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What is it about Anthony Gobert that makes people come up with crazy speculation? Gobert announces a few days prior to the final AMA Superbike Race at Pikes Peak International Raceway that he has injured himself riding his motocross bike, and cannot ride at Pikes Peak, and the whole motorcycling world starts to gossip and speculate.
The Internet is full of this speculation. Some people have said Gobert made up his injury, because he just didn’t want to race the Vance & Hines Ducati anymore (he knew his chances of winning the championship were slim or none, and, besides, he’s been shown up by his teammate Ben Bostrom in the last few races). Others were saying that Gobert had decided to ride a Suzuki next year, and was in some complicated conspiracy with Suzuki to assist Mat Mladin (how he could do this by not riding is beyond me).
The Internet is a funny medium in a lot of ways, but in the motorcycling press the most glaring defect on the Internet is unsubstantiated speculation. Earlier this year, numerous Internet sites proclaimed that Anthony Gobert had signed to race on the official Ducati World Superbike team alongside Carl Fogarty. Yeah, I know, we even told you that rumor here on MD. Turns out that was false, and, according to recent “reports”, Ducati is through with Gobert and he’ll ride for any manufacturer but Ducati in the year 2000.
We’re going to give Gobert the benefit of the doubt this time. He did get hurt riding his motocross bike, and that’s the only reason he didn’t race at Pikes Peak last weekend. If we hear something reliable to the contrary, we’ll let you know. In the meantime, we’re just looking forward to watching Anthony ride again.
Maybe it will be even more fun watching him ride a four-cylinder bike next year. After all, the “Go Show” was even better when he was sliding that Kawasaki around several years ago. The four-cylinder bikes might be a little harder to ride, and you have to hang it out a little bit more to keep up with the Ducatis (and the RC51s?). Let’s face it, until somebody else comes along, the “Go Show” is the funnest thing to watch on two racing slicks anywhere (with Nicky Hayden a close second).
