Ninjette Newsbot
June 17th, 2011, 07:00 PM
Kevin Schwantz on Rossi-Stoner MotoGP rivalry question
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Rossi-Stoner...is there a rivalry? Kevin Schwantz gives his take on the situation (http://www.sportrider.com/news/146_1106_kevin_schwantz_on_rossi_stoner_rivalry/index.html)Kevin Schwantz knows a thing or two about rivalries. The 1993 500cc World Champion spent most of his career battling Wayne Rainey in what is truly the last great rivalry of the premier class. Once Rainey got hurt, Schwantz wasn’t having fun anymore and retired early in the 1995 season. Mick Doohan then began a period of unmatched dominance, using former 250cc riders as punching bags. When Doohan got hurt early in the 1999 season, there followed a brief interlude before the onset of the Valentino Rossi era. Rossi also battled his fellow former 250cc riders, but the scoresheet was so one-sided it was hard to call them rivalries. Neither Max Biaggi nor Sete Gibernau was much of an adversary. Though the three did have some wonderful battles, it was always Rossi on top at the end of the season, at least from 2001 through 2005.
The competition between Rossi and Casey Stoner is different. With the exception of Stoner’s brilliant 2007 season, the Australian hasn’t been a title rival to either Rossi or Jorge Lorenzo. They began jawing at each other when Rossi took exception to what Stoner said after he was taken down by the Italian in the Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez. Rossi, the most popular rider the sport has ever known, lit into Stoner a few races later, with Stoner offering little fuel to keep the fire going. That they’ve rarely had compelling on-track battles limits the scope of the rivalry, as does the count of World Championships since Stoner joined the class in 2006. This season belongs to Stoner.
“I don’t think it’s a proper rivalry,” Schwantz said. “I think that incident in Jerez has made it this, ‘Ooh man, there’s this huge rivalry there.’ Valentino made a mistake and he admitted to it. Casey continues to kinda dwell on it. I heard Wayne (Rainey) say about rivalries, ‘There has to be one there. It’s like the Max and Valentino rivalry.’ Well, hold on. There isn’t much rivalry there,” Schwantz said, still disagreeing with his old foe. “The rivalry is because they’re both Italians, it’s not on the race track. There’s been a few races where Casey and Valentino really raced each other hard. One’s won one time, one’s won a couple of other times. I don’t think it’s that Schwantz-Rainey rivalry yet. And if the guys in red get their act together, and Valentino gets a little more competitive motorcycle underneath him, it could turn into that. It’s not right now, I don’t think.”
What adds an extra dimension to their squabble is that Rossi is trying to remake the bike that Stoner rode last year, when his season was ruined by a number of front end washes, though slightly redeemed with a strong multi-win finish. The front end issue put Stoner and Nicky Hayden on the ground repeatedly last year, and threatened to do the same to Rossi and Hayden again this year. Stoner, meanwhile, is on the “what seems to be the dominant machine,” Schwantz believes. Knowing that the Ducati is coming along, Rossi is doing “everything he can to keep himself as much in this championship race as possible. I think he’s proven in the past that he can almost more easily mentally defeat you than he has to on the race track. He can get in your head so by the time race starts you’re already beat. Whereas if he doesn’t play that game with you, the issues have to be settled on the track. If he never gets to see which way you went, then it’s more difficult for him. I think he’s just working all angles.
“Somebody recently asked me about all my competitors. I said that was one of things (Eddie) Lawson was good at was whatever he had to do to win. Whether it was befriend you but not really befriend you. And, ‘Hey man, you’re my best buddy.’ But just work everybody against each other. I’m not sure that’s exactly what Rossi’s doing, but I think Rossi and just some of the things he’s realized that he can say in the press, he’s got ways of getting into people’s head. He continues to say those little things that eat at you and nag at you and bug you. It’s been proven in the past that Casey can make some mistakes. That’s all he’s got to do is get a small portion of Casey’s head and have him too focused on Valentino. Next thing you know he’s making mistakes. I think Casey’s a much stronger Casey than he was in 2008. I don’t know that he’s unflappable right now. I think you can still get to him. So it’ll be interesting to watch as the racing progresses this year.”
