MotoAmerica's Global Fusion of Riders
Riders from five different continents will participate in MotoAmerica this season.
MotoAmerica Press Office
It’s officially called the “MotoAmerica AMA/FIM North American Road Racing Championship,” but for all intents and purposes, MotoAmerica could rightfully call itself a World Championship when you consider the fact that racers from virtually every corner of the globe have gravitated – almost literally – to the series.
#Repost @motoamerica ・・・ In anticipation of the 2018 season, we’ll be featuring some of the racers who will compete for championships. Our first rider feature is none other than our 2017 @motulusa Superbike Champion @tonielias24 🏆 A post shared by 🆃🅾🅽🅸 🅴🅻🅸🅰🆂 (@tonielias24) on Mar 14, 2018 at 5:27pm PDT
“We’re very proud of the fact that, even though MotoAmerica is a North American Championship, racers from all over the world have seen the level of competition that our series offers,” said MotoAmerica President Wayne Rainey. “And many of those racers, along with their families, friends, and crew members, have traveled here to the U.S. to boost their road racing careers.”
The MotoAmerica paddock is truly a global village with riders in the various racing classes offered by the series hailing from both hemispheres of planet Earth.
Here’s a rundown of the non-U.S. countries represented in the MotoAmerica paddock, along with a list of some of the MotoAmerica riders who call those countries home:
Canada – Braeden Ortt, Alexander Dumas
Mexico – Richie Escalante
Brazil – Sebastiao Ferreira
Great Britain – Max Flinders
France – Valentin Debise
Spain – Toni Elias
South Africa – Mathew Scholtz and Cameron Petersen
New Zealand – Shane Richardson
Australia – David Anthony
That’s nearly 10 different countries, and what’s even more impressive is that almost all of planet Earth’s seven continents are also represented: North America, South America, Europe, Australia, and Africa. In fact, other than Asia, the only continent currently NOT represented by riders in the MotoAmerica paddock is Antarctica.
And, seemingly, the only reason that there aren’t any riders from Antarctica competing in MotoAmerica is because penguins are, very noticeably, not very good at motorcycle road racing. Their legs are too short to get their knees down.