Tuesday Conversation: Larry Pegram

The only thing Larry considered more overdue than a victory was his first Road Racer X cover. (Coming soon to a newsstand or mailbox near you.)

What was Italy’s response to the win?
Everybody over there seems really happy. I think they were a bit surprised that we won, because everybody was under the assumption that Mat wasn’t going to get beat this year in a straight-up fight, and when they found out that we beat him and beat him straight up, they were very impressed. And now they’re even more involved in our program. They helped us out before, but they’re really strapped over there, just like everyone else, and Ducati always has a tight-knit group as well but they don’t have a lot of extra guys. So they’re happy, and so are the guys here—Michael Lock and everybody at Ducati North America. Michael believed in me and I delivered for him, so now he can go back to those guys and say, “Hey, we told you we could win, now help us out more!” [laughs].

And your thoughts on the rest of the season?
Even before we won, I told the guys at Infineon, “Hey, if we can be in the top-three here and be competitive here”—because that’s been one of my worst tracks, and Barber and Infineon are the two worst tracks for our bikes because they don’t have an area to stop, point, and shoot the thing—“we’ll be tough from here on out, at every track for the rest of the year.” I mean, I haven’t seen the tracks in Kansas or New Jersey but I’ve been told they’re bigger, flowing tracks, so I think at every racetrack we go to now, if we don’t come away with a win, I’ll be disappointed. I’m not saying we’re going to win every race, but we’re going there with the intention to win every race.