Kevin Schwantz tells the kids how it's done. image by jimola

Twenty-three teenage boys move about the room excitedly, laughing and killing time while they wait for their teacher to arrive. Listening closely, fragments of their conversation become clearer--drafting, corner speed, and racing lines. These twenty-three extraordinary boys are the future of roadracing, riders in the Red Bull KTM AMA US Rookies Cup series; and their Headmaster is 1993 MotoGP World Champion Kevin Schwantz.

In this interview, Schwantz not only discusses his involvement in the Red Bull KTM AMA Rookies Cup program, but also dishes on his MotoGP team management aspirations, Ben Spies, lazy 800cc riders, and the epic Rossi/Stoner Battle at Laguna Seca. Enjoy.

Q The first thing I want to ask you, as a guy who has been associated with Suzuki for pretty much his entire career, how you ended up getting affiliated with Red Bull KTM on this project?

A Well, for me, the Red Bull side of things was a no-brainer. And I think everybody within the industry understands and realizes the importance of this program. When I went to Suzuki with it, I said, "You know, guys, they've asked me to be coach, and coach these 23 kids, and help in the selection process," there wasn't anybody even scratched their head for a minute. They're like, "No, great!" Because that is - what's happening here is the future of American roadracing. Yeah, it's not a Suzuki tie, but I don't run KTM on any of my bikes. KTM's obviously a very important part of this program, and I can't take that away from them. I don't lend my name to them for advertising. It's a Red Bull contract that I have. For me, it's worked out really well. The biggest problem I had between sponsors was Italian leather companies. Alpinestars and Dainese were the two that were the hardest to get to - "No, no, no. Well, you can wear Dainese leathers when you ride, but you've got to wear Alpinestars clothes and stuff with the logo on it." And when I finally got to the very top guy, they both said, "Kevin, for what that program entails, and who all is benefiting from it, please!" It's great. Michelin tires, Dunlop tires. I have Michelin at the school. I have a career-long relationship with Michelin. To Dunlop. Both of those guys, we all see eye to eye on everything. Oil companies, everything else is fine. The manufacturers, Suzuki, KTM, it was absolutely not even a moment's hesitation by Suzuki.

Q So this is one of those times when it's something that made absolute sense to everybody, and they just pulled out the stops and let you get on with it.

A Yeah. Absolutely. I still teach my Suzuki school at Road Atlanta, and I still work with the Suzuki guys and the support guys when I have time, but Red Bull Rookies' Cup is my main focus right now, for sure.

Q I wanted to ask you about your role now, being a mentor and a coach, both at the school and within the Red Bull KTM program. It's such a switch. I would imagine - Evan was talking about you going out with the riders, and getting out on the track with them when they're actually practicing and stuff, to give them tips and pointers. It just seems so ironic, watching you as a rider, and your reputation as the balls-to-the-wall guy, brake when you see God, the famous Hockenheim pass - all that stuff, that mentality of balls-to-the-wall, win it or bin it, and now you're in this role of making these guys perhaps think a little bit more balanced, and take a more measured, mature approach. How has that been for you, changing from being that maniac, to being the fatherly mentor that is your role now?

A I'd like to think that through the latter part of my career, I made that transition pretty well. For me, it's fortunate that most of these kids weren't born when I was still racing. So unless Dad's taken them in and forced them to watch video of me, they don't know a whole lot about my career. There's absolutely no doubt, had Kevin Schwantz had someone to mentor him, someone to help him, someone to point him in the right direction who had the experience of a World Champion, or somebody who had competed at that level - my parents did everything they could for me, but my dad never roadraced to any real - anything more than an amateur level, and my uncle was a dirt-track racer. So for me, it's come pretty easy. Working at the school that I've had in Atlanta now for eight years has been more about - and it's a riding school that I teach in Atlanta. I never check lap times. I never push anybody to go fast. I want people to become better, safer, more confident riders. I'm not trying to find the next Nicky Hayden or the Valentino Rossi at my school. So the instructional side of it, in talking to them in a fashion that "here's what you've got to do to get more comfortable. You've got to get that visual awareness out in front of you," is all stuff that benefits the person that races as well. And working with these kids, and how enthusiastic they are, and how excited they are once I start trying to give them some tips, to me, it's just - I'd probably do this job for nothing. It's just so much fun to see the glisten in their eyes. They're like, "Man, what can I do? How can I be better? How do I get through that other corner a little quicker? How do I get through Turn 5 faster?" It's come really easy for me, since I started the school. Working with the kids, to me, has been a no-brainer, and trying to tell them "small steps, we're not going to find five seconds at a time. You've got to go out and just - this is work. We've got to go work, work, work, work, work. We've got to chip away at it. You're never going to find a big, big span of time in one lap. You've got to continue to work on your riding and work on your focus, and get that vision out further." All the little things. Smoother on the gas, smoother off the gas, benefits you no matter what it is you're doing.

