secrets of all time and the most
controversial rider/team chang-
es in motocross history. We
all knew that one was coming
months in advance, but that still
didn't soften the blow for Kawa-
saki fans who went off the deep
end when that news became
official.
No such controversy this year,
but Eli Tomac going from green
to blue still seems to be a bit
odd, despite knowing this was
coming for months now. When
you think about it, however, it's
not all that unusual for an elite
veteran superstar to make a
team change late in their career
after being associated with one
brand/team for a long time like
Tomac is doing. A few notable
ones in motocross from the past
that quickly come to my mind are
Mark Barnett, Suzuki to Kawa-
saki; Bob Hannah, Yamaha to
Honda (then Suzuki); Jeremy
McGrath, Yamaha to KTM, and
Chad Reed, Yamaha to privateer
Yamaha to Suzuki (to Kawasaki
to Honda). And all of them had
at least limited success after
making their big change in their
later years, except for McGrath
at KTM, of course.
Sometimes these late-career
changes are forced, where the
older star riders/athletes gener-
ally aren't cheap anymore and
want long-term contracts. They
must go. As good as they might
be, oftentimes they get the boot
to make room for up-and-coming
stars that the team has eyes on,
like in Kawasaki's case, Austin
Forkner, who still has a few
more years of grooming. But in
Tomac's case, things seemed at
the surface amicable between
him and Kawasaki. I'm sure
Tomac just wanted a change of
S
o, October 1 has come
and gone. It's generally a
big day in the motocross
world, at least in this country. It
tends to be the day when factory
motocross/supercross contracts
run out, and new ones begin,
when riders/teams are free
to legally announce their new
signees and reveal their future
endeavors. Often, we already
know what these signings and
endeavors will be, just like this
year—probably more so than
most.
A few of the major but an-
ticipated and non-surprising
announcements indeed came
through on October 1. So much
for secrets.
Secrets are hard to keep in
this industry, like the one about
Ricky Carmichael switching
from green to red in 2001, which
had to be one of the worst-kept
P124
CN
III OBSERVATION CHECK
BY KIT PALMER
M O V I N MOVING DAY
