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Remembering the Glory Days of American Dominance

Times have changed, however, from the time that Japanese factories kept a close eye on America. Starting around thirty years ago, from the era of Pat Hennen, Steve Baker, and Kenny Roberts, right up until Wayne Rainey’s tragic accident in 1993 and Kevin Schwartz’s retirement in early 1995, it was considered essential to have at least one American rider in every Japanese team. Honda, after Spencer, became the exception, looking to Australia for talent.

Honda won a single title with Eddie Lawson in 1989, but Eddie was on a satellite Kanemoto team running in the same Rothmans livery. After that at Honda, Australian Wayne Gardner (1987 World Champion) was gradually eclipsed by his Australian teammate, Mick Doohan, and Doohan gave Honda a string of five-straight titles (1994-1998) before Doohan’s crash at Jerez in the spring of 1999 gave backup Alex Crivillé his long-awaited chance to lead the team. But Honda did not throw full support to the Spaniard, especially since they knew he had health problems even during his run to the title in 1999. Honda believed they had found in Valentino Rossi the rider to continue the Honda dynasty. But that is another story.

The years from 1978 until 1993 were dominated by American riders who won 13 titles in 16 years including a run of six in a row from 1988 until 1993 (Lawson 2, Rainey 3, Schwantz 1). Over those glory years Eddie Lawson won four titles, Roberts, and Rainey each had three, Spencer had two 500 titles including the only 250-500 double in FIM history, and Kevin Schwantz, a winner of 25 Grands Prix, finally took the crown in 1993.

And there were others who battled for championships during the long run by American riders at the top. Most notably Randy Mamola, four times runner-up and a winner of 13 GPs in the 500 class, and the mercurial John Kocinski, the 250 World Champion in 1990 and later World Superbike Champion in 1997. (And that is without mentioning the early dominance of American riders in World Superbike, Fred Merkel, Doug Polen, Scott Russell, Kocinski and Edwards.)

Since Schwantz’s final win at Donington Park in July of 1994, only two American riders have won Grand Prix races. Kenny Roberts Junior, World Champion in 2000, won eight before retiring and 2006 World Champion, Nicky Hayden, has three wins to date. (The first American win went to Pan Hennen on a Suzuki 500 at Imatra, Finland, in 1976 and the first American to win an FIM World title was Steve Baker with a Yamaha OW31 in the old Formula 750 championship.)

In those days, when there was no USGP and no commercial rights holder no one was thinking about signing riders of any specific nationality as is the case today with Dorna, who value some passports more than others. The only requirement was being fast and Japanese team bosses, after seeing Hennen, Baker, Roberts, and Mamola, decided that the USA was the best source of talent.

Dorna’s reasons for wanting to see an American capable of winning races is a commercial one; they have two GPs to promote and are desperate to find a way to bump up MotoGP television audiences in the world’s most important market. Dorna has a way of getting what is needed by subsidizing the signing of riders from nations that are important for the business.

In the past, only the very best riders could manage to stay on and win with the explosive 500 two strokes, but today’s electronically sophisticated 800cc four strokes are flattering to rookie 250 riders who would have had to pay hard wages to master the nasty 500s.

In the past Dorna ushered in British and German riders in attempts to support those markets, but with little success. From the move in 2001 to bring in Chris Walker on a 500 to the more recent attempts with Jeremy McWilliams, Shane Byrne, and James Ellison, these efforts did not produce the desired results because the riders were slotted into uncompetitive teams. (World Superbike Champion Neil Hodgson had a forgettable year on the d’Antin Ducati team in 2004, but he was a Ducati contracted rider, not a Dorna-subsidized one.) Only Toseland, recruited to the “factory B team” Yamaha Tech3 squad with support from Dorna, seems to have reasonably competitive equipment. (Dorna’s German attempt failed when Alex Hofmann was fired from the Ducati satellite team that Dorna had placed him on for pulling in from the 2007 Portuguese Grand Prix due to “lack of motivation.”)

Dorna has never had to actually subsidize an American rider yet (although the Roberts team itself with Kenny Junior was subsidized for several years) because the American riders who have come to MotoGP have done so on their own merits. And this will also be the case with Spies, although Dorna will certainly encourage the signing.