Ahead of the first of two visits by MotoGP this year to the USA, at Laguna Seca this weekend, Toby Moody caught up with the American 1993 World Champion Kevin Schwantz. In the first part of Toby's interview, we find out about Kevin's life and career…
Tell us about your first ever motorcycle…
It was a Honda Mini Trail 50. I was five.
What was the best bike you ever raced?
Probably a Yamaha YZ80, and I’m guessing a 1976 model. I was 12. I did trials, but it wasn’t really racing. I did that until I was 12, but then I realised I needed to go faster.
Who was your hero when you were growing up?
Darryl Hurst – my uncle. He was a National Dirt Track racer. He was the one who originally ran No 34. Back then, Dirt Track and Road Race had 100 numbers for the whole season, but you had to score National points in Dirt Track or Road Racing to deserve that. In 1982, he didn’t score any points and it went to another rider, but then when he didn’t score any points either, I took it to keep it in the family.
You quit motocross quite early on. Do you think you’d have reached the pinnacle of that, too, if you’d not switched?
I don’t think so. To be a good motocrosser, you had to do it every day. Going to that next step up from my local level, all the way up to supercross, was too much from a riding, hard work, physical standpoint. I just didn’t love it, but when I got on a road racer for the first time, I thought, “Hey now… I kinda like this.”
'The fans were all cheering for me, and I thought, “I can’t quit, I can’t quit"' – Kevin Schwantz
What moment in your racing career gave you the most pleasure?
There are two things that stand out – my first GP win and my last GP win. Suzuka [Japan] ’88 and Donington [UK] in ’94. Anything in between, whether wins or losses, or battles with Wayne [Rainey] or Eddie [Lawson], were great with special memories, but I won Daytona two weeks before Suzuka, so I thought, “What the hell have I got to do now?” Perhaps also the ones beating Rainey in 1991, first at Hock [Hockenheim, Germany], then at Assen [Netherlands] because I got the lap record, and also because it was what Wayne calls the worst memory of racing as I wasn’t even close to him and he made a mistake outbraking himself and went into the grass.
What exactly triggered the moment in 1995 when you thought, “It’s time to retire”?
I got up [after crashing in the second GP in Malaysia] and I walked towards my bike, and at that point I had quit, but the fans were all cheering for me, and I thought, “I can’t quit, I can’t quit.” But in my mind… Then when the crowd made all that noise, I went back to the pits and got on the other bike, but in all my career my bike had never thrown me down the road, but it did that day. I thought that was a sign… I almost didn’t ride that race, but I had an ordinary result, and then next race at Suzuka, and it rained all day and I rode in fifth or sixth all day. [Loris] Capirossi passed me and then looped it in front of me and I thought… [Daryl] Beattie was at my house and he said, ‘C’mon, let’s go to Jerez.’ But I was in shorts and a t-shirt, even though my bag was all packed, and he could see I wasn’t dressed properly. I just said, “I’m not going,” so I just took him to the airport. I called the [Lucky Strike Suzuki] team and they said not to worry, but in reality my heart wasn’t in it anymore. The fun was gone.
Toby Moody
[Kevin then fiddles with Toby’s new iPhone that’s recording the interview. He’s clearly having fun now and loving the tech.]
Your popularity with fans was such that the powers-that-be retired your racing number, 34, with you – that must have been a special moment?
I was just there to retire… to tell everyone I was done. And then Dorna [MotoGP’s commercial rights holders] did it, and the more I think about it, the more it means. I’m sure there are some more coming up who might be retired soon! [Hmm… 46?] It was tough enough doing that announcement, and then I got to think, “Who else have they done this for?!”
You and Wayne Rainey were arguably motorcycling’s greatest rivals – were you friends off the track?
We’d fight and battle all weekend, and as soon as the helmets came off and the press conference was over... well, we did nearly fight in a press conference at Assen in ’91. They said, “OK, what happened in that last turn?” and I leaned over and grabbed his microphone and said, “Well, I think that happened a couple of weeks ago,” in reference to what happened at Hockenheim. It was like hockey players in the ring throwing their gloves on the floor… It was OK once we got done in the day and settled down, even if there was a chance we’d still disagree a little bit over what had happened in the race – but then the next Friday on the track we were, “You know, I don’t like you.” It's always there when there is animosity on the track, like with Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi at the moment, yeah?
In the meantime, for all the latest on this weekend’s race, go to our MotoGP Laguna Seca event page
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