SUPERBIKE/SUPERSTOCK 1000
MOTOAMERICA FIM/AMA NORTH AMERICAN
ROUND 1/APRIL 11-12, 2015
CIRCUIT OF THE AMERICAS/AUSTIN, TEXAS
P86
STRANGE DAYS FOR MOTOAMERICA
After months of waiting—a new era
of superbike racing in the U.S. began
with MotoAmerica's big debut in the
background of the MotoGP World
Championship at the Circuit of the
Americas.
And while it wasn't entirely smooth
for the nascent series, it wasn't a
smooth weekend overall, the MotoGP
Championship included.
The weekend was plagued with
unpredictable weather and schedule
delays caused by all sorts of oddities:
lack of corner personnel, a renegade
dog that took to the track during
MotoGP FP1, fog, water spillage on the
track before the start of the MotoGP
race… It was a weird weekend.
And while it's great to have that
MotoGP stage and the audience that
comes with it (over 120,000 specta-
tors across the three days), being the
sideshow for the main event presented
additional challenges—mainly cancelled
sessions with an already limited track
time for a series first time in action.
"I think overall the weekend for hav-
ing our first event in conjunction with
MotoGP, which has certain challenges
of it's own, went pretty well," said
MotoAmerica's COO, Chuck Ak-
sland. "The Race Direction team with
Stewart [Higgs] and Bill [Cumbow] and
Doug [Chandler], I think that was put
to the test a bit in the first Supersport
race with the rain, or the threat of rain
Hayes (1) ran
away with the
win in race one
in the wet.
