Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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CN III ARCHIVES BY LARRY LAWRENCE I n 10 or 20 years, what is it that will we remember about 2014? It's difficult to put a crystal ball on what particular year might stand out to motorcycle racing fans in the future, but 2014 certainly has a good chance to be one of the more memorable seasons to future generations of racing fans. At present it seems that the most lasting legacy of 2014 is likely to be the end of the Daytona Mo- torsports Group (DMG) era in road racing. How the transition will ultimately be viewed down the road largely depends on how the new organizers, MotoAmerica do with their charge of the sport. It's hard to see how the six-year run of the DMG's control will be viewed in a positive light. Of course MotoAmerica could completely fumble the ball or worse yet, it might be revealed that, in spite of best efforts, motorcycle road racing in this country has completely fallen off the radar, perhaps for good as it falls into a permanent backwater. Historically speaking, it could happen. Look at the arc of hillclimbing for instance. The sport was nothing more than an interesting niche of motorcycle racing and then, during the Great De- pression of the 1930s, hillclimb literally rose to per- haps the most popular type of motorcycling com- petition, complete with factory support and decent money for the top competitors. But then nearly as quickly as it rose to prominence, hillclimbing de- clined and was barley even a blip on the motorcy- cle racing landscape in the immediate post World War II years. Road racing certainly has a much broader base than hillclimbing, and there is now a stop gap in that MotoGP has events here, so it's doubtful it could tumble into oblivion, but it's worth pointing out that road racing historically speaking has not been that popular in this country outside of a golden era that lasted for about 30 years starting in the mid-1970s. The top story for 2014 might have been the final Daytona 200 that actually mattered. MotoAmerica and Daytona International Speedway could not reach agreement to continue the historic race, which has been the premier event on the AMA rac- ing calendar since 1937. Recently, the Speedway announced the continuation of the event as a lu- crative club race in 2015. As I said, I might have considered that the top story that we'll remember years from now, but the Daytona 200 just may fade into the mist of time. The most similar previ- ous example we have of that was the Loudon Clas- sic (aka the Laconia Classic). That race had even deeper roots in motorcycling history, but do you remember the last time the race ran? Also the opti- mist in me feels that Daytona is too much of a part of motorcycle racing history to stay gone. I'm hop- ing that someday, sooner rather than later, DIS can build a proper road course and, once again, we'll all trek to the sunny beaches of Florida each spring to watch the racing season kick off. While still thinking about road racing it's likely that we'll always remember Marc Marquez' simply stunning 2014 season in MotoGP. He broke so many records this year that it almost became mo- THE FUTURE OF 2014 P242