Superbike Birthday Bash In Milan!
Superbike Birthday Bash in Milan!
THE SUPERBIKE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP celebrated 25 years of racing this past May with a black-tie dinner at the Palazzo Del Ghiaccio, a museum that was once Europe’s largest covered ice rink. Music boomed. Champagne flowed. Video of racing Fours and Twins and the occasional Triple played on massive screens suspended from the ceiling. Former series champions Fred Merkel, Doug Polen, Carl Fogarty, Troy Bayliss, Max Biaggi, Carlos Checa and Troy Corser were paraded on stage. Infront Motor Sports’ Maurizio and Paolo Flammini, SBK’s gatekeepers, said a few words at the end of the evening.
Merkel (1988, ’89), Polen (’91, ’92) and Scott Russell (’93) won five of the first six SBK titles; John Kocinski (’97), Colin Edwards (2000, ’02) and Ben Spies (’09) have since brought the current American championship tally to nine. On Sunday at Monza, Polen, Merkel, Bayliss, Fogarty and legendary tuner Eraldo Ferracci were inducted into the SBK hall of fame.
Merkel’s 20-year-old son, Travis, won the New Zealand supersport title last year and is competing this year in the Italian 600 championship. How does Merkel feel about his son racing? “It scares the hell out of me!” he said. And, when Doug Polen was asked if he would change anything about his racing career, he replied, “I would have stayed with Ducati.”
For the complete story, go to www. cycleworld.com/monzabackstory.
—Matthew Miles
