Between the Motos: Mike Fisher
Wednesday, May 11, 2011 | 4:15 PM
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Monster Energy Kawasaki has regained the supercross championship they last won with James Stewart in 2007. This time the title came from Ryan Villopoto, a rider who, like Stewart, came through the amateur ranks on green bikes. In the pits on Saturday night, we chatted with Team Manager Mike Fisher about the transition for the team from Stewart to Villopoto
Racer X Online: This team has a history of rebuilding with younger riders. Ricky Carmichael moved to Honda and Kawasaki invested in James Stewart. Then you chose to let Stewart go and invest in Villopoto. Did you see that as a risk, or were you confident Ryan could be this good on a 450?
Mike Fisher: Well, I knew it was a risk because I know how fast James Stewart is. I also know that Ryan is very different than James. But clearly it was a risk! I think we did feel Ryan could win a championship for us, and that’s one of the great things about working for this company, they’re so committed to racing. If you look at our Team Green program for amateurs, it’s a really a big commitment, and we really try to bring those guys up. So when James was there, and Ryan was ready, we certainly had trouble with James at some points. Not all the time, but sometimes we did. And some of the things were just really hard for me to manage. These weren’t personal things, it was just tough for me to manage on behalf of the company. When Ryan was there at the end of his Lites days, he had to go, he was ready to go. So I had to make a decision. We either lose Ryan to keep James, or the other way around. We couldn’t afford both, and they were both hot, both winners, and that costs a lot of money. It would have made for a wonderful team to have both guys like that, be we couldn’t afford that. But we made a decision to go with Ryan. We knew it [success] wouldn’t happen overnight. But last year, I thought he would be ready to win, and he was. But there was that time when he got hurt, and that ruined his chances to win the supercross championship and an outdoor championship. He’s never gone into an outdoor championship on a 450 healthy like this. I shouldn’t say that—in 2009 he was healthy and he won the first race. But he was still coming in with a torn ACL. Now he has all of his ligaments attached, and he’s ready. He’s fit and he’s mentally much stronger than he was. He always doubted himself against the other guys. Especially against the other two guys, Stewart and Reed.
Villopoto's title was the first SX class title for Kawasaki since 2007.
Photo: Simon Cudby
Really?
Yes, the first year, he was so afraid of Chad Reed. He wouldn’t really say it, but the way he rode around Chad Reed, he was very scared. Last year he got to know Chad a little bit. But Chad got hurt right away. I hate to say this, but last year with Reed, it was a half-assed attempt to put it together, for us, too, and it just didn’t work. After that, with Ryan now, I don’t think he feels that way anymore about Chad. But James had him spooked at times this year. But it just depends on the day. Sometimes James is just blazing fast on the track, and it’s a little demoralizing when someone can go a full second faster than you when you think you’re doing everything as fast as you can. Ryan doesn’t think about qualifying too much. He mainly thinks about doing it for twenty laps. He thinks, “I wouldn’t be able to do that for 20 laps, for sure. I could do that for one lap, but maybe crash.” Ryan certainly has proven to be very smart, and I think he was last year, too, but this year he was even smarter.
I’m surprised to hear this, because to me one of his strength is his ability to not get caught up with the other guys, the mental wars, confidence issues, things like that.
I’m not saying he ever actually says any of this. But when you see him ride, watching it, you can tell he didn’t have that confidence when he was riding against them or with them.
So I’m assuming that’s all out the window now.
Well, I think it’s a good, humbling thing. Like you said, he doesn’t get too caught up in it. He doesn’t ride over his head, he doesn’t push himself to where he’s going to make mistakes. I mean, Jacksonville we could say he made a mistake, but Jacksonville, he got cleaned out in both the races he was in.
I know this team put in a big commitment to make the bike better for him, and then he put in a big commitment to get better for you.
Yes. It was a tremendous effort on both parts. At a time when we’re facing some budget cuts, it’s tough. We brought a lot of things in house, and it didn’t make everybody happy. We also leaned on KHI, our parent company in Japan more, and then they pressed on us to do it. They provided us with good drawings, then we worked hard to modify the designs some, and we made some big improvements. Weight was a big thing with us. Ryan was talking about losing weight, and he asked what our bike weighed. We were over the limit last year, too far over the limit, so I told him we could commit ourself to closing that up. Even though we don’t know what the other bikes weigh, we know our bike is close to the limit now. We didn’t want any question marks. There are no question marks when it comes to performance, power, the chassis, suspension, we didn’t give up anything. We left no question marks, and he didn’t leave any questions for himself. He is on an incredible program, a big life-changing program now with Aldon Baker.
Monster Energy Kawasaki team manager Mike Fisher.
Photo: Simon Cudby
And that’s not easy, either.
No, especially for him. I mean, he likes to eat! I mean, you can see when he’s not racing, during the off-season, he’s a big boy. He would use racing to keep the weight off.
So big commitment on both ends. But what’s crazy is, all of that effort, you know other people are doing the same thing. All that work and there still aren’t any guarantees. This year was close!
Right. We know our bikes have always handled well as far as being stable. But being nimble and quick, that was something we were not known for. But I think we’re there now. Everyone put in a lot of work to make this happen, it was a major commitment from Ryan to us, and from us to him.
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Check out WHEN DAYLIGHT BREAKS
in our Latest issue of Racer X available now.
When the lights go off on supercross and racing hits the daylight with the launch of the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship, everyone gets to start over. Page 110.
