Motorcycle Racing Podcast: Off Track With Carruthers And Bice

You see it while spectating at MotoAmerica events, you see it while watching MotoAmerica on TV or on MotoAmerica Live+... a rider crashes and before you know it there are men and/or women by their side, checking to see if they are okay and also getting the crashed motorcycle out of harms way for the riders who will soon be coming into that section of the racetrack. It looks hectic and it is, but t...

For the want of another word, Stefano Mesa is a badass. If you're a fan of racing or just a fan of hard work, then Mesa has to rank amongst your favorites in the MotoAmerica Series. Mesa shows up at MotoAmerica events with his mom and dad, they unload the trailer, get set up and they go racing. In fact, if you pay attention you will see Mesa swapping his own wheels during practice and qualify...

Rick Hobbs has had a long and highly successful career as a crew chief in the AMA paddock,  but he's now taking a different career path as MotoAmerica's Race  Director. With a calm demeanor, Hobbs has not  only the experience that a life spent in the paddock provides, but he also has the makeup that will make him a success in his new position. We sat down with Hobbs for this week's...

For at least another week, we can call Sean Dylan Kelly "Mr. Perfect" and that's not because of his perfectly coiffed hair or his bulging triceps. He's "Mr. Perfect" right now because he won the opening two races of the 2021 MotoAmerica Supersport Series at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta a few weeks ago. We caught up to Kelly this week to discuss his rapid start to the...

Believe it or not, going into the 2021 season, Jake Gagne had never won a HONOS Superbike race. But that all changed now last weekend when the former MotoAmerica Superstock 1000 Champion went out and got the monkey off his back in the series opener in Georgia. After earning pole position with a new lap record at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, Gagne put his DNF from race one behind him and went out...

As the 2021 HONOS Superbike Championship begins at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, our intrepid podcasters Paul and Sean checked in with Fresh N' Lean Attack Performance Yamaha rider Josh Herrin on this episode of Off Track With Carruthers And Bice. Herrin regaled the boys with tales about his career, insights about his training program, and his prediction on how many race wins it will take to...

Despite being a consistent top-five finisher in last year's MotoAmerica Supersport Championship, Xavier "The X-Man" Zayat came close to not having a ride for 2021. That situation has been remedied, at least for the opening round at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, and Zayat is optimistic that he will be able to finish the season. Zayat has been a MotoAmerica regular since 2015, racing...

Loris Baz has raced all over the world in nearly every road racing championship since 2008 and he's still only 28 years old. In a few shorts weeks, Baz will be able to add the 2021 MotoAmerica Superbike Championship to his resume when the Frenchman makes his debut at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta in the opening round. Armed with a Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati New York Ducati Panigale V4 R, Baz...

Frankie Garcia is sort of a Swiss Army Knife of a racer. He's capable of many jobs when it comes to racing motorcycles. Last year, Garcia rode a Roland Sands Design Indian to third place in the inaugural MotoAmerica King of the Baggers event at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. He enjoyed the experience and Sands and Indian were happy enough to give Garcia the green light to compete in the thr...

Richie Escalante had an incredible season in 2020, the Mexico City resident dominating the MotoAmerica Supersport Championship with 13 victories on his HONOS-backed Kawasaki. And it doesn’t look like success has gone to Escalante’s head as he showed up at this week’s Dunlop Preseason Test in shape and very, very fast as he led all eight of the Supersport sessions at Circuit of the Americas. We cau...

Sam Verderico had an "atrocious" 2020 season brought about mainly from the hand and shoulder injuries he suffered in a big crash at New Jersey Motorsports Park in 2019. But with a new year comes new hope and the MotoAmerica Superbike rider is confident of turning things around after a solid off-season of training and recovery. We caught up with the Washingtonian, who will embark on the 2...

A MotoAmerica Superbike part-timer for the most part, Jayson Uribe is going all in for the 2021 MotoAmerica Superbike Series with a full-time ride on David Anthony's FLY Racing ADR Motorsports team. Uribe will be armed with a Suzuki GSX-R1000 that he's been testing and racing in California in preparation for the season. We caught up with Uribe for this week's episode of Off Track Wi...

Ashton Yates has been racing in the MotoAmerica Series since it began in 2015 with the 21-year-old racing in almost every class in the series - from the now-defunct KTM RC Cup all the way to Superbike. This episode marks Yates' second appearance on Off Track With Carruthers And Bice, and we caught up with the Georgian to talk about the coming season and his racing family as he embarks on a St...

