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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VOL. 51 ISSUE 50 DECEMBER 16, 2014 P243 notonous. It looked for a good portion of the season like he could actually go undefeated in an era when the competition level is extremely high in that series. The icing on the cake for the Marquez clan came when younger brother Alex nailed down the Moto3 world title, making it the first time in the history of Grand Prix motorcycle racing, two brothers became world champions during the same season. We've had the Jeremy McGrath, Ricky Carmichael and James Stewart eras in Supercross. 2014 will be remembered as the end of the Ryan Villopoto era. Villopoto's amazing four-year run of AMA Supercross Championships was something only McGrath was able to accomplish before him. Oddly enough there really didn't seem much from keeping RV of setting an all-time record of five-straight AMA Supercross titles in 2015 except that Villopoto himself was looking for new horizons, more than ready to give up the seem- ingly endless nine-month slog that is the combined American Supercross/Motocross season. Villopoto is now placed among the all-time elites in AMA Motocross and Supercross history. He could raise his historic stock even further should he be successful on the World Championship stage. If Villopoto becomes Motocross World Champion, 2015 could prove to be his most lasting legacy, it could set the trend back to making Grand Prix Motocross, once again, more important than AMA Motocross. Some say the rightful balance of power after a couple of decades of the American domestic championship being the most desirable place in terms of not only potential salary, but also prestige, for the elite riders in the sport. If Ken Roczen and or Jeremy Martin can continue win- ning championships, 2014 could ultimately be viewed as the beginning of a new era in AMA Motocross. It's unclear what the lasting legacy of 2014 will be in AMA Pro Grand National Championship rac- ing. Jared Mees' third championship is laudable yet not especially historically significant. If Mees continues winning titles 2014 could be one in a number of seasons that serve as a building block of making a lasting racing legacy. However, it's very possible 2014 could in the future be remembered as the end of an era in flat track racing. Bryan Smith came within a broken oil sight glass of winning the Grand National title this year. Should Smith or another rider on any brand other than Harley-Davidson win in 2015 and beyond, then 2014 has the potential to be the end of the Harley-Davidson XR750 era in the sport, but that prediction has been made many times before in the 40-plus year history of that particular race bike. It was a year to forget for three promising young road racers, Josh Herrin, Joe Roberts and Cam- eron Beaubier. Herrin, the 2013 AMA Superbike Champion, is said to have done almost irrepa- rable damage to the stock of AMA racers on the world stage with his painfully bad performances in Moto2. This time last year Roberts was looked at as one of the most promising riders to one day get America back in play in Grand Prix racing, but he got stuck on an uncompetitive bike in Dayto- na SportBike and crashed his brains out trying to overcome its shortcomings. And then there was Cameron Beaubier, who is America's great road racing hope, who was made to look like the rookie he was by teammate Josh Hayes. Here's hoping that all three of those young hopefuls can re-emerge as winners and someday look back on 2014 and actually be able to laugh about it. Speaking of Hayes, he added to his legacy by winning back the 2014 AMA Superbike Champion- ship. It's almost certain the championship will be reinvigorated in 2015 and Hayes will be hoping to be the first to win in the championship's new era. The retirement of Colin Edwards only hastened what appears to be a future without American stars in Grand Prix racing, but the breakout World Super- sport performance by PJ Jacobsen gave American fans renewed hope that we may still have a rider or two to carry the flag for us internationally. CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives