Five standout riders have been nominated to receive the prestigious
AMA Pro Racing SPEED Athlete of the Year award which will be presented
at the AMA Pro Racing Championship Awards Banquet this Sunday, Nov. 18.
Dating back to 1976, the award is the highest honor bestowed to a
professional motorcycle racer competing in AMA-sanctioned racing. Past
recipients of the award include such legendary names as Bob Hannah,
Scott Parker and Kenny Roberts, among others.
Mark Burkhart
AMA Supermoto Championship star Mark Burkhart has earned his first AMA
Pro Racing SPEED Athlete of the Year nomination. Burkhart, the
27-year-old Graves Yamaha rider from Pataskala, Ohio, captured his first
AMA Supermoto Championship premier class title at the season-ending
finale this past weekend.
“It’s cool to be nominated for Athlete of the Year,” said
Burkhart, the 2005 AMA Supermoto Lites Champion. “It’s a big deal,
especially considering the quality of riders who are normally nominated.
Winning the X-Games and now being nominated for Athlete of the Year,
it’s definitely been a season to remember.”
While many of the other stars of Supermoto originally made their name in
other AMA racing series’, Burkhart can be said to be one of the first
stars to emerge from AMA Supermoto racing since the series began in
2003. He is ranked third on the all-time AMA Supermoto wins list and
second in all-time AMA Supermoto Lites career wins.
“I don’t mind being known as exclusively a supermoto rider,”
Burkhart said. “After racing in motocross and supercross for a lot of
years, supermoto has really made racing fun for me again. I go out and
enjoy it every time I ride.”
Ken Coolbeth
Ken Coolbeth, who won both the AMA Ford Quality Checked Flat Track Twins
and Singles Championships this year, now adds his first AMA Pro Racing
SPEED Athlete of the Year nomination.
The 30-year-old factory Harley-Davidson rider from Morris, Conn.,
defended his AMA GNC Twins title of 2006 and scored his first title in
the AMA GNC Singles Championship, becoming the first rider to win both
titles in a single year.
Coolbeth won six races this season and now has 15-career AMA Grand
National wins. That moved him from 33rd to 19th on the all-time AMA
Grand National wins list. 2007 was his 14th year on the Grand National
circuit.
“It’s a nice to be nominated for Athlete of the Year,” Coolbeth
said. “This is my first nomination and it feels great to get that
honor. It’s nice that people recognize the type of season I had in
2007.”
Coolbeth was expected to be the leading contender in the Twins
championship, but he surprised a lot of people with his performance in
the Singles class. He rode a Bettencourt Honda-sponsored CRF450-based
machine in that series.
“People never thought of me as much of a Singles rider,” Coolbeth
said. “That was a real goal of mine to win both championships and to
prove I was versatile enough of a rider to win both.”
Coolbeth showed remarkable consistency in GNC Singles with four podium
finishes in the seven rounds. He never finished worse than sixth.
He is proud to become the first to win both the Twins and Singles
Championships in the same season. “It’s sort of old school in a way
that there’s just one champion,” he said. “That way there’s no
question of who was the top rider this season. It’s a real honor and
something I couldn’t have done without the help of Harley-Davidson,
Bettencourt Honda, my crew and all the smaller sponsors who don’t get
much recognition.”
Josh Hayes
Josh Hayes, who successfully defended his Lockhart Phillips USA
Formula Xtreme Series title this season, earned his second consecutive
AMA Pro Racing SPEED Athlete of the Year nomination.
For Hayes the championship marked his second in AMA Formula Xtreme, and
his third overall. He also won the crown in the 2003 AMA Superstock
Series. Seven wins in the series in 2007 moved Hayes from tenth to
fourth on the all-time Formula Xtreme wins list. For Honda it marks the
fourth straight Formula Xtreme Championship.
Hayes is the first Formula Xtreme rider to earn two straight AMA Pro
Racing SPEED Athlete of the Year nominations.|
“For me it’s just awesome to be nominated again,” Hayes said.
“It shows that people recognized how hard you worked. My team has done
a lot to make me look good. I try as hard as I can, but Rick Hobbs, Matt
[Zurbuchen] and [Masahiro] Iizuka at the racetrack and Gina back at
Competition Sports, make sure I have the tools I need to go out and do
well.”
Hayes joked that he hopes he has a better shot of winning the coveted
AMA Pro Racing SPEED Athlete of the Year Award this time around.
“It was tough last year,” he said with a smile. “You had a guy who
went 350 miles per hour on a motorcycle [Chris Carr], a guy who’d won
just about every moto in existence [Ricky Carmichael] and a rider who
finally won his first Superbike championship [Ben Spies] and defeated
the guy who’d won it six times in seven years.”
Hayes went on to say he might even be a little more proud of his
performance in this year’s AMA Pro Honda Oils Supersport Championship
presented by Shoei. In that series he won four rounds. That was more
than any other rider, but a couple of crashes ultimately cost him the
title.
