ROAD RACING AMA
ROAD RACING AMA SUPERBIKE AN IMPRESSIVE ROGER HAYDEN FINISHES SECOND Team Yoshimura Suzuki Factory Racing was reinforced at the beginning of the year with the internationally experienced Roger Hayden, younger brother of ex-MotoGP world champion Nicky Hayden, and the 31-year-old from Owensboro, Kentucky quickly spearheaded the team in its fight for the US Superbike title. Making the podium in eight out of twelve races, he put in an increasingly strong performance in the second half of the season. He especially demonstrated that he is a force to be reckoned with in the future by winning the championship final at New Jersey Motorsport Park. Columbian Martin Cardenas also achieved podium positions four times as well as winning the race in Fontana, which does not count towards the championship. However, his hopes of a title fight were dashed after falls in Barber, Mid-Ohio and New Jersey and he finished the season sixth in the championship. Team junior Chris Clark, 23, made up for this with a very consistent performance, making it onto the Superbike podium for the first time at Barber Motorsports Park and finishing fourth in the championship. With the KTM RC8 being used in a championship for the last time, former supermoto specialist Chris Fillmore took it to an eighth overall final placement at its farewell appearance, only narrowly missing the podium in Mid-Ohio, for his team KTM/HMC Superbike Racing. © Photos:Brian J. Nelson IDM SUPERBIKE DANNY DE BOER SAVES THE DAY With Michael Ranseder finishing second in the 2013 championship and having won four championship titles in recent years, the HRP Holzhauer team was entertaining legitimate title hopes this year. However, the 28-year-old Austrian fell far short of expectations. After Ranseder‘s prolonged spell of poor form and five falls in eight races, team boss Jens Holzhauer opted to look ahead and invest in the future. He replaced Ranseder with 21-year-old Czech Jan Halbrich. Meanwhile 24-year-old Dutchman Danny De Boer, who had been hired at the start of the season, gradually established himself as a stable top-ten rider and finished the championship well above expectations in sixth place. 20
ROAD RACING INTERNATIONAL SPANISH CHAMPIONSHIP JESKO RAFFIN DOMINATES © Photo: Pons Racing Team 18-year-old Swiss rider Jesko Raffin was the sensation of the FIM CEV, the international Spanish championship now held on tracks in three countries and regarded as the training ground for the GP since it has the same promotor. In the Moto2 class he won virtually every race on his Kalex – except where the competition brought him down – and achieved a supreme title win. In the junior team of Spanish ex- World Champion Sito Pons he clearly outperformed Pons‘ son Edgar, though the latter put in a fine showing himself by winning the opening race after Raffin‘s fall and subsequently making it onto the podium two more times. Raffin‘s superior form and the untiring work of his manager Marco Rodrigo have now borne fruit: The up-and-coming talent from Zurich will be riding a Kalex for the SAG team in the Moto2 World Championship next year. BRITISH SUPERBIKE SPECTACULAR DEBUT FOR CHRIS WALKER AND JAMES ELLISON The GBmoto team took on a major challenge this year and became the official Kawasaki team in the fiercely contested British Superbike Championship. With two highly experienced riders – 42-year-old spectators‘ favourite Chris Walker and 34-year-old ex-World Endurance Championship winner James Ellison – the team on the green Kawasaki ZX-10 Ninjas caused quite a spectacle. In order to keep the things exciting right through to the final, the BSB has a unique points system whereby the six title contenders are selected from the first 19 races. Chris Walker became the oldest rider in BSB history to win a place among the six finalists with a second place in the opening race of the season and two other podium finishes. James Ellison put in an even better showing at first, making the podium in all of the first six races, but he fell at high speed at Brands Hatch and suffered a complex fracture of the right upper arm near the shoulder joint. He had to undergo surgery and was out of the running for six weeks. After his return, it took Ellison another month to regain full physical fitness. Nonetheless, with two second places at the final in Brands Hatch he demonstrated that without injury he would have been a very hot title favourite. 21
