Cycle News Staff | May 16, 2020
On Tuesday, May 12th, a unique event called the Moto Fite Klub took place at a private track in Ohio. The event was pulled together by Rob Buydos, a longtime event announcer and motorcycle industry veteran. He had a connection with Fite.tv, which host a lot of pay-per-view events. With no racing happening, they pulled together several mostly retired star racers that included Ryan Villopoto, Travis Pastrana, Jeff Stanton, Mike Alessi, Ivan Tedesco, Jake Weimer, Kevin Windham, Damon Bradshaw, Ryan Sipes and Broc Glover for some match racing.
If you missed the event, you can still watch it on fite.tv here.
As noted, it was at a private track with no fans and the riders all took measures to maintain social distancing and had medical staff on hand to check the riders. In addition to providing an entertaining event with some of the biggest stars of the sport, there were several charities benefiting from auctions for the rider’s gear. This will end on May 18th so check it out here.
Ivan Tedesco was a last-minute scratch due to having a seizure the morning of the event. He posted on Instagram that he is fine and that test at the local hospital indicated it was likely caused by dehydration.
Pastrana beat out fifty-nine-year-old Glover in the first pairing, but Glover kept it interesting by taking it to three rounds (Pastrana raced an old air-cooled Yamaha YZ490 in one of the races). Windham beat Pastrana two out of three times in the second group to move on. Sipes won the third round over Weimer in a two-straight race win. Bradshaw managed to beat his former rival Stanton in two straight races in group four. Alessi beat Villopoto two straight races to win group five.
For the second round, Sipes beat out Windham taking two out of three races. Alessi eliminated Bradshaw with two wins of his own. Villopoto beat Bradshaw and Windham in a last chance qualifier to join Alessi and Sipes in the final.
The final was a three-lap race and Villopoto managed to get the holeshot over Alessi but Alessi found a way to make a pass to take the win. Due to the great response from the riders and fans, it is expected that there will be more Moto Fite Klub events planned in the future.
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