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Burleson, TX, USA
Edited Date/Time
6/14/2013 8:03am
An excerpt from the Keith McCarty interview about the new Yamaha.
Question: What do the new bikes mean to the reputation of the race teams? We know what some other riders were saying. “The 250 still has a carburetor, the 450 is a weird, backwards engine.” Do you feel like having new bikes means you can go back to the negotiation table with top riders, and get back in the hunt?
Answer: I think every rider wants the best equipment on the track, and I don’t blame them. If I were them, I would want that, too. I think these changes to both of these models is going too….and not that I think the we had a bad reputation, but we certainly had a bad rap for things. Reputation is a little bit more long standing and we’ve certainly performed well over the long term. But we had a bad rap, recently. There were people who were accusing our bike of being non-competitive that aren’t competitive on the bikes they’re on now, and they haven’t been. Same story even on a different bike. I think that went a long way to dispel some of the bad mojo that was coming our way, because it wasn’t accurate. We believe it’s not accurate. There are a lot of people that really liked that bike, regardless of their talent level or their ability to be up front, they still liked the bike. But I don’t want to keep looking backwards, I want to look forward. I think this bike can get us to the front of the pack, and rejuvenate anyone who doubted Yamaha’s ability to have the best bike on the track. I think that’s going to change very quickly.
Question: What do the new bikes mean to the reputation of the race teams? We know what some other riders were saying. “The 250 still has a carburetor, the 450 is a weird, backwards engine.” Do you feel like having new bikes means you can go back to the negotiation table with top riders, and get back in the hunt?
Answer: I think every rider wants the best equipment on the track, and I don’t blame them. If I were them, I would want that, too. I think these changes to both of these models is going too….and not that I think the we had a bad reputation, but we certainly had a bad rap for things. Reputation is a little bit more long standing and we’ve certainly performed well over the long term. But we had a bad rap, recently. There were people who were accusing our bike of being non-competitive that aren’t competitive on the bikes they’re on now, and they haven’t been. Same story even on a different bike. I think that went a long way to dispel some of the bad mojo that was coming our way, because it wasn’t accurate. We believe it’s not accurate. There are a lot of people that really liked that bike, regardless of their talent level or their ability to be up front, they still liked the bike. But I don’t want to keep looking backwards, I want to look forward. I think this bike can get us to the front of the pack, and rejuvenate anyone who doubted Yamaha’s ability to have the best bike on the track. I think that’s going to change very quickly.
and then he looks to be praising Ben Lamay in the following sentence.
Sigh. C'mon Keith.
with Bob Hannah riding it!
....we will c then mofos!
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