Kenny Noyes

Interview with Kenny Noyes - Five Years After the Fall

Submitted by David Emmett on

Kenny Noyes on his way to winning the 2014 CEV Superbike championship

Five years ago, on July 5th, 2015, at the Motorland Aragon circuit, reigning Spanish Superbike champion Kenny Noyes was getting ready for that weekend's round of the CEV Spanish Superbike championship. The American, son of veteran US journalist Dennis Noyes, and former Moto2 rider, had work to do to cut his deficit in the standings to current leader Carmelo Morales.

Noyes would not get a chance to close the gap. During the Sunday morning warm up session, the Kawasaki rider crashed. It was a bad crash. Very bad. So bad, in fact, that Noyes was left in a coma, and taken to hospital with suspected severe brain trauma.

In hospital, his coma was assessed as being very bad. His score on the Glasgow Coma Scale was 3, the lowest possible score, and the most severe condition of unresponsiveness which is only distinguished from death by basic functions of lung and heart. After a long coma, and then a long period of what is called "minimal consciousness" which is basically a vegetative state, Noyes began moving up the scale.

The American is dogged and persistent, however. As his condition improved, he sunk his teeth into rehabilitation with the determination you would expect of a motorcycle racing champion. Now, after five years, he is walking unassisted with difficulty, speaking with difficulty, but with cognitive functions and memory restored.

It is a truly astonishing turnaround for Kenny Noyes. In the days after the crash, his family were preparing to accept that he would not make it. Now, five years later, he continues to make progress towards an amazing recovery. The fight goes on working with expensive therapies and therapists in Barcelona.

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Kenny Noyes: “Crashes Are a Part of Racing, but I Wouldn’t Trade Bikes for Anything”

Submitted by Press Release on

Today marks the second anniversary of Kenny Noyes' crash at the Motorland Aragon circuit for the Spanish CEV Superbike championship. The crash left him in a coma, but through extraordinary perseverance and the support of his family, he has made a remarkable recovery.

I knew Kenny fairly well, both directly from his time racing in the Moto2 championship, and indirectly through his father, Dennis, who has been immeasurably kind and helpful to me throughout my own career as a journalist. I was shocked and saddened when I heard of his accident, but I have been left with unbounded admiration for Kenny for the energy and determination he has put into his recovery. 

To mark two years since Kenny's crash, his press office issued the following interview with the former CEV Superbike champion. It is an insightful and honest discussion of the crash, the recovery, the importance of motorcycle racing in his life, but above all, the importance of his family and friends. Kenny has set up a GoFundMe account to help continue his rehabilitation process. I hope you will consider making a contribution.

Interview with the 2014 FIM CEV Spanish-International Superbike Champion on the second anniversary of his life-threatening accident.

On the wall of his office Kenny keeps the poster that his team, PL Racing, sent to him, signed by all team members, after his accident. Across it can be read phrases like “This will be a great comeback,” and “good guys always win.” They are more like predictions than encouraging messages because they had seen Kenny come from far behind to win the title on the last day of the season the year before. Those predictions are slowly coming to pass. Now, two years after the fall that saw him battling for his life for seventy-two critical hours and produced traumatic brain injury, Kenny is making the comeback that his team foresaw. He’s his old self again, complaining as he always did, whenever the temperature drops below 80 degrees, telling stories and working hard so that he can go back to work.

Question: It’s been two years now since you went out for the morning Warm Up on your Kawasaki in Motorland Aragon. What do you remember from that day?

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Kawasaki To Return To MotoGP? An Unlikely Tale ...

Submitted by David Emmett on

Rather perversely, a lot of the talk at the World Superbike test at Jerez has not been about World Superbikes at all. Which is a shame, as the 2015 World Superbike championship promises to be particularly fascinating, with testing times very close indeed.

Instead, there was a real kerfuffle about the slowest bike on the track, the one being ridden by Kenny Noyes and Dominique Aegerter. The cause of the fuss? The fact that it was a Kawasaki, a further development of the Open class bike raced by the Avintia Racing team in MotoGP last year, has generated a mountain of speculation that Team Green is preparing a comeback to MotoGP, bringing all four major Japanese factories back into the premier class.

