Toni Elias shakes up the MotoAmerica Superbike series

Toni Elias has put the Suzuki GSX-R1000 back on top in MotoAmerica Superbike racing.

Just two rounds into the second season of MotoAmerica Superbike racing, Toni Elias has injected both an intriguing new story line and an extra level of excitement into a series that’s still struggling to come back from the hole it was left in by previous management.

None of that should be a surprise. Elias is a former world champion, the first ever to win the Moto2 championship. He is also the last rider to win a MotoGP race riding for a non-factory team, which makes him the answer to a great trivia question (he memorably beat Valentino Rossi by 0.002 seconds at Estoril in 2006). His style, slewing the bike into corners, is exciting in itself. His fierce competitiveness is evident on the track. And the smile nearly always on his face in the paddock shows he’s having a great time. It’s easy to understand why fan and media interest is high. He’s winning, he’s having fun, and he seems to be a genuinely nice guy while doing it. 

This most unexpected opportunity for Elias came about when Yoshimura Suzuki’s junior rider, Jake Lewis, was injured in the off season. With the pre-season test at the Circuit of the Americas coming up, Suzuki wanted someone to test alongside veteran rider Roger Hayden, the only rider who was able to challenge the Graves Yamaha riders Cameron Beaubier and Josh Hayes last year. Elias had no ride, but he was in shape and ready, just in case. Then the call came.

“I was at home with no opportunity to race, a difficult situation,” Elias recalls. “Suddenly I got this call, asking if I wanted to go test for Yoshimura Suzuki at the COTA test. Just a test, to gather information for the team. To everyone’s surprise, including mine, I was fast and I felt good. I wanted to be here.”

Elias is usually smiling when he’s in the paddock. He’s happy to be racing in the United States and making new fans.

Yoshimura hired Elias to run the first two rounds, at COTA and Road Atlanta, but the Spanish rider did a lot more than keep Lewis’ seat warm for him. He won both races at COTA, with Hayden coming in second while the Yamahas struggled. It was like a brief throwback to the Yoshimura Suzuki glory years of dominance with Mat Mladin and Ben Spies. Suddenly, the temporary rider was the points leader.

But everyone wondered how he would do at Road Atlanta, a very different track and one he’d never seen. The answer: A win in the first race, making it three for three.

Race two on Sunday at Road Atlanta revealed the sheer competitiveness of Elias, however. It was clear the top four were in a class of their own, but in the early laps of the Sunday race, a mistake by Elias sent him through the grass, putting him three seconds behind the top three. As the points leader, he could have settled for an easy fourth, but instead he mounted a furious charge, slicing fractions of a second out of the gap toward the lead group on every lap. The charge proved too furious, however, and he crashed out of the race.

Three wins. One crash. The results so far say a lot about Toni Elias’ approach to racing.

International influx

Elias is not the only international rider to join MotoAmerica this year. Former Moto2 racer Claudio Corti is riding an Aprilia RSV4 in the Superstock 1000 class and French rider Valentin Debise has achieved podium finishes in Supersport. MotoAmerica, struggling to come back from the grave, where it was left by the previous series management, Daytona Motorsports Group, hopes the riders from abroad will only increase interest in the domestic series.

“I think it’s good for the series for sure to have a world champion over here in the mix, dicing it up with us,” said Hayden. “I think it shows our series is pretty tough.

“He’s definitely a fierce competitor. His last two laps are always his best ones. As a teammate, he’s a super-nice guy. He’s easy to get along with.”

Josh Hayes leads Toni Elias and the rest of the Superbike and Superstock 1000 field into the extreme downhill braking zone of the final turn at Road Atlanta.

Of course the potential downside is that Elias could do too well. Part of the goal that motivated former world champion Wayne Rainey and his KRAVE Group partners to take over the series was to provide young U.S. riders with a path to world championship-level racing. Right now, the series is not held in high esteem internationally, so U.S. riders are not sought by European teams. So the local talent has the chance to shine by beating Elias, but it can also look bad if they can’t.

Multi-time champ Josh Hayes says you have to keep that in perspective.

“I’m happy to have him here,” says Hayes. “I think he’s a super nice guy. He’s obviously a warrior on the race track. I don’t want to blow up his skirt too much.

“A lot of people are going to be judgmental about Toni being in the front, but you can’t forget that he didn’t come to a third-rate team in a pro national series. He came to one of the best teams in the world, I think, with a lot of experience and a motorcycle capable of winning. So I think he got lucky that he landed in a good spot and it lets him showcase his talent and hopefully will allow us to showcase our talent running against a talent like his.”

What next?

The big question now, however, is what happens when Lewis is ready to return? The seat is his, but how can you send packing a guy like Elias who has a great shot at bringing you a championship, as well as a lot of attention, which is what roadracing is all about.

Yoshimura Suzuki has a problem. It’s a good problem, but still a problem. The team has three talented riders for two motorcycles. Roger Hayden, Toni Elias and Jake Lewis sign posters for fans.

“We’ll know soon,” Elias said. “I hope they can find a way to be able to run all three of us, with Jake, too. I have found a family here. That’s very important. A great motorcycle, a great team, and for me this is a new life.”

Having raced in multiple series, Elias is in a good position to assess the talent in MotoAmerica.

“I always say the same thing,” Elias says. “If we look at the different levels of riders, people think that MotoGP is the super level of riders, World Superbike is a little lower and here is even lower. To me, it’s not that simple. I think people are a little mistaken.”

The difference between the series, if you hope to run in the top five, is less than most people think, Elias says. As an example, he points to Nicky Hayden going from MotoGP to World Superbike. Though he has been near the front, he has not been able to win a race yet.

“And that’s Nicky. A great rider. And I came here to the United States and faced Josh Hayes, Cameron Beaubier and Hayden. Holy shit! Very fast, you know? I remember at the test, I couldn’t believe the pace. I’m there, at the same level, but the level is high. People don’t realize that.”

As weak as sport bike sales and roadracing are in the United States right now, it’s a big ask for Suzuki to field three bikes. But Lewis will be coming back soon, and it would be a shame, and a big loss to the series, to send Elias back to his premature retirement. He’s shown he’s capable of so much more.

“I didn’t expect this when I was at home,” Elias said. “I never imagined all this. But I’m back, I’m winning, and I’m very happy to be here.”

Let’s hope he’s around for the rest of the year. At least.