MotoGP
Meet five Americans who reached the top in the world's elite motorcycle race series.
This weekend marks the return of MotoGP to Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. Definitively the world’s most popular motorcycle racing series, MotoGP has captured the fascination of fans all over the globe, and is the ultimate goal for just about every road racer on the planet. The MotoGP championship is dominated now by Europeans, but there was a time when America ruled the premier road racing championship. Take a few moments to familiarize yourself with the greatest American MotoGP racers of all time:
Kenny Roberts
The first American to ever take the crown in the 500cc (MotoGP) world championship was the Californian Kenny Roberts. In 1978, Roberts transitioned to the world championship from the American Grand National Championship, a primarily dirt track series. Roberts had a style unlike anything the world had seen, sliding his backend into corners to enable him to get on the power faster. The technique worked, and Roberts won the MotoGP title in his first try, the only racer to do that from 1978 until 2013 when Marc Marquez repeated the feat. Roberts wound up taking three straight world titles from 1978-1980, and is credited with setting the trend of utilizing dirt track styles of racing on the pavement. Nearly every MotoGP champion since Roberts has a background in dirt track.
Freddie Spencer
In 1982, a fresh-faced Louisiana boy known as Fast Freddie arrived on the world championship circuit. Only 20 years old, he had already cut his teeth in the AMA Superbike series for factory Honda, and was the talk of the town after he defeated the three-time world champion Roberts in the British Transatlantic Trophy match races in 1980. In his second year on the circuit, he fought tooth-and-nail with Roberts for the premier class title, taking the championship down to the final race and narrowly defeating the three-time champion by two points. His 1983 title made Spencer the youngest MotoGP champ ever, at age 21, until Marquez’s title in 2013. In 1985, he competed in both the 250cc (Moto2) and 500cc championships, and won them both. He was the last racer ever win both championships in the same year.
Eddie Lawson
The most dominant American ever in MotoGP was California’s Steady Eddie Lawson. A road racing equivalent of Ryan Dungey, Lawson was the guy who rode with ice-cold consistency, and thus was always in the running for a championship. He hopped on the MotoGP circuit in 1983, and after spending his freshman year learning the ins and outs of the world championship, started winning races regularly in 1984, securing his first of four world titles. His final world championship came in 1989, his first year on Hondas after a controversial switch from the factory Yamaha team. He was the first rider ever to win back-to-back premier class titles for different brands.
Wayne Rainey
Wayne Rainey was not an immediate success story in the world championship. Entering the series in 1984 in the 250cc division, Rainey struggled with bike issues and the new tracks, returning to race in the US the following year after his less-than-stellar results. It was racing in the US that Rainey developed an intense rivalry with fellow American Kevin Schwantz. The two fiercely battled in the AMA series before both traveled to across the pond to compete in MotoGP in 1988. The battles with Schwantz made Rainey a fierce competitor, and tremendously honed his abilities on the motorcycle. In 1990, he won his first world championship, and defended the title two more times before handing the crown over to Schwantz in 1993, the last US title in a span of 16 years that saw US racers on top 13 times.
Nicky Hayden
Today, only one American competes on the MotoGP circuit as a proven winner. Hailing from Kentucky, Nicky Hayden arrived on the MotoGP scene one year after winning the AMA Superbike championship in 2002, the youngest racer ever to do so. His 2003 season saw him paired with MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi, and Hayden managed a fifth in the points. By 2006, he was a seasoned MotoGP racer, having captured his first MotoGP race win in 2005, and the flagship member of the elite Repsol Honda squad. Hayden won the 2006 world championship in nail-biting fashion, crashing out of the penultimate GP after tangling with then-teammate Dani Pedrosa, then taking the title by way of a third in the final GP of the season, making him the only American in the last decade to take the MotoGP title.
Make sure to check out the Red Bull GP of the Americas this weekend. Find all the event info right here.