“I had by far the best motorcycle on the track in Formula Xtreme,”
Hayes explained. “In Supersport we had a great motorcycle as well, but
it was much more evenly matched and the competition was really stiff. To
be leading the championship at mid-season and then get knocked down and
still be in the championship hunt going into the last race even though
Mid-Ohio was canceled. I felt like it was an interesting season and a
good story. I think I rode well in that series and showed people what I
could do.”
Hayes will be a newlywed when he comes to the championship banquet this
year. He married Melissa Paris on Oct. 27 in Monterey, California.
Ben Spies
This is the second straight AMA Pro Racing SPEED Athlete of the
Year nomination for reigning AMA Superbike Champion Ben Spies. Spies was
victorious in one of the most competitive AMA Superbike Championships in
series history. The 23-year-old Yoshimura Suzuki rider from Longview,
Texas, won the season finale over teammate and archrival Mat Mladin to
clinch the 2007 AMA Superbike Championship presented by Parts Unlimited
by one point.
Spies, joined six other riders – Reg Pridmore, Wes Cooley, Eddie
Lawson, Fred Merkel, Doug Chandler and Mladin – in winning
back-to-back AMA Superbike titles.
Spies tallied seven wins in 2007. That moved him up from 12th to fourth
on the all-time AMA Superbike wins list with a total now of 18-career
wins. It marked the 11th AMA Superbike title for Suzuki. Spies’
victory in the season finale at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on Sept. 16,
tied Suzuki with Honda atop the all-time AMA Superbike wins by
manufacturer. Both Suzuki and Honda now have a total of 116 wins apiece.
Spies has now tallied four AMA road racing championships. In addition
to his pair of Superbike titles, he also won the AMA Superstock
Championship this season and Formula Xtreme Series in 2003.
“I was nominated for Athlete of the Year for the first time last year,
and I’m really excited to be nominated again,” said Ben Spies.
“Out of all the racers in the AMA, only a handful are nominated. This
year, I won the AMA Superstock title and I backed that up with my second
AMA Superbike Championship, so I had about as good a season as I could
have possibly had. Even though I would definitely like to win the
award, I’m also very proud just to be nominated.”
Ryan Villopoto
Ryan Villopoto, the 19-year-old Kawasaki racing phenom from Poulsbo,
Wash., has received his second AMA Pro Racing SPEED Athlete of the Year
nomination.
In only his second full season as a pro Villopoto is coming off one of
the most successful racing campaigns in AMA racing history. In February
he clinched the 2007 AMA Supercross Lites West title. In that series
Villopoto was nearly unstoppable. He won all but a single race en route
to the championship and wrapped up the title with one round remaining.
Villopoto then faced the biggest test of his young career in a
season-long one-on-one battle with Monster Energy Kawasaki teammate Ben
Townley in AMA Toyota Motocross Lites this summer. In the end a
three-race winning streak starting at Millville, Minn., gave Villopoto
the cushion he needed to back up his 2006 Motocross Lites title with yet
another No. 1 campaign. He became the first to win the Motocross Lites
class back-to-back since Ricky Carmichael did it in 1998.
Villopoto closed 2007 by turning in a stunning performance at the
Motocross of Nations held in Budds Creek, Md., in September.
Villopoto won both the combined MX1/MX2 moto and the combined MX2/Open
moto. Lined up against the best in the world, including reigning World
Champions Antonio Cairoli and Steve Ramon, current AMA Motocross
Champion Grant Langston and past AMA Supercross Champion Chad Reed,
Villopoto flat out dominated. He won his first moto by 15 seconds over
Reed and his second moto by more than a minute over Belgium's Ken de
Dycker.
“This year was really a great and one I’ll always remember,”
Villopoto said. “Getting this nomination just adds to a nearly perfect
2007. Actually winning the award would be the icing on the cake, but I
guess you have to be nominated first to have a chance to win it.”
Villopoto said the Motocross of Nations was the highlight of the year
for him.
“Winning the Motocross Lites Championship in a season-long battle with
my teammate was awesome, but doing so well in the Motocross des Nations
was just unbelievable. It was great winning the thing at home in front
of such a huge crowd. It was a great day for American motocross.”
About the AMA Pro Racing SPEED Athlete of the Year Award
The AMA Pro Racing SPEED Athlete of the Year Award is the highest honor
an AMA competitor can receive. Past recipients include such legendary
racers as Bob Hannah, Scott Parker and Kenny Roberts, among others. The
award goes to the rider judged to have had the most successful racing
year. The rider’s career achievements can also be considered if the
season complements a remarkable career. A selection panel made up of AMA
and AMA Racing staff, field staff and volunteer leadership is named by
the AMA CEO/President and that panel evaluates nominations and
determines the final winner. The AMA Pro Racing SPEED Athlete of the
Year winner will be announced during the 33rd Annual AMA Pro Racing
Championship Awards Banquet held at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino
on Sunday evening, Nov. 18. The celebration held each year wraps up AMA
Racing’s professional championship season honoring the top riders in
American motorcycle racing.