By Dean Adams
As one wag puts it: every time Toni Elias wins a race in the MotoAmerica series he drags American racing back ten more years. Extreme? Certainly. Truthful? Well, probably not all of ten years but if your destiny is to race in a world championship, as a rider, you have to beat Elias–who was basically dismissed from MotoGP and found little success in WSBK before he found favor in MotoA’ with the Yoshimura Suzuki team. So far only a few riders have been able to do so.
Believe it or not Elias was and probably still is on the list of Suzuki MotoGP’s replacement riders if one of their riders succumbs to “personality and lifestyle issues” and can’t/won’t be riding.
Current rumor has Elias heading a rider stable for a 2018 WSBK Suzuki effort … showing verification yet again of the phrase “never say never”.