Look for the verified symbol 
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Cool, so how about Kawasaki corporate takes note of what they did to the bike and begin to make the production KX450F light and nimble? Because right now it's a tank...
hole shot!
jeezuz Mike, you are one ugly bastard
Congrats too RV2 on the championship! watching his awards speach i was a little dissapointed in him not acknowledging his practice bike mechanic. actually no pro riders(except Trey Canard in last months issue) acknowledge them. its sad those guys are with the riders 24/7 keeping those bikes up too par for the stars!! I am a friend of RV2's mechanic & i know how hard that guy works.I give him props because without him the championship might have went somewhere else, I think it would be a great thing for RacerX too do stories or something on these men behind all the stardom! thank you!!!
No questions about PC and FMF?? I grade this interview - F!!!
Kawasaki has brought up a LOT of GUY's More than all the other MFG's combind!! Thinks of all the fast guys who came up on Kawasakis!! The list is VERY long. Great CO IMO.
@SMITH201 that has been covered before.
Only good thing Fischer did was investing in RV! For the rest, he's an a**hole of a manager.
It's no public secret.. Kawi did not want to invest any more $$ on stewie.. And RV was way cheaper.. But again, Kawi made the same mistake in 01'.. Honda offered more $$ to RC.
And what about the big $$ contract Reed signed for 2010? That backfired big times...
The guy is just lucky to have an excellent rider as RV riding his bike...
Fisher is Fishy.... PC should bail Kawi since Fishy lied to Mitch...
Is it just me or did he come off sounding like a bit of a dick? Why bag on rv saying he afraid of chad and bubba and he a fatty who likes to eat! I wouldn't like it if i was him. The guy just won them a sx title.. Fisher sounds like he thinks he won it for rv, not other way round. And they got rid of james at end of his contract coz of monster deal they did and james was redbull at time. Wouldn't hold a can of monster on podium for the 2 years and only started to wear the cap at end of his deal but damage was done. He had to go.
Oh and what happened to the monday conversation with our new sx champ? Come on guys pull ur finger out.
Oh and what happened to the monday conversation with our new sx champ? Come on guys pull ur finger out.
mx_phreek: agree with you 100%. Was Fisher drunk after the race in celebration? I can't imagine letting these opinions about your star rider hit the competition's ear. Reed and Stewart know they can get in Villopoto's head. This is grounds for getting your ass fired. If I was RV2, I would tell KHI to either get rid of Fisher, or let me out of my contract. The trust is gone!
Funny how the keyboard quarterbacks know so much better than the pro's. I say congratulations to Ryan, Mike and the whole Kawasaki team. Championships on this level don't just happen and obviously the whole team works well together, including Mike Fisher. I appreciate the commitment Kawasaki has to racing from amateur to pro. Our family switched to Kawi in 2006 and immediately benefitted from their support and rock-solid motorcycles. They've supported several of our friends in the WORCS series and helped us bring home the AA class 2010 OMRA GP championship.
I think Mr.Fisher was saying was RV2 used too be gunshy of those other riders but as he's matured he is no longer intimitated by them.Well maybe he should be of JS7 as he reminds me of a bowler & takes em all down!! STRIKE!!!! lol maybe thats a safer sport for bubba,
Syke...! on everyone. Fisher's playing with the competitions' minds.
That is still one g@y team manager and way to throw Ryan under the bus right after his big moment, now that's professional. RV is going to walk the dirty Nats!
This Fisher guy should not be handed a microphone. He just starts babbling without discretion. Maybe he was a little buzzed...after all they just won it.
Wow, Dr. Mike, what ever happend to patient confidentiallty?
We all complain that everyone keeps everything all secret and never gives out the real answers, then Fisher does an interview where he speaks the truth and provides some great insight, and now folks are bagging on him for it?
No prob, next time I'll tell him to just praise Monster, Kawasaki and Dunlop tires and we'll leave it at that. Exciting stuff!
Jeez Weege! This is the internet, you haven't realized that you are dammned if you do and dammned if you don't yet?
We (ok, just me) appreciate your efforts.......but since I pay NOTHING, I have very high standards and expect more from you. Now get out there and impress me!
JW u tell 'em...dance off CHAMPION!!! That was some funny shit..
Right on JW. Keep it coming straight, and don't let the "Internet Bigman" get you down. The heart of a racer seeks the truth - the heart of a poser seeks to stir the pot.
the new issue with fmf is the fact that the logos were removed from the team kawasaki bikes before vegas.look at the muffler in the podium picture.no fmf sticker.i think monster had an issue with them because they have some kind of energy drink deal.fmf has terrible customer service anyway,so who cares.i would bet mitch at pc got a good laugh about it.
I wasn´t sure if I wanted to read this thing because if a riders interview is always boring, a team manager one should be worst. But this was really unexpected. Fischer saying their bike was stable but heavy ?, RV asking for a lighter, nimble bike (KHI is not going to like this BTW), RV being intimidated by JS and CR (RV is not going to like this either). But I really DO LIKE to know such inside details. I think it is a great interview, one worth reading. And yes Weigandt...people are going to complain for yes or no, for black or white, even for gray. It is the price of democracy, every retarded can now say or write whatever their small brains can think of. I do really miss the days when just a few people were able to afford a car and a computer....errrr just the cars. Somehow it is funny to read all this retarded speak their Hommer-sized brains out !.
First, Jason, good interview. I think Mr. Fisher is honest in this interview.
Unfortunately, there are always some people who like to be negative no matter what you (in general) do. Also, some people talk like they know what they are talking about although in reality, they don't. Look at how many posters talk like they know Mr. Fisher and/or RV2 well. I don't think any of them is as close to RV2 as Mr. Fisher.
Is he now RV1 or is he still RV2? Oh for the days when people had names like "Buckwheat"...
@Weege, you said it. You cant please guys when they dont even have to use real names or look a guy in the face. But p[eople will bi#ch no matter what. This was a good interview and a good story.