FLAT TRACK
SUPERPRESTIGIO
DECEMBER 13, 2014
PALAU SANT JORDI/BARCELONA, SPAIN
P76
to bring over top American racers
including Steve Morehead and
Jay Springsteen.
Getting Springsteen over
turned out to be harder than ex-
pected. The official invitation
made to Harley-Davidson was re-
buffed with a terse fax. The rea-
son? "Barcelona is too close to
Baghdad." This was the middle
of the first Gulf War, and despite
Noyes' attempts to explain some
basic geography by pointing out
that Barcelona was as close to
Baghdad as Milwaukee is to Te-
gucigalpa, Honduras. Springer
made it to the second running,
after Morehead had raced and
returned safely. Morehead had
not had any concerns about Bar-
celona's location on the globe.
"For the money you're paying
me, I would have raced in down-
town Baghdad!" he told Noyes.
The original series ran through
the nineties and attracted great
American riders like Morehead,
Springsteen, Jimmy Filice, Tom-
my Hayden, and both Kenny
Roberts, Senior and Junior. But
despite the continuing popular-
ity of dirt track in Catalonia, the
heart of Spanish motorcycling,
the series petered out. That was
until Márquez started practic-
ing dirt track to improve his rid-
ing, saw those pictures in an old
magazine, and got talking to Alg-
ersuari.
With Márquez promoting it,
and Algersuari's company, RPM
Racing organizing it, the first re-
vival of the Superprestigio was
run in January of this year, attract-
ing 6,000 spectators, despite
having only a couple of weeks of
promotion. The second edition
saw crowds grow 50 percent and
attracted massive media interest
from around the world.
Could the Superprestigio mark
the start of a global flat track re-
vival? It's certainly very good for
the profile of the sport.
"Look at the press room!" Kenny
With Brad Baker out of commission,
Mees did AMA Pro Flat Track racing
proud, winning his heat and keeping
Marquez honest in the final.