Whatever Stoner tries to do, and to now he’s downplayed the feud, it won’t work because he doesn’t know how to play the media game, Schwantz believes, saying “I don’t think he’s done anything from a media standpoint that’s made him a favorite of the media, and if you’re not getting that ‘What-a-great-guy-he-is’ printed in a magazine, you’re going to have those that like you, but you’re not going to have a complete section of grandstands that all have your shirts on that are completely colored, that show their favoritism. Casey’s got an uphill battle there. Valentino is by far the most popular rider, maybe the most popular rider that’s ever ridden in the sport, and he’s done a great job marketing that. That’s part of what this is all about.”
Schwantz never tried playing head games with Rainey for a simple reason; it didn’t work. Their pre-race rituals were exact opposites. After the sighting lap, Schwantz would get off his Lucky Strike Suzuki and walk around the grid, talking, relaxing, relieving tension. Rainey didn’t get off his Marlboro Yamaha.
“He was one of those guys, when he got to the grid, he wanted his shield about ¾ of the way down and he was focused on what was going to happen when this race started,” Schwantz said. “I walked up and it was most of the time that I did that was when I really didn’t feel like I had a chance. If I was second or third row and Wayne was up in the middle of the front or on the pole or whatever it was, I’d always walk up and maybe he could take it more with a grain of salt at that point, because he’d say, ‘Get out of here, third row boy. You guys go back and have your barbecue,’ which is what we used to call it when we were on the third row: ‘We might as well have stayed home and had a barbecue.’ It was a way to try to get in his head one last time. And that was the thing about Wayne, was that it didn’t matter what you did, you couldn’t get into his head. The only person ever to get into his head was him.”
Photo Gallery: Kevin Schwantz on the Rossi/Stoner MotoGP rivalry question - Sport Rider Magazine (http://www.sportrider.com/news/146_1106_kevin_schwantz_on_rossi_stoner_rivalry/index.html)
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Rossi-Stoner...is there a rivalry? Kevin Schwantz gives his take on the situation (http://www.sportrider.com/news/146_1106_kevin_schwantz_on_rossi_stoner_rivalry/index.html)Kevin Schwantz knows a thing or two about rivalries. The 1993 500cc World Champion spent most of his career battling Wayne Rainey in what is truly the last great rivalry of the premier class. Once Rainey got hurt, Schwantz wasn’t having fun anymore and retired early in the 1995 season. Mick Doohan then began a period of unmatched dominance, using former 250cc riders as punching bags. When Doohan got hurt early in the 1999 season, there followed a brief interlude before the onset of the Valentino Rossi era. Rossi also battled his fellow former 250cc riders, but the scoresheet was so one-sided it was hard to call them rivalries. Neither Max Biaggi nor Sete Gibernau was much of an adversary. Though the three did have some wonderful battles, it was always Rossi on top at the end of the season, at least from 2001 through 2005.
The competition between Rossi and Casey Stoner is different. With the exception of Stoner’s brilliant 2007 season, the Australian hasn’t been a title rival to either Rossi or Jorge Lorenzo. They began jawing at each other when Rossi took exception to what Stoner said after he was taken down by the Italian in the Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez. Rossi, the most popular rider the sport has ever known, lit into Stoner a few races later, with Stoner offering little fuel to keep the fire going. That they’ve rarely had compelling on-track battles limits the scope of the rivalry, as does the count of World Championships since Stoner joined the class in 2006. This season belongs to Stoner.
