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Americans in World Superbike


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The FIM released their provisional entry lists for the 2018 World Superbike season and two Americans made the cut. Jake Gagne will ride a Honda CBR1000RR for the factory Red Bull, and PJ Jacobsen will ride a Honda for the satellite Triple M team.

 

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Kinda sad. I wonder why none of the MotoAmerica riders go to Europe?

Sad, indeed. But when "has been" Tony Sunglasses comes into MotoAmerica and pretty much wipes the floor with everyone, who is there? America's time has come and gone, same for the Aussies. Look at the grids- it's the Brits and Italians that are competitive in WSBK and the Italians and Spaniards in MotoGP. And maybe the grind of competing overseas doesn't appeal to the riders today. Just my thoughts.

 

Frank

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Mat Oxley wrote a great article about the lack of British riders in GP:

 

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/opinion/motogp/truth-behind-britain-motogp-and-world-superbike

 

You can extrapolate for the US, but the upshot is that neither manufacturing nor the US motorcycle groups (the AMA in particular) have done much of anything to promote motorcycle racing. Also, the US has above all else a car culture - NASCAR, indy racing, etc all have good funding, TV time, and corporate backing. Another factor is that in the last 50 years, the number of small dirt tracks where aspiring racers could cut their teeth has declined dramatically. The value of land, population, and pressure from other groups has all done a lot to make cheap racing, the kind needed by parents and kids, more of a rarity. And the cost of racing has gone way up. Even my local club racers will sometimes spend $1K on tires alone for one weekend, not to mention transportation, camping, food fuel, crash repairs, etc. Money is tight everywhere, and motorcycle racing is an expensive sport if you want to be competitive.

 

Despite all this, JD Beach and Briar Bauman came in 1-2 in last weekend's Superprestigio flat track race in Spain. Neither Marq Marquez or Brad Baker were racing this year, but Mr. Beach managed to beat a very competent field including Tony Elias and Johan Zarco.

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