Page 36 - PULSE-4

next to Bryan Smith and I tried to get out onto the groove where the traction was as soon as I possibly could,
but Bryan jumped out there and was able to get into the lead. I tried to jump in behind him, but I didn’t get on
the groove as quickly as him so I entered the corner in about fourth, but someone was right next to me and they weren’t gonna let me in. I got ran right off the groove and when I came out of turn two I was in last place, so I went from starting second to last, and I had to pass like eight guys if I was going to make the main event. I was able to work my way up through the field and get a transfer position at Sacramento, but of course I had to start at the back again and wound up fourteenth -- but I got an additional twenty-five laps and more time on the bike. So, going into Springfield I felt twice as comfortable as I did coming into Sacramento.
You went on to the Springfield Mile and not only qualified for the main, but you scored a top ten finish there. Did you surprise yourself a little with that one or did you feel that you had
room for improvement after Sacramento? After getting fourteenth at Sacramento, I honestly expected
to finish higher. I expected to run better initially and I had more confidence going in, so I did expect to run better in Springfield than I had at Sacramento. I qualified fourteenth or something like that, got third in my heat race, and in the semi-final I finished fifth. I had Jeffrey Carver (the winner), Brian Smith, Jared Mees, Chad Cose, and Henry Wiles -- and I ended up passing Wiles on the outside going into one and I beat him for fifth. So, that start- ed me on the second row of the main event and we made some changes to the bike right before the main event, but I think we actually made it run worse. In spite of that, I was comin’ off the final corner for the checkered flag in eighth and got drafted to the line and got a ninth. We were kind of in these little groups -- there weren’t any huge gaps, but what happened was one of the Harley Factory bikes blew up three laps in a row in our group -- so everytime one would blow up and pull off track, they’d slow up our group. So three laps in a row, we had three engines blow in our pack and split up the group. It came down to the end and it was just me and Mikey Rush and there was this huge gap back to us; they kind of messed us up.
You’ve now qualified for a main event throughout five consecutive decades, that’s incred- ibly impressive. What have you had to change with your riding style throughout the years to
stay competitive? And how has the racing changed if at all? You know, remarkably not so much.
The equipment is the same for the most part, only better. The bikes that we were runnin’ were carbureted so it was really important to have throttle control -- it was kind of your butt, your head, and your hand -- you had to feel things and make your brain not whack the throttle. If you think back to the days when MotoGP riders rode two-stroke 500s, you’d see ‘em come out of the corner and grab a handful and the thing would send ‘em into a big highside, and shoot ‘em about fifty feet in the air. With the new bikes, these guys are hangin’ off of ‘em and laying down these big black marks, but the engine management system has made these things a lot different. I’m not saying Marc Marquez isn’t one of the greatest ever, but to really measure him against a Kenny Roberts, Barry Sheene, Wayne Rainey, or Kevin Schwantz -- you’d have to put him back on one of those beasts. These new bikes; the tires are virtually the same, the tracks, the equipment, the size, the wheelbase and everything. It’s virtually the same. The changes in MotoGP, the changes in motocross and supercross -- it’s why maybe a Ricky Johnson couldn’t do what I’ve done in motocross -- the bikes are so much better now. The problem that I have is getting your brain over how aggressively you can ride, because the bike won’t spit you off; the engine manage- ment program won’t allow the RPM to change so drastically. When a bike breaks loose, it changes almost 3,000 RPM in half a second ‘cause the back tire breaks loose, but the engine management system will force it to wait at least two seconds for the engine to go up 3,000 RPMs. It never will allow it to break loose uncontrollably and the rider’s reaction is to let off, but when you let off it high sides you. So these guys can just pin it comin’ off the corner and the engine management system allows them to accelerate smoothly without ever spiking the RPMs.
I was having a little bit of trouble with getting myself over that notion that I could be a little more aggressive with my throttle hand than I used to be, because of the engine management system that they use now with fuel injection.
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36 THE PULSE • ISSUE FOUR