Larry 'Scoop' Carter part two.

Larry 'Scoop' Carter had a good chin wag with Crash.net Radio at the Stobart Honda launch. He will be holding court in the pit lane and on the grid as usual in 2007.....
Q:

Will you be doing your usual pit lane antics in 2007?

Larry 'Scoop' Carter had a good chin wag with Crash.net Radio at the Stobart Honda launch. He will be holding court in the pit lane and on the grid as usual in 2007.....
Q:

Will you be doing your usual pit lane antics in 2007?

Larry Carter:

Most people might not recognise the ugly face but might recognise the voice that patrols pit lane in British Superbike and the British rounds of the World Championship as well, working with my very good friend Fred Clarke. The job has its benefits because we get a free pass and of course that is the only reason I do the job and that is to get a pass for pit lane!

The beauty of it is having worked with the riders and the teams over the years I've built a relationship with them and that relationship is of friendship and respect. The thing is we have a laugh, we have a joke, sometimes it is a little bit flippant and a little bit light hearted but at the end of the day I have the utmost respect for all those riders out there in pit lane and as a result as a journalist, hopefully they have respect for me. It means that I'm perhaps able to extract a little bit more information from them than they would normally be prepared to impart, or perhaps give me a slightly different angle.

I know when to talk to them and when not to, that is the good side. The bad side of course is when Michael Rutter gets on the podium. Because as most people know with everybody in British Superbikes there is one person I particularly despise and that is that bloke called Rutter! I have nightmares about him because we have perhaps not got on too well in the past and it really pains me when I've got to introduce him onto the BSB podium - not that he gets up there much these days very often, he should be reminded. He occasionally gets up there and I think it happened twice this year by default when he was lying tenth and nine people fell off in front of him. As a result Michael ended up getting on the podium by default and what does he do every time he gets up there? He decides that champagne is better down my neck than down his throat, and as a result poor old Scoop Carter as Fred calls me, he ends up getting absolutely drenched to the point whereby Birdy's girlfriend Lindsay takes pity on me.

When Michael got on the podium this year, Lindsay took me off into the back of the truck, and while she didn't quite give me a rub down she did allow me to go into Birdy's wardrobe and pick out certain items. Those might just be appearing on eBay, Paul bird's trousers and shirts!

Seriously, Michael and I are good friends we have this little charade that we do, but I don't thank him for tipping cold champagne down my neck when it is freezing cold at Brands Hatch, especially when I've got a five hour drive home. He is a good lad is Michael, I get on very well with him and I hope he has a little bit of luck with Kawasaki this season and I hope he will win a race.

Q:
Was it Noriyuki Haga who gave you a hard time on the grid?

LC:
As most people who know me will know that I'm fluent in Japanese, the only problem is it is the type of Japanese that the Japanese don't understand. My friend Ryuichi Kiyonari has taught me lots of Japanese phrases the problem is like the English phrases I teach him they don't necessarily mean what he says they mean!

I ventured to Noriyuki Haga the World Championship rider on a number of occasions, and Nori for whatever reason, I must catch him at a bad time because whenever I go up to him and stick a microphone in front of him he just looks at me and says "What do you want?!" And I have actually been thrown out of his garage twice so as I keep saying to people I'll talk to whoever where ever.

Sometimes I have to wait at the British Moto GP to speak to Valentino Rossi for a full hour, and I will wait an hour as I have an obligation to the people who have paid fifty or sixty quid, whatever it is to get in, to interview those heroes. But the one guy for whatever reason that does just not like me, and I won't say I don't like him because that is not true. He makes my job very difficult and that is Nori-chan who I am a big fan of. I think he is a fantastic rider he is a great show man and a breath of fresh air for the World Championship, but for whatever reason whenever he sees me he just puts the shutters up.

I don't think I'm alone, I know from talking to other World Superbike Championship regulars, catch him on a good day and he is ok, catch him on a bad day, perhaps I always get him on a bad day. If you are listening to this Nori next time at the World Superbikes at Silverstone and Brand Hatch, just spare me five minutes on the microphone. There are a hundred thousand people out there who would love to talk to you. I'm sure that it is nothing personal and out of the hundreds of guys I speak to during the course of the year that is a very rare occurrence.

Q:

Will you get a bit of a break over the winter?LC:

Sadly not, we have had one of our busiest Decembers. The Superbikes keep me very busy most weekends during the year, I'm heavily involved with Motorcycle Racer magazine as the Editor and that keeps me going most of the time. Also the business is very Rally orientated and we have a lot of Rally customers, we look after the press office for the National Rally Championship. We do press work for the like of Steve Perez who was British National Rally Champion and numerous other customers. That keeps us very busy over the winter months as well. In our game it is good to be busy as that is what pays the bills so I ain't complaining. I think it is fair to say that the eighteen hour days are becoming twelve hour days!

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