Q It's funny. The next question I had for you was whether you had a mentor when you were riding, when you were coming up. Do you think that maybe you would have had a different type of a career path? I'm putting that gently, politically gently.

A Probably a little less injuries, for sure. But somebody asked me, "What if you'd ever ridden for Kenny Roberts?" I said, "Probably one of the two of us wouldn't be around right now, because I'm not sure me and that guy could get along." He's a great man, he's done a lot for the sport of motorcycling, but man, is he - I've beaten Wayne Rainey on a weekend, and I've seen Kenny go, "You dumbass! What were you thinking? What were you doing? Why'd you let him outbrake you in that turn?" I'd have put up with that about that long. But the knowledge that Kenny brought, to Wayne, to Eddie, the experience that was there, it was obviously a very first-class team the entire time. Had I had somebody like that to go back and ask questions of, instead of just some of my engineers who had worked in racing for a while, but never really did much racing themselves, it probably would've helped a little bit. Might would've made my career span just a touch longer. But I enjoyed the way I did it. I had fun the way I did it. And I'd do it all over again exactly the same way if I was given the chance.

Q Do you think that the fact that these kids are a blank canvas, and they haven't really had a chance to develop a lot of bad habits, or get that cockiness of "this is the way I do things," is that a better experience for you - being able to actually teach them the right way, so that they can get the fundamentals together and then develop their own identity? Or are you seeing some of them show up with distinct riding personalities already?

A Most of these kids didn't just start riding the other day. They didn't just start riding when they got chosen to Rookies' Cup. We did have four kids at the start of the season who'd never ridden a roadrace. Plenty of motocross experience, plenty of Supermoto experience, dirt-track experience, everything else, but not specific roadracing experience. So those kids are the ones that you can watch, and they just continue to develop every weekend. We've got some kids out there who've been racing for four or five years, and those are the guys who're typically the faster ones every weekend. So the cream of the crop's kind of at the top, and everybody else is trying to rise up and get to it. Everybody seems to have that young kid mentality, that they want to learn any way they can. If it's just by listening, or if it's by following - any way that I can - a lot of times it seems like to me, following somebody on the track's almost like cheating. "Well, if he's having to show you how he's doing it, watch this. I'm going to learn from you." And that's what I tell them. "Somebody passes you, don't throw your hands up in the air and be mad. Get on his wheel. See if you can figure out what he's doing to beat you." And yeah, it seems across the board, 23 kids, great mentality, great focus, enthusiasm like I've never seen, and even more so. And I don't know if at 17 when they get that license that says "I'm a pro," that their shoulders square up and they get big chips standing on them, and "You can't teach me anything now." I don't know. There's a lot of guys who get further and go on a lot of other places in roadracing that don't have that attitude, but it seems like even young pro riders have a bit of a - I've been doing this a pretty long time, and until you actually get out - if you have the opportunity to get out and ride with them, either you go out there and outrun them, or show them a few things in a few corners that work, it's kind of hard to gain their respect. Whereas riding with the kids here at Rookies' Cup, the first couple of times we went out and rode a couple of the tracks they'd never been to, I had most of their numbers. There was a couple kids who'd been pretty much everywhere, but "Can you help me through this section of corners?" As the season's progressed, if we give them a full day on the track and then I go out there and try and run with them, more than half of them all I can do is just kind of watch them for a couple of corners and watch them ride away. So it's neat to see them be excited about learning, and I think I can still stand at the side and give them a lot of good advice. And riding with them, for me, is a learning experience for me. I think I see a lot of stuff on the bike that maybe I can't quite pick up on the track. It all works out pretty good.

