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. 52 ISSUE 50 DECEMBER 15, 2015 P209 by going over and showing the Europeans what was what, but Villopoto seemed to simply be go- ing through the motions, then he was injured early and then called it a career before the season was done. It may take some time for fans to get over that ignominious ending. We have a grand rivalry these days in AMA Pro Flat Track racing, which is starting to come on the level of Parker vs. Carr or Graham vs. Shobert. Jared Mees added a third AMA Pro Grand Nation- al Championship to his already impressive résu- mé. It was a great season-long battle with archrival Bryan Smith once again as in 2014. Mees said he thinks that same battle will continue in 2016 with the addition of Harley-Davidson factory rider Brad Baker back in the mix as well, perhaps making it a three-way fight for the number-one plate. World Superbike legend Troy Bayliss came out of retirement and made a much heralded try at AMA Pro Flat Track racing on a Ducati that ended in tears with a broken leg on turn three at the Sac- ramento Mile in May. He never returned. In America especially, 2015 will be remem- bered for the major conclusions in MotoGP. The Indianapolis round of the series came to a close after an eight-year run. Nicky Hayden, the last American GP Champion, bowed out of the series at the end of 2015. Hayden fans now have fingers crossed that 2016 will mark the beginning of a rebirth for Hayden in World Superbike. On a poignant note it appears at this point that there will be no Americans in MotoGP racing in 2016. It will mark the first time in 40 years the pre- mier motorcycle road racing championship in the world has no regular series riders from America. Jorge Lorenzo came back to score his third MotoGP title, but his championship, at least in the short term, was overshadowed by the contentious battle between all-time MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi and the sport's future Marc Marquez. The ugliness between Rossi and Marquez, as well as Yamaha and Honda, could not have been good for the sport. And with no American in the series next year we could be looking at the beginning of a decline of MotoGP. If that ultimately hap- pens, as some pundits predict, then the roots of the downturn will have started in 2015. The racing world was stunned by the death of up-and-coming road racer Dane Westby early in the year in a street accident and then suffered further with the passing of Spanish riders Bernat Martinez and Dani Rivas in a terrifying multi-bike accident in the MotoAmerica/World Superbike round at Laguna Seca in July. The flat track community mourned the pass- ing of Jethro Halbert, who'd been rehabilitating from a head injury for nearly a year after a crash in 2014. Hall of Famer and multi-time AMA Grand National Champion Carroll Resweber, who lingered in great difficulty over the last couple of years after a street bike accident, mercifully passed away in May. Motorcycle journalism lost several greats in 2015 with the passing of former Cycle editor Phil Schilling, Cycle News co-founder Sharon Clayton, both Hall of Famers, and veteran road racing journalist Tracy Hagen. We also lost Jack McCormack, who was perhaps the person most responsible for launch- ing Honda in America. He also later established Suzuki in America. Supercross announcer Larry Naston; Walt Faulk, who tuned racing Harleys for Cal Ray- born; ex-racer and Team Roberts GP racing engineer Warren Willing and former Can-Am mo- tocross racing manager Bob Barker all passed way in 2015. So we leave a sometimes sad, occasional momentous 2015, where some chapters came to a close and others just started being written. We now look forward, as we do every winter, to the green flags, races, rivalries and stories of the coming racing season. CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives