It has been an incredible season of highs and lows for me, but I have decided to prematurely end my season after Saturday’s race at NJMP. I have realized that trying to develop and race a new motorcycle with little funding, during race weekends, at a professional level such as MotoAmerica, has been too much to accomplish.

I rode a wave of confidence early in the year after filling in for the injured Valentin Debise on the M4 ECSTAR Suzuki team, which led to me running in 3rd place in the Supersport championship for over half the season. The offer came up to ride with TSE Racing at Road America (a team that I’ve finished runner up in the Daytona 200 for the last two years) on their older Yamaha R6, and I couldn’t refuse. 

We fought for the podium at Road America and Laguna Seca on the old bike, but unfortunately I crashed at Laguna Seca in the process and we made the choice to continue on with a new Yamaha R6. We scored an amazing 3rd place podium finish in our first attempt at Utah Motorsports Campus on the new machine, but we were unable to achieve the same success ever since. Our budget has been tremendously tight since we had zero plans of competing in the MotoAmerica championship, and that has finally taken its toll on the team and myself.
I’ve sacrificed the health of my day job, put my personal business (Froggy’s Moto Tours) on the back burner, and neglected the completion of my construction project on my house/workshop, all in the name of chasing points for the MotoAmerica Supersport championship. As much as I love motorcycle racing, I have to take a step back to focus on what’s important in my personal life. 

I would like to take a moment and thank everyone that has helped me throughout this crazy season. First and foremost, TSE racing for keeping my racing fire alive in the form of the past two Daytona 200’s and stepping up to keep me going in this year’s MotoAmerica championship. Secondly, Chris and John Ulrich for believing in me enough to fill some big shoes when their A-rider was injured at Daytona. Arai Helmets for providing me with industry leading helmets and sponsoring my tour business as well. Moto Liberty/RS Taichi for amazing leathers and gloves that I put to the test more times than I truly wanted. Motul for providing the best in racing lubricants, as well as sponsoring my tour business. GP Tech for top notch race parts and Sidi/MotoNation for the best boots money can buy. I’d also like to thank everyone that took the time to message me, follow me on social media, and to the regular track-to-track race fans that just wanted to tell me a few kind words of encouragement. Without all of you, this year would’ve never come to fruition. 

This isn’t the end of racing for me, but I do need to take a step back and regroup. Good luck to all of the competitors for the last few races of the year and I hope to see everyone soon!

Sincerely,
Cory West