Q What about the atmosphere? Evan was mentioning that if somebody maybe gets a little bit out of line, they might have to pull dishwashing duty and stuff like that. So are you kind of like Headmaster Schwantz sometimes, trying to keep everybody together and in check and understand how to be on point?

A Absolutely. You get this opportunity, it's a really easy chance to take advantage of everything, to be complacent. "Oh, I left my gloves laying somewhere. Alpinestars will give me another pair." It's "Kids, look after your stuff. You get done, clean your leathers, go help the mechanics clean your bike. If you've crashed, you sure better be over there seeing if there's any other work you can do." Likewise in the changing room. There's water bottles and trash scattered everywhere. And it's before they all leave, I'm like, "Hey, guys, your mom's not coming in here to pick up after you. Clean it up ourselves. Come on." So yeah, I guess, to a certain extent. And to me, it's maybe helping me with some parenting skills that - all I've ever had before is a Labrador, so I've got 23 kids now, three days a week from nine to five. And I really do enjoy it. For me it's a lot of fun.

Q One last thing about the Red Bull Rookies' Cup. Benny Solis and Leandro Mercado, those are the two guys who seem to be at the top of the pile. Do you think we're going to see those guys in AMA, or in MotoGP 125 in the next couple of years? What do you think the career path is going to be for your top two riders in the series?

A Well, Benny right now is only 13, so he's going to be a couple of years before he can do much of anything professionally. I don't know exactly what the future holds for either one of them. Leandro I think's a bit older. Is Leandro 16 already, isn't he? I think Leandro's shown a bunch of promise. I can see a lot of AMA teams ready to snap him up, if a MotoGP Rookies' Cup ride isn't something that is pushed his direction, or even maybe a 125 Grand Prix ride. I'm not sure. There's not a set path for all these kids. We've done a year, we're going to at the end of the year sit down, find some of the kids that we think deserve the opportunity to continue on, take the other kids and we'll have to break the news to them and say, "Hey, guys, we appreciate your participation. We think you did a great job. But we don't have a spot for you again next year." Bring some new kids in, since some kids may be off to MotoGP Rookies' Cup or to the MotoGP Academy. It's just kind of a question mark right now as to what exactly we're going to do. We feel like, from a Red Bull perspective, we feel like the opportunity to take the kids to the next level might be good for us. Might be good to have a little placement program, to be able to sent them off with a 600 Supersport team or something.

Q Okay, moving away from the Red Bull KTM program. Earlier in the season, there was a lot of conjecture about, is Kevin Schwantz going to take over the Suzuki MotoGP effort? Are you going to manage a team? Is Paul Denning going to go out? There was stuff written all over the world about that. You certainly looked poised, at least in photographs that accompanied the stories, to make that journey. And yet there were a bunch of people who said, "Well, maybe there'll be another team, there'll be a B team that Kevin runs, there'll be a third bike." And a lot of people said Suzuki could never produce three MotoGP bikes, so that was all a dream. So now here we are coming towards the end of the season, was that a bunch of journalists getting excited about nothing? Do you have any comment on that?

A It's something that I've always said. After I quit racing at Suzuki, I took a few years, got away from motorcycles, felt like I got arm's length enough away that if I got back involved in racing, I could get back involved and not want to race. And with that, I've always told Suzuki, "My heart, my soul, everything that ever - any part of my career that ever really had much meaning to it was in MotoGP. And absolutely, if you guys feel like I could assist you in getting Suzuki and their MotoGP team back to a World Championship winning level, call me. You've got my number." Over the past couple of years, I've gotten several phone calls. One was about a year and a half ago, when they said, "We're going to build a third bike. We want you to find a rider, put the team together and let's figure out where we're going to put it."

Q They said that. They said they're going to build a third bike?

