Once upon a time, once upon a time, there was an American championship that brought together a breathtaking Superbike field. All on official motorcycles, Wayne Rainey and Fred Merkel defended the colors of Honda in the early 80s against Eddie Lawson on Kawasaki, Kevin schwantz on Suzuki and many other prestigious riders who would later be found in the 500 Grand Prix. Fred Merkel won the first two titles handed out in the Superbike World Championship in 1988 and 1989.
Fred Merkel's successor for the supreme Superbike title was Doug Polen, Scott Russell, John Kocinski, Colin Edwards and Ben Spies. This served as a springboard for champions like Colin Edwards and Ben Spies who were subsequently part of the official Yamaha Grand Prix team.
Wayne Rainey has long had nostalgia for this flamboyant era, and he decided to take over the American AMA championship in 2014 by naming it MotoAmerica, with a serious helping hand from Carmelo Ezpeleta. Dorna also regrets no longer having US drivers at the forefront in Grand Prix, which is negative for the interests of the manufacturers. It is enough to compare the number of motorcycles sold each year in Spain and the United States to see where the interest of manufacturers is.
The three-time 500cc World Champion knows that one of the ways to access the GPs is the Superbike World Championship. “I’m a big fan of World Superbike! What Jonathan Rea has done in recent years has raised the bar. He was much better than the others and they all had to work hard to catch up and, at the start of this season, they all tried to catch up with him,” he told worldsbk.com.
“He can't make any more mistakes, he's going to have his work cut out for him. There is Leon Haslam, Álvaro Bautista, Scott Redding, Chaz Davies, Toprak Razgatlioglu, van der Mark, Alex Lowes, Tom Sykes, Eugene Laverty and even Garrett Gerloff, so this 2020 WorldSBK season promises to be fireworks and every race promises to be unpredictable, as we know we saw in Australia. It's great and I think it's fantastic to be part of the Championship. »
Rainey himself would have seen himself well in World Superbike. “I would definitely have tried my luck in WorldSBK! I don't know if I would have raced a full year, but I definitely would have liked to do a few races. I think I could have been competitive, because I loved riding Superbikes. Kevin Schwantz and I became famous in the Transatlantic Trophy and we were then riding Superbikes. »
To promote the arrival of American riders in MotoGP, Rainey knows that one of the most effective ways is to go through the SBK world championship. There are then two solutions: either place drivers within existing teams, for a fee, or create a new team, responsible for highlighting young talents from across the Atlantic. “I thought about it intensely,” confirmed the 59-year-old business leader. “My partners and I developed this idea because we believe that an American team is very important for the Superbike World Championship. »
“It would be a chance for the Americans to qualify for the MotoGP World Championship. Thanks to this team, new opportunities could open up for them. I think we could succeed. »
Photos © Worldsbk.com, Kawasaki, Honda