The truth was a good deal more prosaic. As Gilles Bigot, the crew chief working on the project, told Spanish website Motocuatro, this was a private project of engine tuner Akira, who has been involved in engine preparation for Kawasaki's previous MotoGP effort and their World Superbike engines. The company were also behind the development of the Open class bikes used by the Avintia MotoGP team in 2014, and the engines for the FTR bikes which preceded them in 2013. Not wanting to allow two years' work to go to waste, Akira is continuing to develop the bike, looking to learn where there is room for development.

Is this just a front for an official MotoGP project to hide behind? As far as I have been able to discern, absolutely not. There is lots of evidence that Kawasaki are not involved in this project, for those who wish to see it. The biggest giveaway? The fact that there were no Japanese technicians at all in the garage, the crew consisting of Bigot and the engineers from the Swiss tuning company.

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Scott Jones Shoots The Superprestigio Part 3: The Superfinal

Submitted by David Emmett on


Jared Mees told Kenny Noyes to line up inside him at the start of the Superfinal. "I was thinking, 'You're either tricking me or you're going to open up a hole.'" Noyes said.


Marquez and Mees got away from the line better, but found Thomas Chareyre in their way

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How To Watch The Second Edition Of the Superprestigio Indoor Flat Track Race In Barcelona

Submitted by David Emmett on

Saturday night is the last chance to see the stars of motorcycle racing turning a wheel in anger. On 13th December, the cream of both the MotoGP and AMA flat track paddocks meet for the second running of the Superprestigio, an indoor invitation dirt track race, at the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona. The setting is a classic location: the Palau Sant Jordi is part of the former Olympic park, set atop Montjuic, scene of many legendary motorcycle races of the past.

For those who could not make it to Barcelona themselves, they need not despair. The event is to be broadcast in several countries around the globe, as well as streamed live online. In the UK, the Superprestigio will be broadcast on the BT Sport channel. In the US, the event will be streamed live - with English commentary - on the Fanschoice.TV website, as well as on the website of Cycle World magazine. 

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Winter Racing: Superprestigio, 13th December 2014 - Marquez * 2, Rabat, Baker, Mees & Many Others - But No Hayden

Submitted by David Emmett on

After the resounding success of the Superprestigio indoor dirt track event back in January this year, the race is to return. On 13th December, the Sant Jordi stadium on Montjuic, the hill south of Barcelona, will host the second running of the Superprestigio, featuring the cream of motorcycle road racing taking on some of superstars of American flat track racing.

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2014 Superprestigio Barcelona Dirt Track Race - Baker Wins As Marquez Crashes Out

Submitted by David Emmett on

Brad Baker walked away as winner of the Superprestigio flat track race at the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona on Saturday night. After a hectic evening's racing in front of a wildly enthusiastic crowd, Baker shook off a challenge from Marc Marquez to take a comfortable win, adding the Superprestigio final win to a win in his Open category.

The event saw riders compete in two categories, the Open class, containing the cream of European flat track racers - still an almost entirely amateur sport - and AMA Grand National champion Brad 'The Bullet' Baker, and the Superprestigio class, consisting of current and former Grand Prix and World Supersport riders. Baker blasted through his heats with ease, winning the Open final almost completely unchallenged, and qualifying for the Superfinal, between the top four in the Open class and the top four from the Superprestigio class.

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Provisional Entry Lists Announced: 21 MotoGP Riders, 33 In Moto2 And 32 In Moto3

Submitted by David Emmett on

The FIM today released the provisional entry lists for all three Grand Prix classes, and the grids are looking remarkably healthy. Some 21 riders will line up in the MotoGP class, the Moto2 grid has been shrunk to a more manageable 33 entries, and 32 riders will be at the start for the inaugural season of racing in the Moto3 class, the grid the same size as it was for last year's 125cc class, which Moto3 replaces.

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