Roger Harvey interview - Gajser

Posted on August 23, 2019

They don’t get much more old school that Grand Prix veteran Roger Harvey, from the HRC factory team. Harvey started racing in the 1960s and reminded me during this interview that he might just be the longest standing guy in the GP paddock. One thing is for sure, he is also one of the most popular. Always positive and up for a chat Harvey knows probably more about the sport than most and has forgotten more than I remember.

Earlier this year, in January, I was speaking to Roger about his rider Tim Gajser and Roger mentioned how good the Slovenian looked, both physically and mentally. I know when I spoke to Gajser in Argentina, I also saw something different, maybe more concentrated and confident. Having come off a horrible two years of injuries, big crashes and personal issues, he arrived in 2019 looking very sharp.

Despite Antonio Cairoli starting the year on fire, it was obviously to anyone who knows the sport that Gajser would take his share of GP wins and podiums, but to win the championship, that was going to go to Cairoli, many of us thought. 

We sat down with Roger and asked him about the season and how he saw the whole experience for HRC.

MXLarge: Lets, talk about the beginning of the year and we have talked about this before, but it was a pretty significant opinion from you when we spoke before the season even started. You saw a difference in team in the pre-season, and then when I saw him in Argentina, I also noticed that he looked different, more confident. What did you see?

Harvey: I saw it a little bit in 2018, and then more so at the start of this year, and it was Tim maturing more into proper, now you could call it World Champion. He understands more what he has to do, and his fitness is perfect. He had things he needed to improve and he went away and did that. He probably became to understand more what you need to do to put a championship together and not get injured. We know he can have a big one (crash), but he needs to not do that as often as he did in the past and this year, he showed that.

MXlarge: You know with Tim, he is always in a good mood, always friendly, and got time for the media or the fans. Tony (Cairoli) is like that and Jeffrey (Herlings) to some point, but its different than with Tim. Tim always looks like he is really enjoying life. Tony seems switched on and for Jeffrey motocross seems to be his whole life, but Tim is like an 18-year-old enjoying life.

Harvey: That is where he is at in this moment, he is really enjoying his life and motocross. He has himself physically really good, but more importantly, he has it done really well mentally. Good girlfriend, a sensible girl, and when you have a happy rider and he has a good bike and we know that, but the personal side is important. He is happy with his Honda, happy with his girlfriend and happy with his life.

MXlarge: I tell you what I have noticed a lot this year. For such a skinny guy, he is as strong as a bull. Sometimes he gets himself out of shape and he just pulled the bike back into where it has to be.

Harvey: I have always said, Tim is old school. In that respect he is very old school. When the going it tough, he has to dig deep and when he has to twist it a little more, he can do that and pull it off. He is a pleasure to work with.

MXlarge: You know, with his three World championships, and his 24 GP wins, he is now very close to Dave Thorpe, who also has his three GP wins and 22 GP wins. Of course, Thorpe got his in the golden era of the 500cc class, but this era of MXGP isn’t far off that era and my feeling is Gajser already belongs with the legends of the sport.

Harvey: There are a lot of good riders about now, and when you talk about Tim, Antonio and Jeffrey, we have three very good riders about.

MXLarge: Three legends.

Harvey: Absolutely. Back in the day there were three or four standouts, but now it is very deep, and so many good riders and then all these MX2 coming through, it’s tough now.

MXlarge: I know Dave Thorpe is still very much a Honda guy, and I know he goes to some Grand Prix’s. Has Tim met Dave, and does he know who he is, because obviously Dave raced before Tim was even born?

Harvey: Oh yes, Tim knows who Dave is. Tim is a very respectful guy, and he knows of Thorpy and the achievement and I explained Thorpy raced with me, and he understands that joke as well.

MXLarge: Dave (Thorpe) doesn’t look as old as you though mate.

Harvey: (Laughing), yes, but I was the generation above Thorpy, the older generation.

MXlarge: As far as the season, Antonio started really well, like he was still on the Herlings speed of 2018 (similar to Coppins in 2007 after racing Everts in 2006), and everyone was handing him the 10th title after a round or two and then for sure after Mantova, when Tim had a really terrible GP, but like in 2018, Tim seemed to break Antonio down little by little after about five or six rounds, much as Herlings did in 2018. After Mantova, what was the feeling in the team?

Harvey: We knew, everybody in the team felt we dropped too many points in Mantova, but the idea was to keep the focus and keep doing what you do. Fortunately for Tim, he could build on it, he also understood what he did wrong in Mantova and since I ever worked with him, he can reprogram himself. He can have a bad Saturday and then be on it Sunday. He has said to me in the last few Grand Prix’s, that he just needs to reprogram himself. I have said to him, you must have improved the bike since Saturday and he would say, no Rogers, I needed to reprogram. He has an amazing ability to do that over night and come back stronger on Sunday.

MXLarge: I know you raced Jeff Smith, Dave Thorpe, all the guys in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, I guess. When you seem somebody like Tim, his mental game and the way he prepares, how does he compare to some of the greats?

Harvey: Oh, he belongs there with those guys. You see a lot of similarities. I raced Dave Bickers and Thorpy and it was a golden era and they were really hard men, rock hard. They trained hard, they could push, and I see a lot of that in Tim. He has the ability to push through. He is an old schoolboy.

MXlarge: This year reminded me of 2018, with Antonio looking really strong, battling with Jeffrey and then after about six rounds, Jeffrey started taking control, just like Tim this year after a handful of rounds. My feeling is that maybe Antonio started feeling his age, and there is nothing wrong with that, because we all get older, but what do you think?

Harvey: You can’t get away from that. You see that in all sports as athletes get older. It happens in life and I think he won’t feel it or say it, and he feels like he feels the same as before, but the time creeps on, and I think maybe Jeffrey was mentally better than him, and you can see how the injuries are worse as you get older. We see younger guys coming back, but now Tony has to come back from his shoulder injury and I know from my experiences, when I was in my 20’s I could bounce, but in my late 30s I couldn’t bound so well anymore.

MXLarge: MXGP next year, I mean, damn, Gajser, Herlings, Prado, Cairoli. That is just massive, four guys who will probably all end their careers alongside names like Geboers, DeCoster, Smets, Jobe and the real top guys from our history. I hate to think it, because the 1980s was a very special era with the 500cc class and so many legends battling each other, but I get the feeling 2020 has the potential to be the greatest season in the sports history. Apart from Cairoli the other three are still very young. What is your opinion?

Harvey: That is the way the sport is being led, with Prado having to jump up. One thing you look at a lot now the smaller guys are good on the 250, but the bigger guys need to get off the 250. I still view the 1980s era the best era, and it was also different with the bikes. We have factory bikes now, but they are very close to the production bikes, but back in the 1980s, those factory bikes, they were very special, and people went just to see the bikes. That is the difference from now.

MXLarge: I was a young man in the early 1980s and I struggle to put this era up there with that era, because it was very special, probably more romantic than the era now, which is more cosmetic and clean than the 80s, which was pure passion and emotion. But when you have a nine-time World Champion, and a four-time World champion, and a three-time World champion and a double World champion, that is a very special era. The 1980s era some of those guys got their fourth or fifth championships outside the  If I think of Roger DeCoster on that Suzuki with his yellow jersey with the big S in the middle, well, those images are the best for me, but nobody is riding a bike quicker than they are now, and the GP guys are the best in the World again, and they weren’t in the 1980s, that was the yanks.

Harvey: Oh, it is an amazing era what we have now. Different tracks, when we go back to the old school tracks everybody loves it.