Photography By: Andrea Wilson
Arguably the second best AMA Superbike racer in the country still doesn’t have a full-time ride for the 2013 season, but at least he can say he’s going MotoGP racing.
Blake Young, the two-time runner-up in the AMA Superbike Championship who wasn’t re-hired by the Yoshimura Suzuki team for the coming season, will ride the Attack Performance Racing Kawasaki in the three American rounds of the MotoGP World Championship.
“I got a deal with Richard Stanboli and the Attack guys to do the three wild card races on the CRT bike,” Young today from his home in Wisconsin. “I’m really excited about it. I think they put forth a really good effort last year and I’m looking forward to getting on the bike and hopefully getting those guys some good results and hopefully finding some more sponsorship for the team.”
Steve Rapp rode the Attack Performance Racing entry last year in the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and again at the Red Bull Indy Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. His best result was 14th at Indy.
“I think they did a really good job last year and Steve Rapp rode the bike really well and they had a really good effort put forth,” Young said. “They gave me a call and asked if I’d be interested… at this point I’m pretty much interested in anything and I think this is a good opportunity. To be in that paddock and to learn from those guys… I’m fairly young and that’s something I’ve always wanted to do. Maybe CRT is the future and I’d like to be on an American team at the American rounds.”
Young will head to California in a few weeks and the team is trying to set up a test. Attack is also hoping to make a test at the Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas, in February. Young obviously has a ton of laps at Laguna Seca and he’s also got a few under his belt at Indianapolis as he took part in a Kevin Schwantz school at the facility on a 600.
But beyond the three-race commitment with the Attack Performance racing team, Young still doesn’t have a full-time ride for this year.
“It’s pretty late in the season and with the holidays everything kind of got pretty quiet, and I think Yosh letting me know as late as they did… everybody pretty much had their deals signed up. I’m waiting to see what’s going to happen, but I’m really excited to get these three CRT races. It’s something I think will be really good for my career.”
As for being the second best AMA Superbike rider in the country and not having a ride, Young said, “I’ve been hearing that a lot lately, but times are pretty tough being a motorcycle racer in this economy.”
