It started as a dare among friends and, after a couple of phone calls, turned into entry in the famed 8 Hours of Spa Motos, which takes place this weekend at round two of the FIM Endurance World Championship at the legendary Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium.
Ageless wonder and long-time MotoAmerica broadcast color commentator Jason Pridmore finally relented to the barrage of peer pressure directed at him by MotoAmerica riders Andrew Lee and Michael Gilbert. Pridmore spotted a free weekend on the three riders’ busy schedules and contacted his old team Maco Racing, the Slovakian group for which Pridmore raced a Yamaha YZF-R1 in 2012.
Pridmore, Lee, and Gilbert are entered in the Superstock class aboard a Yamaha YZF-R1 under the team name JP43 Training Maco Racing. Maco’s partnership with Pridmore, Lee, and Gilbert is in addition to its Formula EWC entry, which features a change of riders. With Croatian talent Martin Vugrinec still recovering from injuries sustained in a crash while practicing for the 24 Heures Motos at Le Mans this past April, Swede Christoffer Bergman has been added to the Maco attack alongside Bulgaria’s Martin Choy and Takeshi Ishizuka from Japan.
About this weekend’s adventure, Maco Racing team owner Martin Kuzma said, “We are going to Belgium with the aim of fighting for the highest possible positions, in both classes, Formula EWC and Superstock.
“I am very pleased to be working again with Jason Pridmore, with whom we have worked for many years and who was also part of our great successes. He was recently with Andrew (Lee) and Michael (Gilbert) at the Slovakia Ring to test and familiarize himself with our technique, and I am glad that we will be able to continue our former cooperation in Spa.”
