowI that story. We had a reo atan after I got the lead and we waited for a half·hour in IIO'degree heat and they did allltinds of neat thinga there. I got a very poor atan and theD IItaIIed the motor going into the litde canyon in the back. I kick and kick and it finally atanI. I go wide open for three lapa and 1 still didn't catch the last guy. If I had ridden flat out, I don't know if I could have caught the top 10. ADd you Weft aI.o aware that Heikki had already dropped ouL Yeah. I felt it was stupid to keep going. I wasn't going to win the overaO race, I was after as many points as I could get. I felt that if I Itopped and rested I might get 15 in the second race. And I did. Appareudy a lot of people didn't see it the same way, even Steve. But there was no way I could have made any more points than doing it the way 1 did, and that's what I was after - WoI'1d Championship points. So 1 think 1did the right thing. Then we went to Canada. It was hot frame problems in the second one. The frame broke. The bike was totally new and we didn't know how far we could stretch before making a change - o 00 0') 19

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