Interview With MotoGP Legend Kevin Schwantz

I have never been to India. I have to come and watch the finals of the Gixxer cup here in India and will be really special. I like keeping tabs on all the fast young kids that are coming up and especially when they are riding a Suzuki series bike.

2. Do you see the increasing role of countries like India in future of MotoGP?

Absolutely with the population here and the young kids and the group of talent there is, we have seen them in four wheels or two wheels. I think there is a future. The marker here seems to be one that is of importance to lot of a different people. The sales of motorcycle units too is very big and i think that's something that we all are paying attention to, that's for sure.

3. Is India ready for a MotoGP race?

I think it is, as long as the venue is good and safe. I think we need more tracks to race at. We have 4 Grand Prix in Spain. We need to branch out a little bit. I think India is a market something that like i said earlier, is very important to the motorcycle community and we need to do all we can to try help push in here

4. Do you see a racer from India soon?

Absolutely with the number of people that are here, we are bound to have world champions running around right now. We just find them early enough and get them on that path headed them right way. There is no doubt that India has some word champions.

5. You also brought your own style of aggression on the track. Was it as simple as going faster than the others?

For me it was just about trying to win races. I of course dreamt of being a world champion but more importantly i wanted to win every race i was in. Sometimes it allowed me to do some spectacular things, sometimes it didn't allowed me to do it. But you know I had a pretty short career. I didn't start racing till ?I was 20 and I retired by the time before I was 31. So to get in and get on to a superbike, production bikes and superbikes and grand prix bikes in a way I have a pretty steep learning curve. So i was trying to learn every lap of every practice session that was out there for us. It was fun i would like to maybe have a couple of laps of races back that i made mistakes late in the races but i learnt from the mistakes that i made. I am happy with everything. I wished I could have raced a little bit longer but at the same time walking away is never easy but i felt that i did it at the right time.

6. How do you see the evolution of the motorcycle racing?

I think the technology has made the racing little bit boring, but i think the technology is still at such a high level ,we are building motorcycles that are so fast we got to develop electronics to be able to wheelie control and spin control and anti lock breaks and all that kind of stuff to make it so that the average consumer can ride among the public roads it's something that we got to do. Maybe racing isn't that we hoped it would be at a world championship level. I think this year Rossi made it interesting, the weather has played a part in some of the races, kept it entertaining but you know it's physically its no easier than its ever been ,the bikes are more forgiving now than they used to be. Better track, safety has gotten better and I think the best man still wins on Sunday.

7. If you were an administrator, what would you do to revive interest?

I probably ask them to take the fuel injection off and put carburetors on and have no electronics on whats so ever and lets ride them as far sideways as we can , I think the show would be back and I think everybody really enjoy watching it at that point. I mean I enjoy watching it today but I am probably bit of a die hard.

8. What are some of the basics that you try and teach modern riders?

If you are an aspiring racer, just go out there and chase your dream. I kept having opportunities put in front of me when I started road racing. I never said no to any of it. I went and jumped on it whether i would have succeeded or whether i would have failed. Fortunately I succeeded in most of it and when I did fail, normally I failed in a way that at least got me another opportunity. So you have to have a big heart and you have to have a lot of desire because racing is not easy. Physically it's very very demanding, it can be painful sometimes but just work, work work, it's never gonna come easy.