Daytona 250 Gp/600 Supersport
DAYTONA 250 GP/600 SUPERSPORT
WINNER: JOHN KOCINSKI
Cycle Week's only sure bet
SOME PEOPLE SAY JOHN Kocinski is cocky. Others say he's just realistic: He’s good, and knows he’s good. He has, in the past, done things like write a letter to Cycle News signed “a future world champion.” The thing is, John was right, and everybody knew it.
“John could be a world champion. 1 think that anyone who has the desire and the talent can be a world champion,” says three-time 500 GP Champion Kenny Roberts, Kocinski's mentor for the past three years. “And John Kocinski has the talent. He’s world championship material.”
RACE WATCH
7 hat fact was never any more clear than it was at Daytona this year. Kocinski came out with a Bud Aksland-tuned Yamaha TZ250 and everyone knew well ahead of time that he was going to lay waste to the 250 class. He did. Just as he’s been doing for two years in the U.S. 250cc Grand Prix class, Kocinski walked away and left the rest of the pack to fight over second place. And only moments before the start of that race, he had won the 600cc supersport class by an equally impressive margin. despite starting from the second wave due to an AMA-imposed penalty.
“I started my qualifying heat from the wrong row.” Kocinski explained. *7t was actually a disadvantage, but the officials didn’t see it that way.” They imposed a one-lap penalty, causing Kocinski to start the final beside riders he had lapped in his heat race. “I was upset about it at first, but once I got out there and saw how slow those guys were going up front, I wasn't worried.” Cocky? Maybe. But for Kocinski not to acknowledge that he was the best rider on the track by a significant margin would have been a denial of the plain truth.
Kocinski is self-confident, but not self-centered. When he won his backto-back races at Daytona he displayed only marginal enthusiasm for his own victories. But when his friend Rich Arnaiz was running near the front of the Superbike race, Kocinski watched eagerly, probably more excited than Arnaiz himself. “He’s giving up 10 horsepower to those guys,” Kocinski bubbled. “And he’s doing great.” Arnaiz and Kocinski live in the same area of central California, and often go riding together. “We ride marathons together, we even do a little motocross.”
Later, when Arnaiz crashed while actually leading the 200, Dunlopsponsored Kocinski was crushed. “He needs to get off those Michelins . . .” From the look on Kocinski’s face, you would have believed his own race were ruined.
But that disappointment aside, Daytona was still a boost for Kocinski. At this point in the 20-year-old’s career, every time he rides, he gets a little better. “He’ll ride three or four GPs this season, some on a 500,” says Roberts. “I’m not putting him on a 500 just to see how he’ll do. I’m putting him on a 500 to give him the experience he needs. He’s better now than he was a year ago, and he’ll be better in a year than he is now. We will go to Europe when everything is right for him to go to Europe. For now, he’s about the third-best 250 rider in the world.”
This year, Kocinski will make the 250cc GP class in the U.S. his number-one priority. He doesn't care for the supersport class. “I don't like racing streetbikes. That’s not where I want to go with my career. They don't let me go as fast as I want to go,” he said.
Roberts concurs: “He won't race supersport again because that’s not the kind of experience he needs. Daytona was just a one-shot deal with U.S. Yamaha.” So Kocinski will no doubt go on to another U.S. 250cc GP title and then enter the international racing scene. After that, who knows? If Kocinski is right, he’ll win the 250cc world championship.
And he's been right about everything else so far.
