Inside SuperIT
hour with him before the subject of
Supermotard comes up. To say that
Don is enamored with the sport would
be a gross understatement.
In recent years, I've attended a
couple of Don's STTARS (Super TT
American Racing Series) races, and
finally got a chance myself to ride a
Yamaha YZ426F set up for Supermotard with 17-inch rims front and rear,
which was a blast, so one of these
days I'm going to take it to the next
step and do a race.
As a pre-season warm-up to the
STTARS series, two events were held
at Edison International Field in Ana. heim, California, in conjunction with
the Monster Truck events in between
the three Supercross rounds at the
stadium. The thing that was particularly exciting about the events held in
the parking lot at Edison Field was
that a handful of road racing stars,
and even one member of motorcycle
royalty, were on hand to participate.
Among the road racers were American Honda's Nicky Hayden (second
weekend), Yamaha's Anthony Gobert
STORY AND PHOTOS BY
BLAKE CONNER
ere at Cycle News. we get motorcycle magazines from aU over the
world, and one thing that we've been
noticing the past couple of years is
that Supermotard is getting bigger
and bigger in Europe. Even though
we can't read a lick of many of the
languages that these magazines are
penned in, we always take the time to
peruse the Euro-rags looking for cool
Supermotard photos.
Supermotard isn't new, and it's not
even new to me. It's been on my
radar for a while - I still remember
watching the ABC Wide World of
Sports Superbikers telecasts as a kid.
Recently, however, I've paid a lot
more attention to it than ever. As a
journalist in the motorcycle industry,
I've spent a lot of time on international flights to foreign press introductions. On more than one occasion,
I've sat on the plane with Cycle World
magazine's Don Canet, and anyone
who knows Don will tell you that you
won't make it through more than an
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MARCH 6, 2002'
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