I took a lot of heat (some from Tony himself) on THIS story but I like to think that Roger DeCoster backed up alot of what I had to say in it on his appearance on the DMXS radio show last night. He seems to agree with what I said. You be the judge.
I took a lot of heat (some from Tony himself) on THIS story but I like to think that Roger DeCoster backed up alot of what I had to say in it on his appearance on the DMXS radio show last night. He seems to agree with what I said. You be the judge.
DMXS: Had Mike won the title, would he have stayed at Suzuki?
Roger DeCoster: Mike is a good rider and he’s a good racer, especially outdoor but we could never get him to follow our advice. They wanted to do things their way, they thought that they could do better. After trying for two years to have him work our way, it wasn’t getting any better and championship or not, champion or not, we wouldn’t have had him.
Do you feel that his dad cost him a ride at Factory Suzuki?
His dad is…you know, we get frustrated with him but one thing is that he’s not lazy. He’s a hard worker. He’s always trying to look for an advantage for his kid. In the end, our contract is with Mike, not his dad. Mike is the one that has to grow up and make the decisions that he needs to make. Grow up you know? Not his dad. He cannot call his dad when he is on the track to make a decision on the spot. That is the biggest problem I think.
Basically you want his balls to drop?
Yeah, he went back and forth and was going to do this and do that but basically he never listened to our advice.
Did they ever take things on the bike apart and look at them against Factory Suzuki’s will?
There were some issues but there was more the general attitude. I never had the feeling that they trusted us and they always thought that they could out-smart us. They are like that with everything, they think they can outsmart the rules, they can outsmart the system and get an advantage. It’s not that complicated, you just have to do the basic things and use your head. If you’re three seconds a lap slower than Stewart, don’t try to race with him, ride within your limits. Supercross is seventeen races and the outdoors is twelve. It’s not going to happen overnight and you have to take the steps to get closer.
How close did you come to punching Tony?
(Pause) He was frustrating because on race day they wouldn’t disagree with me but then they would go and do their own thing. That was the frustrating part.
