And why should you care?
He is the dominant Super Moto (Super Motard to us) racer overseas. In 1999, he won his first super moto championship in the French series. In 2000, he won the European, French & German super moto championships and in 2001 he took the super moto crowns in the French & German series. 2002 was the first year of the Super Moto World championship, and Thierry remained the dominant rider, winning 6 of 7 races and taking the European title as well. Although I could find no documented road race experience, translating French interviews reveals that he has sampled road racing on an Aprilia 250. And so now that he has won every available championship in Super Moto, what is next for the Frenchman? World Supersport.
Yamaha France conducted a test of the new ’03 R6 this past December at Spain’s Almeria race circuit with new team member Bosch in preparation for their first world supersport season. Within a few laps, on a world super sport spec ’02 Yamaha R6, VDB was under the world supersport lap record and on pace with former world supersport champion Jorg Teuchert. Anyone who follows world supersport knows that this series is particularly cutthroat and that someone new to the class shouldn’t be able to just hop on the bike and run at class-leading pace.
The fact that VDB did just that raises a couple questions. What gives him the ability to go this fast right off the bat? Is it raw talent? Or is it the super moto background, a racing discipline where the wheels are rarely in line with each other, and the rider is always searching for traction? It’s probably some of both. This Frenchman’s name calls up another French name -Jean Michel Bayle – a racer who competed at the top level of road racing, won championships in world motocross and is now competing in U.S. Super Motard. Keep an eye on VDB, or “Zorro”, as he has come to be known in the super moto world.