A [At the] GSX-R 1000 launch in Australia. Two years ago. And then about middle of that year, they said, "You know what? We're still planning on building that third bike, but hold off just a little bit." Then with this year, the end of last year and the downturn in motorcycle sales, almost immediately at the start of this season, it was kind of said, "There's not really going to be a third bike. There's no way we can economically make it happen. The math just doesn't make out. We've got to focus more on sales. We've got to focus more on the two-bike factory team that we've got." With that, I have no idea what my position is there. I think Paul Denning's got a contract through this season. Once again, if my phone were to ring, I would probably have to tell Suzuki that, "You know what, I've got enough obligations here." I'm obligated to Red Bull and the Rookies' Cup program for three years. But I told Thomas Überall, when I signed the agreement with him, that MotoGP was where I wanted to end up, and if for some reason that happened in the next year or two, he says, "No problem, Kevin. Maybe you can coach the kids over there. We'll figure out a way of making this all work out." So right now, I don't see it happening. I think Paul, sponsors, everything that's going on in MotoGP at Suzuki - I think they look to be doing okay. From a race-winning level they're not where they need to be, but I don't think that's any - it's not the fault of anybody in particular.

Q You've ridden the bike, obviously. How much of that do you think is just the machinery? A lot of manufacturers are having problems being at that very upper rung. Ducati seems to have it nailed. Yamaha can be good on the day. Obviously Pedrosa seems to be going okay on his version of the Honda. Where do you think the Suzuki ranks, machinery-wise, versus the other stuff that's out there?

A I've got all the respect in the world for Loris Capirossi and Chris Vermeulen.You watch Capirossi put the thing on the, qualifying at Mugello, one of the fastest racetracks there is out there. Yeah, he said, "I pushed really, really hard." Well, let me see that every lap then. Because until you find the ability and the want to push very, very hard every lap, it's just - you can't go out there at 90%, this. We've got to have 100% every lap all the time. It's obvious the Suzuki's not quite there. But it's funny how, when those guys really get a spur in their side, and really want to prove a point, boom! Vermeulen riding through the pack to finish third at Laguna. It's not an easy place. It's obviously a decent motorcycle. I think the results aren't quite indicative of what the bike is capable of, at least not consistently. So.

Q One could say, given where the comment is coming from, when people talk about your career when you were riding the Suzuki, it was always that you were riding a machine that maybe wasn't at the level of the Honda or the Yamaha, but you got something special out of it because of who you were as a rider. So in essence, are you saying now, 15 years after you won your MotoGP Championship, that the bike is maybe in the same kind of a situation, where they're going to need somebody who's a prodigy, who can really say, "Screw it, I'm taking the bit out, and I'm going to ride beyond what maybe my comfort zone is, and I'm going to try to extract something out of it, that little extra bit that comes from me and not the bike"? So it's the same thing it was when you were riding it?

A Yeah. No, and you know - I guess that's probably maybe the problem that I have with it, in hearing them complain about the bike. Well, the bike's never going to be perfect, and the bike's never going to be the best. It's going to be one of the best. It's going to be pretty close to the best. To make it the best, we've got to figure out what to do, how to get from you, out of the rider - we've got to hope that that extra bit can come from you. I ride the bikes at the end of each year. I ride them 10 or 12 laps. I don't know enough about it nowadays, all the electronics and stuff that are involved.

Q But you rode all the manufacturers' bikes last year, as I recall, right?

A Yeah, in the past two years I've gotten to ride them. The Suzuki was one of my favorites. But I get to spend more time on it. It handles, it feels like a Suzuki when I ride it. And if I were to take the thing and sling it down the road, I don't have a hard time coming in and facing the Suzuki guys, whereas if I crashed a Honda, I'd probably never be able to face them again. But yeah. I think what we saw in Laguna was a little bit of old-school, "here's the way Grand Prix racing's supposed to be. I don't care your bike's faster. I don't care your shit's working better. I don't care you've won a whole lot more races than me. I'm going to stuff you in the next turn and you're going to have to find another way around me. And what it's going to do, is it's either going to frustrate you enough that you're going to make a mistake and going to run off the track and fall over, something's going to happen."