“I don’t think it’s a proper rivalry,” Schwantz said. “I think that incident in Jerez has made it this, ‘Ooh man, there’s this huge rivalry there.’ Valentino made a mistake and he admitted to it. Casey continues to kinda dwell on it. I heard Wayne (Rainey) say about rivalries, ‘There has to be one there. It’s like the Max and Valentino rivalry.’ Well, hold on. There isn’t much rivalry there,” Schwantz said, still disagreeing with his old foe. “The rivalry is because they’re both Italians, it’s not on the race track. There’s been a few races where Casey and Valentino really raced each other hard. One’s won one time, one’s won a couple of other times. I don’t think it’s that Schwantz-Rainey rivalry yet. And if the guys in red get their act together, and Valentino gets a little more competitive motorcycle underneath him, it could turn into that. It’s not right now, I don’t think.”
What adds an extra dimension to their squabble is that Rossi is trying to remake the bike that Stoner rode last year, when his season was ruined by a number of front end washes, though slightly redeemed with a strong multi-win finish. The front end issue put Stoner and Nicky Hayden on the ground repeatedly last year, and threatened to do the same to Rossi and Hayden again this year. Stoner, meanwhile, is on the “what seems to be the dominant machine,” Schwantz believes. Knowing that the Ducati is coming along, Rossi is doing “everything he can to keep himself as much in this championship race as possible. I think he’s proven in the past that he can almost more easily mentally defeat you than he has to on the race track. He can get in your head so by the time race starts you’re already beat. Whereas if he doesn’t play that game with you, the issues have to be settled on the track. If he never gets to see which way you went, then it’s more difficult for him. I think he’s just working all angles.
“Somebody recently asked me about all my competitors. I said that was one of things (Eddie) Lawson was good at was whatever he had to do to win. Whether it was befriend you but not really befriend you. And, ‘Hey man, you’re my best buddy.’ But just work everybody against each other. I’m not sure that’s exactly what Rossi’s doing, but I think Rossi and just some of the things he’s realized that he can say in the press, he’s got ways of getting into people’s head. He continues to say those little things that eat at you and nag at you and bug you. It’s been proven in the past that Casey can make some mistakes. That’s all he’s got to do is get a small portion of Casey’s head and have him too focused on Valentino. Next thing you know he’s making mistakes. I think Casey’s a much stronger Casey than he was in 2008. I don’t know that he’s unflappable right now. I think you can still get to him. So it’ll be interesting to watch as the racing progresses this year.”
Whatever Stoner tries to do, and to now he’s downplayed the feud, it won’t work because he doesn’t know how to play the media game, Schwantz believes, saying “I don’t think he’s done anything from a media standpoint that’s made him a favorite of the media, and if you’re not getting that ‘What-a-great-guy-he-is’ printed in a magazine, you’re going to have those that like you, but you’re not going to have a complete section of grandstands that all have your shirts on that are completely colored, that show their favoritism. Casey’s got an uphill battle there. Valentino is by far the most popular rider, maybe the most popular rider that’s ever ridden in the sport, and he’s done a great job marketing that. That’s part of what this is all about.”
Schwantz never tried playing head games with Rainey for a simple reason; it didn’t work. Their pre-race rituals were exact opposites. After the sighting lap, Schwantz would get off his Lucky Strike Suzuki and walk around the grid, talking, relaxing, relieving tension. Rainey didn’t get off his Marlboro Yamaha.
“He was one of those guys, when he got to the grid, he wanted his shield about ¾ of the way down and he was focused on what was going to happen when this race started,” Schwantz said. “I walked up and it was most of the time that I did that was when I really didn’t feel like I had a chance. If I was second or third row and Wayne was up in the middle of the front or on the pole or whatever it was, I’d always walk up and maybe he could take it more with a grain of salt at that point, because he’d say, ‘Get out of here, third row boy. You guys go back and have your barbecue,’ which is what we used to call it when we were on the third row: ‘We might as well have stayed home and had a barbecue.’ It was a way to try to get in his head one last time. And that was the thing about Wayne, was that it didn’t matter what you did, you couldn’t get into his head. The only person ever to get into his head was him.”
Photo Gallery: Kevin Schwantz on the Rossi/Stoner MotoGP rivalry question - Sport Rider Magazine (http://www.sportrider.com/news/146_1106_kevin_schwantz_on_rossi_stoner_rivalry/index.html)
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