The MotoGPā¢ Legend discusses how he landed on the Grand Prix scene,
and how Joe Roberts is relighting the American road racing flame
When speaking on the latest episode of theĀ MotoGPā¢ Podcast, 1993 500cc World Champion Kevin Schwantz waded through a range of topics. One of the most interesting of those was how he got his foot in the Grand Prix motorcycle racing door, and how a rising American Moto2ā¢ star is rekindling the USAās love for road racing.
But first, Schwantz remembered how he got his chance on the World scene, and how it differs from the young riders in America today. āItās one of those things, that as a kid while I was racing here in America and someone said āhey, do ya want to go race a bike in England on Easter Weekend at the Match Racesā, I thought āare you kidding me? Of course I do,ā began Schwantz.
āI think that in itself is what so many young riders are missing these days. Thereās more of āwell, what bike is it? What team is it?ā To me, it was irrelevant. I got to go to England, race motorcycles in England. I went over and rode Tony Rutterās TT bike from 1985 at the Match Races in 86. It was a bike that had a right-hand shift on it when I got to the track. Heron Suzuki and a bunch of the guys there really help that bike to be a muchā¦ well, it was fast, it was fairly standard as far as suspension went, we got a rear shock for it, we got sets of wheels for it.
āBut my main reason for this story is I think so many kids race here to a certain level in America and go āOh, will I get a chance to go ride a Moto2 bikeā or āgo and race Spanish championshipā or this and that. āDo you know anything this, Kevin? Do you know anything about this team?ā Well, no, I donāt. I think the opportunity to go and jump on something internationally, so long as itās safe, go ride it, because everybody knowsā¦ teams are smart enough to know talent when they see it. If you go and put a bike thatās normally been 15th on the grid and you put it 10th, and it normally finishes somewhere between 10 and 15th and you put it in the top 10, theyāre gonna look at you and go, āwow! This kid is good!
āYouāre not gonna have the opportunity to go and win on a motorcycle every time you go and race. But yāknow, my example at the Match Races, I went there and rode a bike that was a good bike, it handled well, we won, Barry Sheene saw me and took me there for 2 weeks and put me on a 500 at the Race of The Year! I almost won that. Next year, I had the world at my footstep! Itās just right there, because of meeting one person while I was over there, putting in a decent performance on a bike that if you told me or showed me before I went I would have gone, āohā¦really? I got to ride that?ā I think kids want a bit too much too soon and think āoh in that case, Iāll just stay here and race in Americaā. Roll the dice every now and then and challenge yourself daily, thatās for sure.ā
Challenge. Itās a word that probably describes the latest American road racing starās start to life in Grand Prix racing, but persistence and hard work from Joe Roberts (American Racing Team) seems to finally be paying off. Schwantz has previously worked closely with Roberts at the Suzuka 8 Hours, with the young American impressing the former World Champion.
āJoeās gotten some good experience under his belt. Yāknow, I would have thought he was gonna shine sooner than just Qatar this year. I picked him to come ride at the 8 HoursĀ for one of the teams that I helped manage with Kagayama, I forget how many years ago it was now,ā commented Schwantz. āI thought Joe did a great job, to see how competitive he was in practice, I heard he was first and I thought āwowā, then I heard he was fastest in qualifying and I thought āwow, ok yāknow weāll see in the race.āā
The Covid-19 outbreak has led to the postponement of the MotoGPā¢ World Championship in 2020, with Moto2ā¢ and Moto3ā¢ thankfully giving us something to talk about at the Qatar GP. Thatās where Roberts claimed his first Grand Prix pole position āĀ Americaās first in a decadeĀ ā as he eventually claimed P4 under the Qatari lights. Schwantz offered some words of wisdom to Roberts on the Last On The Brakes MotoGPā¢ Podcast, before comparing the path for Americans into the World Championship in his days and now.
āIām sure heās the one thatās wishing everyone would just get back to normal. Iām sure heās scratching his head wondering āam I gonna have the same form when I get back on the bike.ā He just needs to do what he was doing leading up to the start of the race, to the start of the season and not second guess himself – then heāll be just the same rider as he was at the start of the season.
āItās created a lot of excitement in America about road racing again and hopefully some of our kids hereā¦ I donāt think the talent pool in America is any less deep than it was in the day when Rainey and I, and Lawson, Spencer raced. But that avenue to get kids there. Thereās not a lot of factory support here but I know Wayne Rainey is working incredibly hard to get that factory support back.
āBecause, without Suzuki, when I raced I had Yoshimura Suzuki contract in 85, then I had a Suzuki America contract for 86 & 87, halfway through 87, weāre doing pretty good in races and Iām thinking āhey, whereās my contract? Cause if not, Iām gonna start talking to some other teams.ā And they said, āwhat do you mean? Weāve been told end of last year that your contract is with Japan next year.ā – āReally? Japanese championship?ā Yāknow, I knew that little about it, so without factory involvement and them seeing you do something somewhere and making them realise āthatās the person we want to take onto the World Championshipā, and try and conquer the world – without Suzuki doing that, thereās no way my family and I could have accomplished that on our own.ā