Q That's kind of exactly what you and Wayne used to do, right?

A Exactly. And when I heard Stoner complain a little bit about the passes and the this and the that, it's like, "He never took a shot at you unnecessarily. He ran off the track? You're the one that put your position, that put yourself in the position outside of him, to get bumped into. And you leaned on him as much as anything." I'd have waited. I'd have let him slid across the track. I'd have driven right by him, and he'd have probably never seen me again. But it's good to see that there's still a little fire in some of those guys out there, because you don't see it very often. It's like, "Hey, here we go. We're going off into this corner. I'm up the inside of you. I'm going to let off the brakes and take the spot. I know it's going to make you mad because I'm slowing you down a little bit, but it's the only chance I've really got to beat you."

Q How else was Rossi going to win, unless he did something like that, at that track?

A Exactly.

Q So, the obvious. Spies. It's amazing how just a few weeks ago, after his performance at Donington, he was kind of the story of the moment. When we spoke to him at Miller he was very confident about getting a seat in MotoGP, potentially. And now, one race at Laguna, and Ben's gone from - maybe it's an exaggeration to say "hero to zero," but the take on it is, "Well, no, he's probably not going to get a top-level ride next year, certainly not with Suzuki." Do you have any thoughts on that, about how quickly that seemed to have turned around? It seems like things changed on a dime.

A There's a bunch of guys who've been riding MotoGP for a long time who can, on the odd occasion, extract something from that bike that'll get it up near the front and really please the sponsor and the manufacturer. But I really think it's a sport - it used to be, when we turned 30, you were looking - if you could get another year's contract, you were laughing. Now, it's 35, 36, 37, some of the guys. You know what? There comes a time when you've got to just step aside. Trust me, I know how hard it is to do. If there's not injuries or something forcing you to quit, it's always almost impossible to make yourself walk away from a job that obviously is pretty good pay, it's a wonderful lifestyle, it's a great group of people. But I think Ben's the natural fit. He's been a Suzuki man for a long time. Why not take him over and give him a shot? The worst thing that can happen is he can do bad, and then - if he replaces Capirossi, he's getting beat by Vermeulen consistently - you do him a year at a time. After a year, if he doesn't do it, you move him back to the side and you bring somebody else in, maybe from 125s or 250s. But I don't see how they can send you to a Donington, having never been there, and to a Laguna Seca, which on a good day's a tough place to get around. Yeah, he knows the place really well, but he doesn't know the bike and the tires and everything about it. I still think Ben deserves a shot at MotoGP. I think what he's done here in the US, and the fact that he's as young as he is, I really think that's where he needs to be. But as it happens, it may not be next year on a Suzuki. Maybe he's got to go try and find a private Honda or a - I don't even know if, there's no private Yamaha spots left, now. Both Colin and Toseland are there.

Q Coming from somebody who was associated with one brand for their whole career, I guess there's these moments in time when you have to make a decision, are you going to stay with something. The money is so good here, and that's been a big factor. Ben has stated that he's going to go where the money is. Do you think that maybe that going for the money at this point in his career is the right option, or should he maybe let the money take a back seat and go to a top-level World Superbike team, maybe do well there, and then get a shot at MotoGP? Or go to a satellite MotoGP team? What do you think about money versus thinking about the career long-term, for him, right now?

A Well, there's no doubt, being a Suzuki man, I'd love to see him stay at Suzuki. From a career perspective, it's so difficult, because there are so few teams in MotoGP these days, you've almost got to just look after yourself. I was lucky. I had a couple different opportunities when I could've gone to different teams and different brands. Luckily, one manufacturer said, "We appreciate that you want to come ride for us, but us amongst the Japanese agree that no, we're not going to touch you. You're their rider." And then later in my career, I had another opportunity to go ride for another team, and just thought better of it myself. So I think whatever Spies does, it's going to be motivated just by his heart. He knows he can stay here and be competitive, run at the front, and like you said, make a good amount of money. Or, does he try and go conquer the world. Which, a national championship here in the US is a big, very important championship, but to say MotoGP World Champion is unlike any other that there is out there. I don't know if going to spend a year or two in World Superbike isn't a step sideways and not really getting you any closer. Maybe just stay here.

