R450: You’ve got some big names helping out here at the trailer.
Rod: Wayne Hinson, I don’t think that I need to say anything about Wayne, I mean he’s a god. Wayne runs everything as far as the race team goes. He makes the calls. To me, we have to have Wayne; there are no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Clark Jones is one of the best suspension guys in the world. He’s a huge success in Motocross. Ryan and Paul Turner are just awesome mechanics. We just wanted to build a good team. We want to win championships. We want to have fun and teamwork, but we want to win. We want to have a good time and give the fans and other riders something to look forward to, but we want to win championships. We want to keep it personal. The way we look at it, we are serious about the sport.

R450: Anything else that really needs to be thrown in?
Rod: Next week we’ll have an awning on the trailer. It wasn’t done for this race. It’s just the beginning from the way we look at everything. That’s why we changed the colors this year. The heart of Suzuki has been the sport bikes and we dominate that. We have almost forty- percent market share. We hold five out of the last six AMA Superbike Championships. Suzuki has been blue and white as far as the performance aspect for many years. We want to dominate ATV racing like that so we decided to go blue and white this year, to get some energy from our road race team.

R450: Are there any other changes that you have made for this year to help you out more?
Rod: As soon as the season was over last year, Doug took a little time off. We got Jeremiah one of Doug’s back up bikes to let him go out and get familiar with the Suzuki. They have two different riding styles, and they like their bikes set up completely different. We’re just learning the both of them and trying to make the best products that work for both of them. If one of them likes something different, we’re going to be flexible and let them go that way. We are going to evaluate everything. If they go out and test it and they like something different, we’ll give them that. We’re going to give them one hundred percent or our support.

R450: We know that the 450 should be out this year. Are you planning to run the Z400 all year and then move up next year?
Rod: Definitely, we are going to run the 400 this year. The bike is awesome. It is tried, tested and proven. Doug and Jeremiah love the thing. It is working great. We have so much research done with it as far as what works and doesn’t work. Yeah, we’re going to run it all year.

R450: What kind of improvements have you been working on for the new 450 that is coming out?
Rod: We’re just using all of the information that we’ve gathered racing and also with everything that we’ve tried. Stuff that has worked, and stuff that has failed. We constantly keep that information and send it over to the factory. Hopefully when we bring it out, we will have the best ATV model that the industry has ever seen. It will be serious.

Well, Rod, I know you’re busy, thanks you for talking with us. Good luck with the race and the rest of the year.

To read other interviews with Team Suzuki members click the following links:
Doug Gust (05/04)
Doug Gust (10/04)
Jeremiah Jones
Wayne Hinson