CN
III ARCHIVES
BY LARRY LAWRENCE
T
oni Elias' victory last month in race one of the
Virginia International Raceway (VIR) MotoAmer-
ica Superbike doubleheader marked his 20th
MotoAmerica Superbike victory. That milestone
alone was almost lost in the midst of a typical hectic
MotoAmerica weekend. That VIR win put Elias in an
elite group of just six other riders in the 42-year his-
tory of the series to accomplish that 20-win mark.
The next day at VIR Elias started working on further
milestones when he scored his 21st-career Super-
bike win aboard his Yoshimura Suzuki.
The fact that Elias reached 20 wins in less
than two-a-half seasons meant he was the fast-
est rider to reach the 20-win mark in terms of
calendar timeframe, but the question remained,
how many races did it take for Elias to reach 20
P122
Elias Fastest In History
To 20 Wins
wins compared to the other riders to reach that
mark? Superbike doubleheaders, which began
in the early 2000s, have historically helped pad
the stats for riders who raced in the current era
as compared to days when there was just one
superbike national per weekend. So, the ques-
tion was did Elias actually reach 20 wins in fewer
races than the other six riders who earned that
number of wins?
It took some research, but the answer is yes.
Here's a look back at the history of riders get-
ting to 20 wins in the MotoAmerica AMA Super-
bike Championship.
Fred Merkel became the first rider in series
history to reach the 20-win plateau when he
took victory at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
Toni Elias is no
stranger to win-
ning in American
road racing.