Q Well, it worked for Vermeulen, certainly.

A Yeah. Maybe just stay here, continue to keep your Suzuki ties together, and then over the next season, go do some odd tests and a few races, build a little more rapport with the factory, now they see you do a couple of tests in a couple places, and like, "Holy shit! He spent two days testing, he was faster than anybody!" It's tough, because you've got to roll the dice and hope that it all plays out, because I don't care who you talk to at whatever manufacturer it is, you don't ever know exactly how it's going to pan out. And there might be somebody come along, some new, young, super-small Spanish kid just like a Pedrosa, or somebody like a Stoner, come in and step onto a MotoGP bike and start to rule the world. So it's a timing thing. I don't know that I have a true direction to give Ben right now, to say, "Hey, stay," or "Go." It's you. It's what your heart is, where you want to go, what you want to be.

Q I want to close by talking a little bit about your broadcasting. It's certainly good to turn on the TV on a Sunday afternoon and see live MotoGP on a major network. How are you enjoying it? Is it something that you feel comfortable doing?

A As I was staring over your shoulder, I'm watching the race in Germany, and there was the intro where Greg [White] and I stood there in our sport coats. I'm comfortable with all of it except the sport coat.

Q I was going to ask you. The sport coat reminded me of, did you ever see Fast Times at Ridgemont High? It kind of reminded me of Spicoli asking the guys about the bitchin' sports jackets they had. You got those from the network, I guess?

A Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. No, working with Greg was a lot of fun. He's so knowledgeable on motorcycles. He's really, really excitable. He's the one that keeps the atmosphere there. And I'm the one that kind of spits out the knowledge about the sport. For me, it's having somebody there who can keep the focus of the people who are watching, to me, is important, because I'm never going to be that guy that's going to stand up and yell and scream about anything.

Q It's funny, because if you read online, on various websites, people talking about the races and stuff, there's two schools of thoughts. There's one that that kind of excitable sportscasting draws people in and is more dynamic, and there's another one which is kind of like, "it's yelling, and it's disturbing." When I was watching it, my girlfriend came in and said, "Why is that guy yelling at everybody?" It's good to have a foil that just talks about the technology and the other stuff. It's funny how there's a big difference in the volume of Greg's broadcasts that are on Speed versus on CBS. Like CBS really wants the broadcast to be super exciting, or something.

A I'm not sure, but I know every time I started talking about racing, when we were watching practice and stuff, the guys kept saying, "Give it a little more excitement!" I'm like, "It's practice! How do I get excited about it?" But it's funny, because the same CBS guy that critiqued me after Germany, called me after Laguna and said, "You know what? When there was something to talk about on the TV, you were almost at that level we want to get you to. You were getting excited about things. We could tell there was some anticipation. ?Oh, and watch what's about to -' You could see what was about to happen and what was coming up." And for me, it's fun. I enjoy it. It's an added stress to me over the weekend when I've got Rookies' Cup, and I've got Suzuki stuff, and it's a MotoGP race in America and every friend that I've got that I've ever known is calling wanting tickets, and now I've got to go jump in the TV box. So it made for a really busy weekend. At Sachsenring it was pretty laid back. At Laguna it was tough. The good thing about Indianapolis, when we do NBC there, is it's going to be MotoGP and Rookies' Cup. So it's not going to be quite as bad at Laguna, and hopefully I'll be able to focus a little more attention both on the television and on the Rookies' Cup kids.

Q One last thing. Can you give us a nutshell about your relationship with Blake Young?

A Blake's been at Suzuki for probably three or four years now. He's riding for John Ulrich's M4 team, and I think he's a great kid. He's 20, about to be 21 years old. I think he's got a bright future ahead of him. He's easy to talk to, he's fun to hang around. We bicycle ride in the winter together. We train together. We horseplay to a certain level that I think kind of elevates both of our fitnesses. So it's good for me to hang out with him, and hopefully I can do like I do with some of these Rookies' Cup kids and give him a little direction when he's out there riding, and help him find some time that maybe he'd struggle to find otherwise.