where are they all going?

With the uncertainty of the status of motorcycle roadracing here in the U.S for next season, what are racers going to do? Where are they going to be racing? It seems like no one knows. As we were preparing to go to Laquna Seca for AMA Superbike Finale a couple of weeks ago, we contacted the PR people for the Big4 to line up interview time and as I mentioned before three said interviews are fine but don't bring up politics and one, Suzuki, said no interviews at all. As a matter of fact the PR gal completely ignored us at the track. Oh well.

Yamaha, Kawasaki and Honda have always been helpful and fun to deal with and the PR people and riders have become good friends. When the subject of the current situation of roadracing came up, we were told that the guys are just tired of hearing about it and the truth is no one knows whats going on. In our interview with Honda's Neil Hodgson, we were talking about the off-season, he brought up next year and his quote " God only knows what is going to happen" my response was "and he's not telling"..we both got a chuckle out of that.
So he
re are a couple of things we do know and a couple of rumors and speculations. We do know that Ben Spies is going to World Superbike. He wanted MotoGP but maybe in reality, WSBK is a perfect stepping stone for him. He has a good deal with Yamaha and Valentino's contract runs out in a couple of years, who knows what Ben's next step could be, but I think Ben will be a major force in World Superbike. We do know that Troy Corser is going to BMW and Max Biaggi is going back to Aprilia. We know that Ben Spies is taking Troys seat at Yamaha, but who is taking Max's seat at Sterilgarda Ducati. AND...who is taking Troy Bayliss's ride at Xerox Ducati???

Now, onto rumors and speculations...back in July, we here at The MotoWorld www.themotoworld.com interviewed Erion Honda's Jake Zemke and he came right out and said that he is looking to Europe for a ride next year, and besides that, his wife loves Italy. Josh Hayes has a ride for the end of this year in World SuperSport and finished ninth this past weekend..good for you Josh. That is both Erion Honda riders looking eastward. What is Kevin Erion doing for next year?

Did you watch this last weekend's World Superbike race from Magny Cours, France? More importantly, did you listen? During the broadcast, one of the announcers made a couple of cryptic comments. First was a hint that Noriyuki Haga may be leaving Yamaha to Ducati, could be a good match, could be the one that finally gets the 'perenial bridesmaid' a World Championship that he so richly deserves. That would fill Troy Bayliss's seat, and, I think 'Nitro Nori' is probably only one of a couple that could fill Troy's seat. So, who steps in to fill Hagasan's ride? Well, another comment was made by the Speed TV commentator that there was a possibility that Ben Bostrom may be heading back to the continent. Let's see, he has had a good bit of success in World Superbike, and he is the AMA SuperSport Champion on a Yamaha..a very good fit in my view. But..and this is a very BIG but..Ben Bostrom and Ben Spies as teammates?? Uh...BBoz could be a good teacher helping BSpies get used to the World Tracks, but would he want to? BBoz is highly energized and back in a big way in his racing. He likes winning. Helping out someone else...not so much.

And then there is Jake Zemke. AMA Formula Extreme Champion. He wants to go back to Europe. Jake would be a perfect fit on just about any team. There may be a couple GP teams??? John Hopkins at Kawasaki might be needing a new teammate


The top racers here are still wondering where they are going to race this next season. A few have a pretty good future overseas but at the same time, the World Teams are on a budget like everyone else. You simply can't bring every AMA ex-patriot to Europe.

An interesting time in roadracing here in America. I feel it's almost like a game of chicken

play it safe or...?

It’s 9:30 Sunday morning here in the media center at Laguna Seca all the photographers are gone, out on the track, the journalists are typing away and we already have two interviews done. Jim Allen of Dunlop Tires,
and
the Chief Technical Inspector for the AMA, my friend Jim Rashon. Two more this morning, Ducati’s Larry Pegram and Kawasaki’s Jordan Szoke. Hopefully we’ll pick up a couple more this afternoon. This is going to be good day. Hectic, but good.

The championship of two races being run today have already been decided, one is just about a done deal and one is still up in the air. While talking with my friend Jim Rashon of the AMA (we had a really great interview) he brought up an interesting question, Ben Spies, Superbike Champion, will he just cruise along and play it safe or will come out and prove why he’s the three time Champion? Same question goes for Aaron Yates, Superstock Champion. My thought, they are both going out with guns ablazing. There is a third rider that question can apply to and he is not the declared champ, yet, that’s Ben Bostrom in Supersport. He has a pretty strong points lead and all he has to do is finish better than seventeenth.


In our interview with Ben he posed that question to himself “do I cruise along and finish tenth or do I go out and win it? I know we can win it”. Well, Ben is on the pole, so much for cruising, and like he said in our interview “ I love roadracing”. My money says he goes out for the win.

Times a wasting, back to the pits and look for Kevin Schwantz.

Racing families

As this little podcast continues to grow, we work at more races, meet more people and get taken more seriously. As we interview more racers we have a found a couple of very cool families. Honda and Yamaha, and within Yamaha, the Bostrom brothers.


We just got out of our interview with Ben Bostrom. He was still in his leathers having just come from qualifying for the Supersport race. He was hardly sweating!! Anyway, we had a really fun interview. Ben was enthusiastic, laughing and as he put it “in love with roadracing again” Make sure you listen to it at www.themotoworld.com. Also a while back, we had a great chat with his little brother Eric, also on the factory Yamaha team. They both are really stoked to be on the same team .

When I said we have met two great families, I was referring to Honda and Yamaha. We start with PR people, who then get us to the riders and we get a great interview. We watch the mechanics and other team personnel and they are all happy as can be. The riders have all told us that being on those teams feel like family and you know what, it shows. Heather and I always have fun when we get together with either of these teams. We are really looking forward to next season. Daytona here we come