Aaron Gobert Interview - Part 1

Around the end of the 2004 racing season, following a photo shoot for the opening spread of a story in the current issue, we sat down in the Road Racer X California office with 2004 AMA Superstock Champion Aaron Gobert for a long talk. Here are the portions of that interview that didn't make it into the story. For the main story, see the January/February issue of Road Racer X, which features Gobert on the cover.
By Chris Jonnum

On being the younger brother of Anthony Gobert:
"He was 16 and winning Australian Supercrosses in his first year as a factory pro. I was like 10 years old, and everybody was like, He's going to be the next one. I got a lot of support and sponsorship through that, which was good. When I went road racing, people were definitely interested in helping me, because of my last name. I had no results; I'd only just begun. Over the years, it's been hard to answer some of the questions when people ask, 'What are you going to be like?' With all the bad things that have gone on with Anthony, it's really hard to have that reflection as well. People don't always see the other side; the reputation's a pretty serious thing. Anthony's bad-boy image went a long way, but in the end, it came around to backfire on him."

On his 2002 Daytona crash:
"The last thing I remember was actually from the day before. I don't even remember what happened. Bits of the race have come back to me, and it was all pretty good. Then, I just remember waking up in hospital and having plaster on both my legs, and wondering how I got there. After [the first] couple of days, I had woken up every day for five days and asked what happened to me. I still had no memory. That was pretty hard."

"It was pretty serious, and they weren't sure what was going on. Everyone was like, 'Don't rush back; take your time,' but I was like, 'I've got to get back on a bike!' In my mind, I was going to race the second round at Fontana, but I didn't realize how serious it really at that point."

"Then I came back and raced Laguna, and I was coming top-10 when the bike stopped on me. The Formula Xtreme bike, I was coming fifth, and I ran off the track and made a silly mistake because I wasn't fresh with anything. The rest of the season, I was struggling, finishing top-10, top-15 if I was lucky, and I was really thinking, Gee, I've got a lot of work. That year, I went home, and Yamaha flew a bike to Australia for me. I used to go riding like two or three times a week and just ride all day long at Eastern Creek, or usually Wakefield Park, where you could ride all day for 65 bucks. Mel and I would spend all week at the track, all through Christmas, practicing. It was good. I came back in 2003 and actually got into the lead of the Supersport race at Daytona, a year after nearly dying there. Then I had some injuries come back to haunt me a little bit, like with my arm, and I went back to eighth place in the race. That really hurt because I felt like I'd done so much hard work to get back."

On his title-winning Yamaha YZF-R1:
"It's definitely proven to be the class of the field. In Superbike, Mladin's riding really good and the Hondas are fast, but if you go back to Superstock, there's every manufacturer, and Honda's missing out. Suzuki, Kawasaki and Yamaha have all had a chance to run at the front, and it's been real competitive with all the young guys. Besides Hacking and Buckmaster, the rest of us are all young. It's pretty hairball. Sometimes I see moves, and I think, Gee, that's pretty loose! We’re all in the middle of it here, trying to win. There's a few times I've seen passing moves this year, and I just thought, Gee, that was a little crazy. It should be a class for the future that will not only be for young riders, but be a class that everybody wants to race. Looking at the new AMA rules, nobody's going to be able to race 600s and then go to MotoGP. You can't race 600s and get that opportunity. The 600s might be safe for the conditions we have here, but I guarantee you HRC isn't going to take some guy who's only been on a 600 and bring him to MotoGP. Same with World Superbikes—there's no similarity."

"It's factory support, so everything Japan can offer for R1 performance comes from the Japanese factory, through the U.S., straight to Graves. They're one and the same, but Graves has his name on that team, because there's no way one company can afford to run a four-rider team in two classes. So Graves runs the 1000s, and the in-house, factory guys do the 600s. Graves has his own program, privately with his company, and he supplies crew chiefs, mechanics, suspension guys, and the 1000s are worked on in Graves, at the spec the Japanese recommend. That bike is so fast, it doesn't need much development. We're actually trying to slow it down a bit to make it easier to ride."

On the various classes and series:
"I've been trying to win my first 600 [Supersport] race all year. I'd get into the lead, but the Kawasakis are too quick. We've just got to burn up our tires trying to stay in front of them. Nothing hurt more than Pikes Peak—leading Tommy for 27 laps and then having him pass you."

"Once again, the AMA will be on their own, holding everybody back [by trying to put emphasis on Formula Xtreme]. Let's just hope there's a lot to offer here in the U.S., because nobody will be going anywhere. If everybody's silly enough to put all their eggs in Formula Xtreme, I think that everybody should just stand up and almost protest, and all the factory teams should run Superstock bikes. It's dangerous—we're as quick as the Superbikes at the beginning of the race—but we've got to keep our futures open. I'm sure Nicky Hayden wouldn't be racing MotoGP now if he only rode 600s."

"World Superbike's something I always wanted to go to because me brother raced it, and then lately, I've been watching it, and unless there's a full program there from every manufacturer, I'm not interested in just going there and racing with one manufacturer. It looks like the support's coming back. And then MotoGP: I'd like to finish my career with Yamaha. I'm happy where I am, and I'll just take it as it comes. I'll hopefully go overseas one day; I've got a lot of years to catch up that I've lost with me injuries. The way I see it, I should have been a champion last year or the year before."

On Yamaha's decision to race the V.I.R. CCS race in order to get extra time at the AMA finale track:
"Due to his collarbone injury, Jamie missed out on the first V.I.R. test, and he said, straightaway, 'Look, there's a race at V.I.R., and we've got a chance to go back. Can I go and do it?' Yamaha said, 'Why not?' Then they rung us up and said, 'Do you want to go too? You're more than welcome.'

"Originally, when I went to the VIR test with all the factory teams, I was fighting problems a little bit, so to go back was really good. Jamie and Jason were complaining about front-end issues. I thought, Well, they're complaining about the same things I'm complaining of, except I guess my severity was a little bit worse, and I just wasn't complaining that properly. They pulled my suspension apart and re-valved it just like Jamie and Jason's, and I went out there and rode it and went, 'This is incredible! This is a completely different bike.' I was like, 'Gee, these guys don't realize what I've been riding on; this is like heaven to me!' I got some improvements from their input in the final ride."