It's a family affair in the Hunter Dunham Racing team with dad spinning wrenches, mom balancing the books and Hunter racing the team's Yamaha YZF-R1 in the MotoAmerica Stock 1000 and Superbike Cup classes. Dunham had an up-and-down season in the Stock 1000 class last year, but still managed to finish 10th in the championship.  We dragged Dunham away from his duties at American Supercamp...

A MotoAmerica racer since 2017 in the KTM RC Cup, Toby Khamsouk and his family are fixtures in the MotoAmerica paddock. The 18-year-old Khamsouk had his best season to date in 2020, with the Californian's debut year in the Twins Cup Series a resounding success. Khamsouk rode his Robem Engineering Suzuki to fifth in the championship - just one point out of fourth. His best finishes were a pair...

Sixteen-year-old Alexis "Super Lex" Olivera had a rough go of it in her debut season of MotoAmerica Junior Cup racing. The Floridian was adjusting to life in the MotoAmerica paddock when she suffered two broken ankles in a crash at the Ridge Motorsports Park in Washington State. The injuries ended her season and forced her into a difficult rehab. But Olivera is back on her feet and hopin...

Mathew Scholtz was having a hell of a season on his Westby Racing Yamaha YZF-R1. Right up until the point when he wasn't. It all went horribly wrong at Indianapolis Motor Speedway when Scholtz and Cameron Beaubier crashed and Beaubier's bike struck Scholtz' leg. The result was surgery, the end of the South African's season and a lot of off-season rehab. But that was then and th...

Jake Lewis will be back in the MotoAmerica paddock in 2021 after sitting out the majority of the 2020 series. Lewis is set to headline the Altus Motorsports team, racing a Suzuki GSX-R1000 in both Stock 1000 and the Superbike Cup in the HONOS Superbike class. We spoke to the Kentuckian for this week's episode of Off Track With Carruthers And Bice to discuss everything from Lewis' job as...

Jeff Purk is the racing dentist. That's right.  A dentist. When he's not blazing around racetracks as a regular in the MotoAmerica Series, Purk is a practicing dentist in Iowa. We caught up with "the racing dentist" this week for our 118th episode of Off Track With Carruthers And Bice to see what it takes to do two completely different things - dentistry and motorcycle racing. ...

The highs and the lows for PJ Jacobsen in 2020 were definitely more on the low end of the scale. After winning the opening round of the MotoAmerica Stock 100 Series at Road America 1, Jacobsen had a frightening crash when he had to jump off his Ducati at speed when it caught fire during morning warmup for round two. The result were serious burns to Jacobsen's lower body. The New Yorker tried...

2017 MotoAmerica Superstock 600 Champion Jason Aguilar finished on the Supersport podium three times in 2020 en route to fourth in the championship. This week, Aguilar announced that six years of racing a 600 are behind him as the Californian made the it public that he was going Superbike racing in 2021. Aguilar will race a RiderzLaw-backed Yamaha YZF-R1 in the 2021 MotoAmerica Superbike Champions...

Richard Stanboli's Attack Performance team took over the official Yamaha Superbike team for the 2020 MotoAmerica HONOS Superbike Championship and they hit the ground running with Cameron Beaubier riding the team's Yamaha YZF-R1 to his first MotoAmerica Superbike title while his teammate Jake Gagne ended the series in second. Those familiar with Stanboli and his previous teams weren'...

Not many can say they are "living their best life" in 2020, but Garrett Gerloff most certainly is. The Texan ended up 11th in his debut season of World Superbike racing, scoring three podiums near the end of the season - including a second-place finish in Portugal. If that wasn't enough, Gerloff got the call to go ride Valentino Rossi's Yamaha M1 for a day at the Valencia circu...

A three-time AMA 750 Supersport Champion, 1992 AMA Superbike Champion, 1993 World Superbike Champion, a two-time 500cc Grand Prix podium finisher, Suzuka 8 Hour winner... oh and five-time Daytona 200 winner, Scott Russell had a hell of a career. Now a competitive cyclist, we caught up with Mr.  Daytona for this week's episode of Off Track With Carruthers And Bice to talk about the past, the p...

Keith McCarty, Motorsports Racing Division Manager for Yamaha Motor Corporation, U.S.A., is retiring from his position after 44 years. He joined Carruthers and Bice on this episode of Off Track to talk about his incredible career in which he worked with legendary racers from Bob "Hurricane" Hannah to Josh "Hurricane" Hayes. We also asked him about his love of road racing and th...