Tuesday Morning Briefing:

Anthony Gobert will ride for Vance and Hines Ducati, returns to the US

My sources have confirmed that Anthony Gobert, tossed out of AMA racing for failing drug tests this season, has agreed to ride for the Ducati Superteam next year.

Gobert has been in Australia for the past few weeks riding Supercross (where he also took a drug test) and hanging out with friends. If all went as planned, he got on a Quantis flight last night in Sydney and will land sometime today or tonight in Los Angeles. He'll be sleeping on the couch of a friend of mine once he gets to LA and I'll try to get a chat with him then.

This news is bad for two people: Jason Pridmore and Thomas Stevens, as it is apparent that neither will be riding for Vance and Hines next year. Ben Bostrom will take Stevens' place on the team. Pridmore has ridden in place of Gobert and done a wonderful job of it, but finds himself odd-man out now; for reasons we're not exactly clear on. Pridmore is linked with a Yoshimura ride for 1999, or a high-paying World Supersport ride in Europe. He is also on the short list for a ride at Harald Eckle's Kawasaki WSC team, and may even test the bike.

As for Stevens, it is doubtful this is the end. Former series champion Stevens is still in very good physical shape and may find himself in another Superbike ride, or perhaps a Supersport ride. There's no shame there if he does ride the headlight class: the manufacturers' value wins there more than they do Superbike wins and they'll pay big for it. Or, perhaps Stevens will abandon valves forever and return to the 250 class on Mori's Moto Liberty 250 (merely a suggestion, Sam)? -- Dean Adams