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At the Yamaha Wall of Champions Induction

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What makes a champion? Is it talent? Desire? Drive? Today we had an opportunity to learn about those things from the champions themselves, as Yamaha closed out their year-long 60th Anniversary celebration by inducting twelve members into the Yamaha Wall of Champions.

The celebration occurred at Yamaha’s headquarters in Cypress, CA with much of Yamaha’s senior leadership team present. Four of the inductees came from the motocross and supercross side of the house, two were ATV champions, and six prefer the slick tires of motorcycle roadracing.

Yamaha used this ceremony as an opportunity for its employees to celebrate the holiday, to give back to the community, and to enjoy some time with factory racers, both past and present.

The mood was festive and spirits were high. A band comprised of Yamaha employees added to the festive atmosphere and a couple of food trucks ensured that everyone was well fed.

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News

Miller Motorsports Park Sale Vacated by Judge

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Miller Motorsports Park is set to change hands, after the Miller family’s LHM Group decided not to renew its lease with Toole County on the property.

This created a situation where bids were tendered for a new operator, which lead to Mitime Utah Investment, LLC — a subsidiary of Chinese company Geely Holding Group, which is also the owner of automotive company Volvo — winning the bidding process with a sum of $20 million, two months ago.

That sale though has been vacated by Third District Judge Robert Adkins, who agreed with the petition of Center Point Management (CPM) that the company’s $22 million bid should have won, since it was higher and the County has an obligation to sell the property for the most money.

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Bikes

The Aprilia RSV4 R-FW Misano Is Basically a MotoGP Bike

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The Aprilia Factory Works program is easily the most ridiculously awesome thing to come out of the 2015 EICMA show because it offers regular consumers (with a healthy pocketbook) the chance to own a 230hp+ Aprilia RSV4 superbike, just like what they race in the World Superbike Championship…and very close to what they race in MotoGP

Aprilia was a little vague though on what the Factory Works program entailed, but thankfully today at the EICMA show they clarified what exactly would be available from Aprilia Racing.

Coming up with five trim-levels for the RSV4 superbike, Aprilia has basically answered every track day enthusiast’s / amateur racer’s wet dream, and distracted us from the fact that the Noale company has a woefully aging product lineup.

However, this news is certainly less about a motorcycles with ridiculous horsepower figures, and more about a proven racing division opening up its service to a broader range of clientele.

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Event

At the American International Motorcycle Expo

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The American International Motorcycle Expo (AIMExpo) was held in Orlando, Florida from October 15th to 18th. It was billed as “the show that changed the powersports industry”; the event included over 560 exhibitors from across the motorcycle world.

Additionally, AIMExpo hosted an outdoor demo area that offered rides on bikes and ATVs from 11 different manufacturers. The question is, with all that it had to offer, did AIMExpo live up to expectations?

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MotoGP

SCRAMP Begins “Keep Laguna Seca Local” Campaign

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Jonathan Rea Kawasaki corckscrew WSBK Laguna Seca

Fans of Laguna Raceway are certainly aware that the coastal Californian track could be set for a swap in operators, as International Speedway Corporation (ISC) is currently in a 90-day due diligence process with Monterey County about taking over operations the historic track.

The name ISC may not be familiar to two-wheeled racing fans, but in the four-wheeled world it’s known as another part of NASCAR’s business operations, as the company was founded by the France family (the same founder as NASCAR), and it owns and operates many of the tracks on NASCAR’s calendar.

Motorcycling racing fans are of course more familiar with the Daytona Motorsports Group, another France family creation, which ran AMA Pro Road Racing into the ground, and is currently managing AMA Pro Flat Track.

With Monterey County likely wooing ISC’s deep pocketbook to make needed repairs and modifications to Laguna Seca, the track’s current operator SCRAMP is crying foul on the looming change in control.

As such, SCRAMP has begun a “Keep Laguna Seca Local” campaign, and is asking Monterey County to allow the non-profit organization, which has operated Laguna Seeca for nearly 60 years, the opportunity to have an equal and open proceeding for the right to operate Laguna Seca.

An open letter from Gregg Curry, SCRAMP’s Board President, is attached after the jump.

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Event

At the Laguna Seca World Superbike Race Weekend

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A race is more than just a race. This past weekend, both the World Superbike and MotoAmerica motorcycle road racing series came to one of the most fabled tracks in America, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

The racing was exciting, yet the crowd was not nearly as big as you would think. Maybe it was the threat of rain. Maybe it was the lack of TV coverage. Or maybe it was the fact that a lot of American riders have never been exposed to motorcycle racing and don’t know what a race weekend is all about.

