How is John as a person, really?

Read about my own encounter with John just below, or about Rich "Jasper" Bower's adventures with John, read a snippet from an interview with John, read about Jurgen van den Goorbergh's little chat with John, or about Neil Tuxworth's opinion. Neil was John's team manager during the successful 1997 season.

Time: Saturday September 7 [1996], half past nine in the morning. Place: the Assen racetrack, entrance of the Ducati Corse hospitality unit.

Dwelling in the paddock, still chilled by the one hour ride through the cold (leather suit only, 10 degrees Celcius, that really isn't a heartwarming affair), suddenly I see John Kocinski doing a signature session in the doorway of the Ducati Corse hospitality unit (the writer of this letter has been a big fan of Li'l John since many years). Grab the opportunity, so there I go, I ask someone to lend me his waterproof marker, and then I ask John to please put his signature on the back of my suit.

That turned out to be the start of a very nice conversation, because he really liked my brand-new Dainese suit (blue/black with a touch of orange and some other stuff). "This is one cool outfit", he said, "why don't I have a suit like this?" We talked a bit more about the suit.

Then I gave him a page of KicXstart stickers, with the words "Put one of these one your bike [Ducati 916], it's guaranteed to knock off a second off your lap time". He accepted the stickers, and put them on a table. Obviously he didn't think those stickers were very interesting. So I gave him my latest copy of the KicXstart, and that, he thought was interesting.

He started browsing it immediately. I pointed out the new Honda superbike in the letters-to-the-editor section [at the time it was rumored that Honda was going to enter a two-cilinder bike in the Superbikes series]. "Look John, the new Honda superbike is in it." "Yeah, we've seen pictures of it already." "Not this one!", and I translated [from Dutch], very seriously, the absolutely not serious story about some kind of Honda moped. He replied - equally seriously - that it looked like a real winner's motorbike. He also liked the picture of a nude man doing a burnout on a motorbike.

I wished him good luck for the races and immediately he started shaking my hand.

So: John Kocinski is a really nice guy. Thumbs up! What do you mean, attitude? What do you mean, difficult to approach? He was Mr. friendliness himself! There was also a man there, with his little son who celebrated his birthday, and this man wanted to take pictures of his son with a number of riders (not all at the same time of course). John took all the time in the world to find a nice spot in the paddock where they could take that picture.

Later, after free practice, he walked, very much at ease, through the paddock, in shorts and t-shirt. Very relaxed, a big smile on his face.

That was a day never to forget. Still, he should have put a KicXstart sticker on his bike. Then he surely would have beaten Fogarty! [he beat Fogarty though one year later]

By the way, these folks from KicXstart aren't JK fans, as can be observed from their answer: "You sure it was the real one?"

"Where do I start with [...] being a Kocinski fan? Well, I first got interested when I saw a picture of his helmet in a magazine with the caption "Just because he will be a World Champion doesn't give him the right to where a bloody silly helmet", which got to me as I particularly liked his helmet design (Day-Glo orange and flouro yellow, with eagle and US flag). So I decided to find out more about him, this was in 1987. That was it, hooked.

I watched him win three AMA 250cc titles, two wild card GPs, [a 250 GP world title,] a number of 500 GPs and a superbike world title (still the only man ever to win a GP and WSB championship!!). Due this fanatical following, which included having crash helmets re-sprayed in his colours, I persuaded my father, who is a bit of an artist, to do some paintings for me.

His first, John on the Cagiva, his second John on the Ducati in 1996 [...]. In 1997 [John] did a shop opening with Aaron Slight, so I packed the wife and kids into the car, along with my Ducati painting, in the hope of getting it signed and meeting my hero!! Little did I realise what this would lead to.

On meeting John and showing him the painting, he said "This is fantastic, you must sell it to me". This gave me a bit of a problem as my father had done it for me. I declined his offer, but he said if I changed my mind, would I ring him. I couldn't believe it, me ring John!!

I left and talked it over with my father later, who said sell it, he could always do another painting. So I rang John. Not only did he pay me (I gave the money to my father), I got pit passes to the Donnington WSB round!! I met John at the circuit, where he signed the Cagiva picture and wished him luck, I then spent all weekend in and out of pit garages. Brilliant. Finally after the race I went to his pit where his driver had got John's kneesliders from the races for me, like he (John) said he would do - he was true to his word. Fantastic.

After the race my father did another painting of John, this time on the RC45. I did a photocopy and posted it to him, did he want it? Yep, same deal as before but this time for Brands Hatch. Everything went as easy as Donnington, this time I received the sidepods off his crash helmet!! The race was difficult for me, as 120,000 people were screaming "Foggy,Foggy", and there I am going "Come on John!!"

Apart from the souvenirs, the other thing I took away with me was a lasting impression of John as a professional and dedicated rider with a massive desire to win, he was never nasty or unhelpful. Yes he does like things clean (I watched him clean his helmet and leathers for over an hour! They were immaculate when he started), but he is no worse than Foggy or Doohan or any of the "greats" when the pressure is on.

It is a great shame that a man of his immense talents has been allowed to drift into obscurity (OK, I acknowledge his teams find him a nightmare to work with, I'm sure Mike Tyson's corner have the same feeling about Tyson!), but to see talent wasted like it was on the Kanemoto Honda. He needed money, and by that time everybody else was on the new bikes and he wasn't, didn't exactly help keep the pressure off did it, is a travesty."

"What I ask of people is to try to understand me as a person and forget what has happened before. That's not important. What matters is what will happen tomorrow.

So you must judge now, on facts, no rumor.

It's like with our sponsor. I practiced saying that name, Kremlyovskaya. It's very difficult. Many people practice for months and still they can't say it. But I thought it was important for me to be perfect for the team presentation and be able to say that name. And after the presentation, one guy came up to me and told me that the president was very happy because I could pronounce that name so well.

He told me that he heard John Kocinski was a monster and now that he knew me, he couldn't understand why this had been so distorted."

During the qualification at Mugello, 1998, it came to a confrontation between Jurgen van den Goorbergh and JK.

Jurgen: "He cut me off at the straight and then gave me the middlefinger. I was probably in his way during a fast lap. But I couldn't help it, because I don't have eyes in my back. What he did was very dangerous".

In France the Dutchman talked to the American about his behavior. Jurgen: "He apologized and said he was frustrated because the delay probably cost him a place on the front row. Since our little chat he has been very friendly to me. A Kocinski with his helmet on is obviously different from one with his helmet off".

"John is a different sort of character. I mean, I've never had a problem with John, and I don't think John's ever had a problem with me. You've got to treat John different... every rider is different. I treat Aaron [Slight] different to Colin [Edwards], they're all different. John just requires probably help in some areas other riders don't. The secret to having success with John is working with him, as a team. He's very precise about what he wants. People make all kind of crazy stories about John. John is different, but then again Colin is different, Aaron is different, Fogarty was different, every rider is different. Many people criticize John without ever getting to know him or work with him. We had a very good, enjoyable and successful year with him, and I think John says the same, too."

In an interview during the 2000 season, this is what John said about Neil: "Neil Tuxworth knows how to run a race team. He knows that riders need certain things to go fast. He either sees to it that they get what they need, or he makes a sincere effort. A visible, sincere effort. He does things right. They [Castrol Honda team] have the people."