Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/615690
CN III ARCHIVES BY LARRY LAWRENCE O nce again, we arrive at the end of another year of motor- cycle racing, one that seemed to zip by in a flash. What will endure from 2015? What races, champi- onships, stories and riders from this season of motorcycle racing will be remembered in decades to come? Often it's hard to know until time passes. You might one day look back at the first win of a great racer, but the importance of that first victory won't come into focus until that racer becomes great, which could be many years in the future. And how about the last win of a particularly important rider? Again we won't really know if it will be their last win, unless they've announced their retirement, for another couple of racing seasons. And even those who retire may not stay retired, the rumors of Casey Stoner's return comes quickly to mind. In American racing the story that will most likely endure is the one of MotoAmerica taking over pro- fessional motorcycle road racing from the Daytona Motorsports Group (DMG). MotoAmerica came in like a breath of fresh air greeted by a landscape in road racing that was nearly barren. With beloved racing legend Wayne Rainey the face of Mo- toAmerica, there was no doubt the entire racing community was going to give the new organization the benefit of the doubt in its first year. For the most part there was nothing but positives to report in terms of MotoAmerica's performance, especially for a first-year entity. The hushed concern in the series paddock, however, is that motorcycle road racing in America has fallen so far off the radar that it may never really recover to anything resembling the decade long heyday of the AMA Superbike Championship starting in the mid-1990s. Cameron Beaubier earned his first MotoAmer- ica AMA Superbike Championship in a majorly close battle with his Yamaha teammate Josh Hayes. It will be interesting to see if Beaubier will be able to cement his accomplishment by defending his title in 2016. If he does and Beau- bier eventually gets the opportunity to race on the world championship level, be it GP or World Superbike, we may ultimately look back at 2015 as the season that was his turning point, similar to when Ben Spies finally overcame his team- mate and rival Mat Mladin and then went on to win the World Superbike Championship and later become a MotoGP race winner. Ryan Dungey became the dominant rider in Supercross and Motocross this season and we may look back at 2015 as the beginning of the Dungey era. This year marked the end of Ryan Villopoto's racing career. Some fans felt he tarnished the impeccable image he'd built for himself as a rider always prepared to do his best by seem- ingly coming into the Motocross World Champi- onships not fully committed. American fans really wanted to see him prove American dominance MEMORIES OF 2015 P208