Kevin Schwantz:

KEVIN SCHWANTZ:

Making believers of everyone—including himself

IN SOME PEOPLE'S MINDS, KEVIN Schwantz was the odds-on favorite to win the USGP. He was, after all, on a roll, having won the Daytona 200 before scoring a stunning, almost wire-to-wire victory in the GP season opener at Suzuka two weeks before Laguna. That win in Japan had made believers of critics who doubted that Schwantz (who has very limited GP experience) and his 500 Suzuki (which had not been competitive for years) could be much of a factor in this year's chase for the 500cc world title.

But both Schwantz and his PepsiSuzuki teammate, Rob McElnea, were refreshingly realistic about their chances at Laguna. McElnea candidly admitted that “I’ve lost all of my confidence after nine crashes on

the (Team Marlboro) Yamaha last year." The recurring get-offs were later traced to a front-fork jamming problem. but the psychological dam age had already been done. And McElnea's first ride for the Pepsi-Su zuki team, at Suzuka, had resulted in

a mechanical DNF. So his objective at Laguna was to bolster his confidence by simply finishing, hopefully in the top 10.

Schwantz, on the other hand, was hoping to win the USGP, but knew that his chances of doing so were not outstanding, despite his impressive victory two weeks earlier. His Suzuki was down on power compared with the Hondas and Yamahas, mostly at the top and bottom ends of the powerband, and it had a minor steering gremlin that the mechanics couldn’t quite exorcise. Those factors were proving more of a liability on Laguna’s new track layout than they had on the Suzuka circuit.

“We got lucky at Suzuka,” explained Schwantz prior to the Laguna event. “It rained during every practice but was dry for the race, so everyone had to guess at the right setup. We’d done a lot of testing at Suzuka earlier in the year, so we went to the settings that had worked then, and they were perfect. But it’s a different story here. I probably won’t be able to lead in the beginning, but my bike

is easier on tires than the others, so I’ll just try to stay close and hope that it’s still working good enough near the end to make a run at them.”

It didn’t quite work out that way. Schwantz ran third for awhile, but soon found himself in fifth behind Rainey. And every time he tried to step up the pace, his Suzuki would have none of it, sliding its tires and getting noticeably squirrelly. After running off the track a couple of times, Schwantz decided to ease up and settle for fifth. McElnea was never a factor in the race, but rode steadily to a ninth-place finish.

Not surprisingly, McElnea was pleased with the outcome, but so was Schwantz—an uncharacteristic reaction for a gifted young man reputed to have a win-or-die attitude. “A lot of riders have been world champions without winning many races,” he said, realizing that he now lies third in the GP point standings. “So any time I can’t win, I’m going to try for a decent finish. I want the points. I want to be world champion. This

year."

Paul Dean