We were able to interview Loris Baz currently in the USA, to take stock of his last two years in World SBK Superbike, its participation in the Daytona 200 (yes, yes!), and its future in MotoAmerica.
As usual, the French pilot was extremely frank in his answers, resulting in an enriching interview which sheds light on certain subjects from a new angle, all enhanced by his second Vlog available at the end of the article.
The first part is devoted to his last two years in World Superbike and to Daytona 200, the second to his new project in MotoAmerica alongside Josh Herrin, winner of the last two editions of Daytona.
Hello Loris, first of all we saw your video, your Vlog number 2, and we found it very nice because we see aspects of Daytona that we usually never see…
“Yes, that’s what I wanted to show because it’s such a legendary race! It has lost a little of its splendor, but it is in the process of regaining it and it remains legendary in any case. »
It's good to let the younger people know and to show images like those of the huge stands when you arrive in the paddock, and all that, or like the pit stop challenge, which you never see elsewhere...
“Yes, I told them that, I told Franck (Millet), I told him “but we have to put that into endurance, because that thing is super fun!”.
It's clear that it's a good idea, inexpensive and not excessive to develop, and which would please the spectators.
Why did your teammate Josh Herrin do Daytona and not you?
“It is no longer a race that is part of the championship since it is no longer 1000cc. Before, it was the Superbikes and now it's a separate race from the championship, with 600s, and I've always dreamed of doing this race, but I haven't ridden a 600 since 2008.
This year, I would have really wanted to do it but we had to prepare a little, and the team didn't have the resources to do a 3rd bike. In fact, they prepared one and a half motorcycles, because they had a Canadian paid rider who was there. We would have had to make a 3rd bike and that requires a 3rd crew (technical team), so it wasn't possible. They know I want to do it in the future, so I hope that next year I will be able to do it. But then, even they themselves at the beginning did not plan to do it again, because these are big budgets for a single race. But since Josh had won twice in recent years, they wanted to put the title back on the line. And they kept it, so that’s cool.”
So another point of interest that we see in the Vlog is the size of the concession that you showed us: it’s incredible!
“Yes, it’s really huge. Warhouse,
I have rarely seen something as big as that. They do everything from quads, buggies, motorcycles, motocross bikes. It's very, very big, in Stranton, Pennsylvania, and besides that they have Ducati New York which is really a 100% Ducati dealership, which is much smaller because it's in New York, but which has a big image because there are a lot of people who ride Ducatis here in the US. There are big groups of motorcycles, of bikers, who go on the road and who love to have V4s, V4Rs, Superleggira, etc. It’s a bit of a different mentality than ours, they even have motorcycles prepared, they leave the dealership, they go for runs, so it’s a bit different from us.”
So, before talking about this year, can you take stock of your last two years in Superbike, with the positive and less positive things you learned from it?
“It was 2 years that started well, in a project with a lot of desire, and a lot of progress to be made, but with a future. In any case, when I started, we knew we had problems, we knew there were lots of things that could be done. In any case it was an official contract, a factory contract, so that's what made me want to go back, even if it was in another team, but one that I already knew. And so I found a group of people who were great: frankly the Bonovo team, I have nothing to say, we started well, we were often the fastest BMW at the start of 2022. So there you have it, 2022 was quite a good season, and even if we were far from the objectives set by BM, we had problems, we knew how to react, we made the bike progress, we made big changes in 2022.
And after, 2023 is one of the seasons I won't remember when I'm old what (laughs). When there are positive spirals, everything is positive, and when the spirals are negative, it's very complicated to get out of them, even if I did everything for it.
But it started normally in Australia, in Indonesia we were good, and then there was this injury even though it was a weekend where I was the BM faster. There was this big, big injury that I carried around all year. I came back after 7 weeks, when I should have been 3 months OUT, and I didn't miss a race, but I was disabled. And I think that in people's minds, the fact of seeing me come back to the race after and that there weren't 12000 fractures like I had in 2016, it was less impressive. In fact, the image was impressive but afterwards, the injury was less impressive from the outside. But inside, everything was destroyed in the foot. The foot no longer moved, there was no longer a ligament attached, the knee was the same, so I sucked the whole season with that. And what's more, there was a lot of, everyone calls it what they want, but I don't like to talk about bad luck but at times you don't have much choice. And there were all these technical problems that I had. In fact, there was one weekend where I missed out a bit, it was Imola, and it was my best weekend, where I had 3 great races. So, It was the only weekend where I didn't have any problems., everyone else had problems of all kinds. That's it, when it should fall on one, it falls on one, and that's how it is. Afterwards, I don't regret anything because when I commit to something, I do it fully, and I knew it was going to be complicated, et cetera, but it was an opportunity for me. So there you have it, it's a shame that it will end like that after 2022, but I maintain great relationships with the Bonovo team, and now it's in the past so I look ahead and
I am looking to the future. "
How do you see the future at BMW? Because there, the new pilot, he did well all the same…
" For me, Toprak is one of those motorcycle geniuses like Marquez, or like Stoner.. These are guys who have something extra, it shows. I always said that I would like to see Toprak in MotoGP, because he is someone who has an ability, a feeling for the front wheel and braking, that I have rarely seen. So right away, when I knew he was coming, I knew he was going to perform. There were changes made mid-season last year at BM, quite important in the organization chart, in the way of developing with this test team and everything. These are things that we've been asking for for quite some time and which were put in place last year. So mid-season last year, and that's why I wanted to stay there, because I felt that there was new momentum, new things. I think it works, in fact Toprak proved it. You will have to see to play the site. I said that I didn't believe it for the title the first year, after that, now, let's see: maybe I changed my mind, because it is so exceptional.
What he did in Barcelona, I've rarely seen that, and it's strong. I know the faults of this bike, and not everything could be changed because it is not a new bike which has been approved, and the way it rides really erases the faults it has. Congratulations!"
So you will follow the Superbike season with interest…
“I'm a motorcycle enthusiast, so I follow the races all the time, I watch all the championships that exist, so I'm a real motorcycle enthusiast and I've known Toprak for a very long time: in addition to being a great guy cool, what he does on a bike is something I haven’t seen on many riders.”
So this year, return to the United States with the same team where you already did a season, Warhouse Ducati New York, in MotoAmerica Superbike. Have you already seen that the team has evolved, compared to 2021?
To be continued tomorrow…
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