Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128161
Tommy Hayden have been mentioned occasionally when the subject of top four-stroke riders not currently in the World Superbike class comes up, but if there is another American superstar ready to emerge on the Grand Prix or World Superbike scene, it has to be Nicky Hayden. (Some observers, however, feel that Kurtis Roberts, currently injured, could be as good or even better than Nicky if he could avoid injury and rein in his aggressive style.) Kenny Roberts Jr. 's great 2000 season reminded the world of the American connection that once generated a seemingly endless chain of great talent (Pat Hennen, Steve Baker, Kenny Roberts, Randy Mamola, Mike Baldwin, Freddie Spencer, Eddie Lawson, Wayne Rainey, Kevin Schwantz, John Kocinski, Doug Chandler, Kenny Roberts Jr.), but, in recent years, the shift in GP racing has been away from American riders and toward riders from Italy, Spain and Japan. To Grand Prix journalists, the United States, once the primary source of 500cc stars, has become more associated with Superbike racing than GP racing, and Superbike riders, in recent years, have just not succeeded in 500. The hair-trigger 500cc two strokes, producing their 190-plus horsepower in a big, nasty burst, have, over the years, caught out the best riders coming up from the traditional "feeder" classes of 250cc GP and Superbike, but now, with the advent of 990cc four-strokes, mastery of the dark art of riding a V-four 500cc twostroke is no longer a priority for GP racing's premier class. Today, few fans in Europe have ever heard of Nicky Hayden. To most he is just Nicky who? But all MotoGP team managers know the name, and some even know that the area code for Owensboro, Kentucky, is 502. The AMA Superbike Championship is now seen sporadically on some European sports channels, but viewers seem more surprised by the primitive and dangerous nature of most American racetracks than by the brilliance of the young championship leader. "He's winning, but who is he beating?" asked a Dutch journalist at Le Mans - a typical response. Actually the AMA Superbike Championship, even though depleted at present due to a combination of injuries and budget cuts, deserves to be considered the strongest national series in the world. Only the AMA and All-Japan Championships have teams running full-factory-specification Superbikes. The British and Spanish nationals would rank next on the list of prestigious series, and both enjoy prime-time, live TV coverage on the flagship national channels of their respective nations, the BBC and TVE. The British Superbike Championship is, however, led for the most part by aging veterans. The All-Japan Championship is a tightly closed world with all top riders bound to factory commitments and all but unapproachable to teams outside Japan. Spain's CEV series has, until now, been geared to classic 125 and 250cc GP machines, but has just introduced anew, anything goes Supersport class permitting slicks and radical suspension modifications and also a more limited Formula Extreme series, which allows slicks but holds the 1000cc bikes to conventional Superstock rules regarding engine preparation. Spaniards are in great demand by Spanish sponsors, and any truly promising rider is signed immediately to a 125 or 250cc team and then watched, hopefully, by MotoGP teams. Many other European riders, and even the occasional Australian (like 17 -year-old Casey Stoner), race in the Spanish series in hope of being noticed. Rossi also raced the Spanish series, learning many lessons from four-time World Champion Jorge Martinez. Of these four top National Championships, however, the AMA Superbike series is the only one that features full-factory machines and a half dozen or so top riders who invite comparison with the stars of World Superbike - and who are much, much better paid than their counterparts in the National Championships of Japan, Great Britain and Spain. But to GP journalists, an elitist lot, riders like Doug Chandler, Mat Mladin and Miguel DuHamel are painted with the same brush as "guys who didn't make it in the Grands Prix." Anthony Gobert gets a far worse rap. Not only SUPERBIKE OR GRANO PRIX· THE GREAT DIVIDE did he fail on two-stroke 500s, he got fired by Suzuki for testing positive in team drug tests. The facts about those four in the GPs are as follows: DuHamel rode well at GP level in 1992, finishing 12th overall as a rookie, but only got one brief shot with Serge Rossel's struggling Yamaha France team. Mladin was just a 19-year-old Australian kid, the rookie in Doug Chandler's long shadow on a chaotic 1993 Cagiva squad that signed John Kocinski at mid-season, dropping Mat to the status of third rider. Chandler himself made six podium appearances, with three seconds and three thirds when riding for Suzuki (in 1992, when he was fifth overall) and for Cagiva (in 1993 and 1994). If Chandler were Italian or Spanish, he'd probably still be riding works GP bikes, but, with no U.S. GP since 1994 and no American sponsors in the GPs, our riders don't have commercial interest to European-sponsored teams. And, as for Gobert, well, there have been United States presidents who would not have passed a Suzuki drug test in their youth, either. Could Hayden end up being the man who steps up to the challenge of taking on Valentino Rossi in MotoGP? Only time will tell. Other than former 500cc World Champion Kenny Roberts Jr., who left the AMA 250cc series for the GPs in 1993, and Scott Russell, who rode a works Suzuki 500 in 1995 and 1996, the only recent example of talent from the American Championship to appear at Grand Prix level comes in the form of l8-year-old John Hopkins, from Ramona, California, whose only claim to fame is an AMA Formula Xtreme title. The fact that Hopkins has ridden so well has made some team managers wonder just how much talent there really is nowadays in the United States - the nation which, until the last half decade, was where factory 500cc teams looked for new champions. The GP world is well aware of former World Superbike Champion Colin Edwards, of the Bostrom brothers, especially of Ben Bostrom's fiverace winning streak in World Superbike last season, and the names of Kurtis Roberts, Aaron Yates and cue' • The early champions of the World Superb ike Series, riders like Fred Merkel, Doug Polen (both AMA Superbike top guns) and Frenchman Raymond Roche, were never given the credit and respect they were due. Roche went to Superbikes at the end of his GP career, Merkel had only a few outings on 500cc Hondas in 1989, and Polen never got a shot in spite of his brilliant years with Ducati. (He still holds the record for most consecutive Superbike wins.) There is no question that Superbike racing has produced many great 500cc riders. In fact, every 500cc titleholder from 1984 (Lawson) through Doohan's final championship in 1998 came from either a national or World Superbike background. Legendary 500cc World Champions like Freddie Spencer, Eddie Lawson, Kevin Schwantz and Wayne Rainey came to 50 Os after proving their worth in the AMA Superbike Championship, while Mick Doohan first attracted attention by winning at World Superbike level, but none of the five champions mentioned above hung around National or World Superbike racing for long. They all n • _ lIS • JULv3,2oo2 23