Tuesday Conversation: Michael Barnes

With the hot streak that Danny Eslick has been on lately, the young Bruce Rossmeyer’s Daytona RMR Buell rider has rightfully been getting a lot of attention, but we hadn’t heard much from his teammate Michael Barnes. We decided the veteran road racer would make a good interview, so we called him up prior to this past weekend’s Road Atlanta round.

RRX: How did your hook up with the team?
Michael Barnes: Basically, Richie Morris called me to do some Moto-ST races last year, and that’s how we originally hooked up. We had some decent success right off the bat. We won Topeka my first race with the team, and then I missed out on another one with a minor knee injury that I suffered. I missed New Jersey, but then I did Daytona at the end of the season. We had been talking about 2009 towards the end of last year, prior to October, anyway.

What’s the team like to work with?
Well, the team’s great. I’ve got Mike Earnhardt, who was my crew chief when I was on M4, so it’s nice to have some familiar faces around the team. Some of the other guys were working with the Moto-ST effort, so I was familiar with those guys as well. It’s just nice to have stepped up Richie’s whole program; with GEICO Powersports coming into it, we’re able to really step it up a notch.

I imagine that one of the reasons they hired you was your experience and bike setup ability.
Well, yeah. I’ve ridden a bunch of Buells over the years, and also a wide variety of motorcycles, as you probably know. It was a good fit. They wanted an experienced guy, and they wanted a young guy. There were some names thrown out in the eleventh hour for the second rider, as the Bruce Rossmeyer part of it came together as well, and Danny [Eslick] was a strong pick of mine. As it turns out, he’s already delivered.

Had you two ever been teammates before?
Danny and I, even though we haven’t been on the same team, we’ve basically been working as teammates on the track over the years. Back when I was racing the Buell in Formula Xtreme, him and I had some epic battles when he was on the Matsushima team. We’ve respected each other on and off the track and worked well together, communicated well together, and I knew that he’d be a good fit with his dirt track background. To me, he seems to be one of the most naturally talented riders that we could have picked.

What has the difference been with him this year?
I think one of the main things is that he’s gelled with that motorcycle better than I’ve ever seen anybody gel with a motorcycle. You often see somebody get on one of the big four bikes and go good, but their bikes are so similar. And then to get on a twin, which he’s got his grassroots dirt track experience from, it just seemed to just be such a natural fit, as soon as he put a leg over the bike at the first test at Jennings. Right away, he was comfortable on the bike and had a big smile on his face. And that smile has not come off his face—it got a little bigger at Fontana.

How did you hurt your hand?
We got some Dunlop tires that really weren’t what I was expecting. It seemed to be a little bit indicative of the team test at Fontana, where everybody was kind of struggling. I had a little low-side crash in one of the slower turns where you have a lot more load on the front end, so for it to have happened through a fourth-gear sweeper where you’re on the gas, I didn’t expect it. I lost the front, and pushed the front end for over 100 feet—left a huge black mark right up until the edge of the track and pretty much just pushed the front end off of the track, into the grass. It wasn’t just a low-side where I got off on the track and slid off; it was like I low-sided into the grass, and after that, I don’t really remember much. I tumbled around a whole bunch and whacked my head a little bit. I was happy to come out of it with a broken metacarpal in my right hand. Just my luck, I also had my right wrist injury in ’07, when I was racing for M4. You couldn’t hurt a worse limb in this sport, and I keep on getting it to the right hand [laughs]. But I’m pretty resilient and determined to come back. I know it’s just going to get stronger and stronger, and I really enjoy riding the motorcycle. It’s a fun bike to ride, and it’s a great company to be representing. I look forward to more time with Buell and being able to help develop this whole program ever further.

What do you think of the bike?
We’ve made a fair amount of development in a very, very short time. We’ve just made some suspension changes and the new bike and the new class. When we were racing Moto-ST, we were really restricted, so it’s exciting, because every time I get on the bike, I’m more and more comfortable with it as I’m getting stronger. I seem to be getting along with it more and more as I ride it. It’s very stable, the Buell perimeter brake seems to work really good. It makes really good power out of the corners, and it’s just fun to ride.

What’s your response to the accusations of it having an unfair advantage?
Well, it’s competitive. If we were finishing outside the top five, for example—I am, but it Danny wasn’t in the top five—and another brand was winning, I don’t see us whining about how they’d be over-competitive. I think something that should be looked at is the three or four Suzukis that are up front in Superbike. Yes, there’s some really talented riders up front in the field riding Suzukis, but there’s definitely no slouches among the other riders. Everybody’s got their program that’s going to improve throughout the year, and I think it’s a little bit early to sort of point fingers. We’re going to get to our tracks that are going to be a little bit more difficult on our bike, and like I said, Danny, you can’t think anything away from the kid…. Danny is riding the wheels off of it, and he’s gelled with this motorcycle better than I’ve seen anybody hop on and gel with a motorcycle. A lot of the credit goes to Danny, and granted, the bike is competitive. It comes off the corner very strong, it’s obvious, but at the same time, it’s a heavier motorcycle, it’s harder to transition, and that means that it’s up to the teams to make that bike work better. Our team right now is making that bike work better. Right now, I think it’s a wait and see, and that’s also what I believe that the representatives of the AMA are doing—they’re waiting and seeing a little bit. This is the first year of the new rules, the first year that Buell’s in there. It’s promising for Buell and future endeavors and efforts for the 1125R.

What’s your role on the team? Are you Danny’s mentor?
I’d love to take the credit as mentor, but I’m more of a Danny Eslick supporter. I just try to help him make the right decisions day-in and day-out, that are going to be more advantageous to his future. That’s really all I’m interested in, and I’ve done it with a handful of young riders over the years. Blake Young is another one that I would sit down and talk to—spend a lot of time with. His dad—a wonderful, wonderful man, Steve Young—would often come to me, and we would talk often. He would just pick my brain as much as he could. He’d have me sit down and talk with Blake. I really enjoy it. I went around and asked everybody in the paddock in the early ’90s when I was coming up, and you can’t be afraid to talk to people and ask questions—that’s really the best way of learning. I’m just trying to be there as much as I can for these guys, because they’re going to be the future of road racing entertainment once I retire.