Briefly...
There was some disappointment that
Marc Márquez could not race at the
U.S. edition of the Superprestigio in
Las Vegas. That was not his deci-
sion, Márquez revealed in Barcelo-
na. "Honestly, I planned to go there,
and I already talked to Honda about
it," he said." The problem is I had a
test in Jerez after that. Honda told
me, 'Please Marc, the MotoGP test
is much more important!'"
It is impossible to be at a flat track
event in Europe and not have Nicky
Hayden's name come up. Brad
Baker was eying the possibility of
a Grand Slam in dirt track, but was
convinced Hayden hadn't put the
idea completely out of his mind. "I
definitely want to get the Grand Slam,
winning four types of dirt track," Bak-
er said. "That's one thing that Nicky's
never had, is that Mile win, so I think
we'll see him coming back to do that.
If he's talking about it, he's going do
it!" Could Hayden be competitive? "I
think after five or six races coming
back, he'll be swinging with the rest
of us."
There were rumors in the pressroom
of a push to get Brad Baker off a flat
tracker and onto a Superbike, but
Baker dismissed that as almost im-
possible. "For me to be able to trans-
fer into road racing, it's not a long
shot, but it's a hard duty to get into,"
he said. He had seen just how hard it
had been for American riders he had
raced against on his way up through
the ranks to make the switch. He
had high praise for PJ Jacobsen,
currently with Ten Kate in World Su-
persport, but saw the difficulties he
faced. "I think PJ is our brightest tal-
ent to possibly move to World Super-
BY DAVID EMMETT
PHOTOGRAPHY BY STEVE ENGLISH
I
f there was one theme which emerged from the
third edition of the Barcelona Superprestigio indoor
short track event, it was that the standard of dirt
track riding in Europe has come on in leaps and
bounds since the first time it was held at the Palau
Sant Jordi Stadium in Barcelona's Olympic park. On
a near perfectly prepared track, reigning GNC Cham-
pion Jared Mees and former GNC champ Brad Baker
had their toughest challenge yet holding off the
VOL. 52 ISSUE 50 DECEMBER 15, 2015 P185
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