Throwback Thursday: Anthony Gobert Leading at Loudon (1999)
Larry Lawrence | January 18, 2024
The “Go Show” was Riding a Four Race Winning Streak that Weekend
In this week’s Throwback we travel back to a happier time in the life of the late great Anthony Gobert. The photo was from the 1999 Loudon Classic in Loudon, New Hampshire. That’s Gobert out front on the Vance & Hines Ducati leading Kawasaki’s Doug Chandler (No. 1) and Gobert’s teammate and series defending champ Ben Bostrom (No. 1). Things were going great at that point in the season for the “Go Show”. He’d won four consecutive AMA Superbike races coming into Loudon and was a very close second to fellow Aussie Mat Mladin in the series standings. But Loudon may have marked a turning point in the season. Chandler and Bostrom would get around Gobert and the three would finish in that order. After Loudon Gobert seemed to have lost that early-season magic and by the end of the year it was Bostrom who was battling it out with Mladin for the championship. Gobert was still mathematically in the hunt for the title but would have realistically been more in a supporting role in the season finale. Gobert never showed up for the Pikes Peak finale, claiming he’d hurt himself training on a motocross bike and instead flew back home to Australia. He had in fact already agreed to join the Team Biland GP1 to finish out the 1999 Motorcycle Grand Prix World Championship season.
You can read about this race and much more by subscribing to the Cycle News Archives at: https://www.cyclenews.com/cycle-news-archives/