Do folks think a race weekend is just sitting in the hot sun watching bikes droning around the track in endless, boring circles? Of course it’s not! Sure, there’s lots of racing, and as in any outdoor event, Mother Nature can be a factor, but there is so much more to a race weekend.

Many riders who didn’t grow up as race fans may not realize that a motorcycle race is more than just a race; it’s an event – a gathering of the motorcycling community. It doesn’t matter if you ride a cruiser, a tourer, or a sportbike. A race weekend offers something for everyone.

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Racing

Tragedy Claims the Lives of Two MotoAmerica Racers

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It is with a heavy heart that we have to report the passing of Daniel Rivas (pictured after the jump) and Bernat Martinez (pictured above), both of whom died during today’s MotoAmerica Superbike/Superstock 1000 race.

The multi-bike incident occurred during the start of the race and included other riders who were more fortunate, such as Josh Chisum, Devon McDonough, & Kevin Pinkstaff.

Fan video of the start shows Rivas’ bike going down the front straight of Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, and then lose speed relative to the rest of the starting grid.

On the ground, Rivas was ultimately struck by another rider. He was airlifted to Natividad Medical Center in Salinas, where he succumbed to injuries. He was 27.

One of the riders involved in the aftermath was Bernat Martinez, who was less fortunate than the rest. After the incident, he was transported from the raceway by ambulance to Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, where he too succumbed to his injuries. He was 35.

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Racing

Tooele County Aims to Keep Motorsports Park Running

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The Tooele County Commission is searching for a new operator of the Miller Motorsports Park, according to The Salt Lake Tribune.

With the Miller family set to stop operating the track and its facilities at the end of October this year, the county is keen to find a new business partner to lease the 500 acres of land to.

“Our major interest is to enter into a partnership, whether that be an outright sale or a lease” with an entity whose “core competency” is running a facility like the one the Millers are abandoning, said County Commissioner Sean Milne, while speaking to the The Salt Lake Tribune.

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News

Miller Motorsports Park To Cease Operations

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It is a sad day for motorsports fans near Salt Lake City, as Miller Motorsports Park will cease operations at the end of October this year, the track has announced.

The news comes from the Larry H. Miller Group (LHM), the track operator, which has decided not to renew its lease with Toole County on the property, thus effectively closing the track and ceasing its operations.

This news will not affect the schedule of racing events (including the MotoAmerica round in June), driving schools, public karting access, and other group activities that are currently planned at the facility, but it does raise some question marks regarding what will happen to the space once the LHM is no longer running it.

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Racing

Weekly Racing News Digest #7

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Can you ever have too much motorcycle racing? You can if the amount of racing over one weekend actually exceeds the number of hours in each day.

That was pretty much the case last weekend, when we MotoGP at the Termas de Rio Hondo circuit in Argentina, World Superbikes – including World Supersport, FIM Superstock 1000, the European Superstock 600 Championship, and the European Junior Cup – at Assen, British Superbikes at Brands Hatch (the very short, very fast Indy circuit, not the longer GP layout), the second round of the inaugural MotoAmerica series at Road Atlanta, and the 24 hour race at Le Mans in France.

Looking beyond motorcycle road racing, there was also the fourth round of the MXGP motocross world championship at Trentino in Italy, and a Formula One race at Bahrain.

Although the constraints of long seasons mean that there will always be clashes, this was a little ridiculous. Racing series are not completely free to set their calendars as they wish – they are tied down by a host of factors such as track availability, the weather, other events organized at the circuits, local government permission and many, many others – this weekend was one of the more spectacular scheduling SNAFUs. Let us hope this can be avoided next year.

For the upcoming weekend, the calendar is much more limited. The FIM Repsol CEV championship – what we used to know as the Spanish championship – has its first race at Portimao in Portugal.

The field is as varied as ever, with riders from all over Europe and Asia, as well as an Australian and an American in Moto3, an even more varied field in Moto2 – including exotica such as the Vyrus, ridden by British youngster Bradley Ray – and Barcelona-based American rider Kenny Noyes defending his title in the Superbike class.

Their Italian counterpart, the CIV championship, also kicks off this weekend with their first races at Misano. Both series will be streamed live, CEV on their Youtube channel, and the CIV via a specialist Italian motorsports channel called Sportube.

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