KEVIN SCHWANTZ: Red Bull Rookies Cup is the toughest
playing field that you can play in.
Last year I had kids from 14 different countries competing
in eight different races.
You really got to have the right attitude.
You've got to have a big heart and a ton of motivation.
DANNY WALKER: You've got to compete against the best kids
in front of 200,000 fans.
If that's not pressure, I don't know what is.
ADRIANA SOLIS: They say, aren't you scared?
Yes, I am, I'm scared.
KEVIN SCHWANTZ: At any level, MotoGP is what you strive to
be if you want to be the best that there is in the world.
[BASS MUSIC PLAYING]
JAKE GAGNE: Yeah, coming over here to race in Europe, it's
definitely a shock.
It's hard to get around sometimes, not knowing the
language and whatnot.
But overall, it's fun.
It's adventure, and you get to see a lot of new things.
HAYDEN GILLIM: I think it's a positive thing that I'm doing
this, and that it's a blessing because God gave me this
talent and I want to use it as best I can.
BENNY SOLIS: I was watching every race on the
Internet and all that.
And I was like, talking to my dad, wouldn't that be cool if
I was there.
And once I got accepted, I was so happy.
-Scholtz has got an absolute fire there, his head down,
looking behind him.
It's fanned out behind him.
Stuck with 20 forwards in the-- oh, and he got caught up
with somebody else.
Fagerhaug is crashed, my goodness, what an absolute
disaster for Sterla.
It's all gone wrong for him this weekend.
Now who's going to make it?
Who's bravest?
It's Mayer that's bravest on the brakes, but Scholtz got a
better drive on the inside coming out.
It's side by side, they're rubbing elbows now.
Scholtz and Mayer, rubbing elbows into the left hander.
Oh, and that's Harry Stafford!.
He's gone down, and he's clipped by another rider.
Harry Stafford goes down, let's hope he's OK.
Holding up the inside comes Fagerhaug.
Fagerhaug with the red helmet, way up the inside, he does the
Valentino last lap maneuver there.
He's done it brilliantly.
absolutely sensational job.
Sterla Fagerhaug turned his weekend around completely, and
it's Sterla Fagerhaug who wins from Matthew
Scholtz and Danny Kent.
[BAND PLAYS]
KEVIN SCHWANTZ: Red Bull Rookies Cup's main initiative
is to try and create a program for 13 to 17-year-old kids to
be able to then step directly into grand prix racing.
It's a program that, last year, had kids from 14
different countries competing in eight different races.
When I started racing in the mid '80s, it was a set of my
uncle's borrowed dirt track leathers, and probably a
helmet that didn't fit exactly right, and whatever boots I
could find at the time, and going and racing on a bike
that I had prepared.
The Red Bull Rookies Cup gives these kids a first class
operation, first class equipment, the best tires, the
best suspension, engineers set behind everything.
MotoGP is what, if you've ever become a road racer of any
kind at any level, what you strive to be if you want to be
the best that there is in the world.
So from a rider's standpoint, it's the toughest playing
field that you can play in.
It's a sport that, at the top, pays some
really, really big paychecks.
Any place in Europe, anybody who races grand prix bikes is
obviously just as big a name as any sports
star here in America.
PETER CLIFFORD: We start here in Harris, where Sunday sees
like 200,000 people packing the place, and that just
really buoys the level of intensity about
the whole race meeting.
And the kids sort of rise to the occasion.
HAYDEN GILLIM: It's just a little different than what a
normal teenager's life is like.
BENNY SOLIS: Last season went really good for me actually.
I won four races out of, I think it was nine.
And ended up winning a championship.
So that's why I'm here, racing this.
PETER CLIFFORD: There's no doubt that coming into 2009,
we have some favorites for the cup.
That's still Fagerhaug in his third year now.
It was tremendous force last year.
STERLA FAGERHAUG: Considering I've been one of the fastest
guys from the beginning, it's hard to improve on your riding
when you're at the top already in this cup.
Still, it's not like I'm freaking out, like it's too
much pressure on me.
It's not like that.
PETER CLIFFORD: We know that the three Americans that are
here are strong.
Benny Solis won the AMA Cup, and he
didn't do that by accident.
So I would expect that as he gets into his stride, Benny
and Jake Gagne and Hayden Gillim, they'll be fighting at
the front as well.
Really, there are two ways that riders can get into the
Rookies Cup.
Riders can send in their CVs and convince us that they
really should be considered for selection.
Than there are championships around the world, which we
take a look at and really invite the best riders into
the selection process.
KEVIN SCHWANTZ: We look for kids that have good attitudes.
We look for kids that don't, after the first practice
session and they're not the fastest kids out there, they
come out with a list of excuses.
We look for a kid that asks questions.
Hey, how can I better myself?
How can I work better?
How can I work with the team better?
There's lots of kids out there that, given the right
opportunity, I think could do this.
But you really got to have the right attitude, you got to
have a big heart and a ton of motivation.
PETER CLIFFORD: There's a very intense level
of competition here.
I've heard some of the young Americans say that things are
a bit rough here.
There's a lot of elbowing that goes on, and that's something
that they've got to get used to.
But it is a bit of a shock for them at first.
[ROCK MUSIC PLAYS]
-From the third row, but it looks like Scholz has got
another good start.
Scholz [INAUDIBLE] pulls across to the left hand side
to get a run into the first corner.
And Hayden Gillim seems to have problems.
He's not going anywhere in a hurry, I think.
Now Fagerhaug pulls out of the slipstream, Scholtz comes
across the track.
Now Emery is there, number 21 as well there.
Hard on the brakes.
Fagerhaug goes up the inside and into the lead.
Trying to chase this man, Alex
Christian, down goes Christian.
These guys have not learned from yesterday.
It shows their lack of experience.
-Marino with Fagerhaug in the red helmet has
a lock on the inside.
Very nicely through.
Fagerhaug and three of them in side by side.
Well that's desperate stuff as they go past on
either side of Fagerhaug.
Absolutely sensational stuff there.
Fagerhaug passes now by Danny Kent, and it's his favorite
passing move, but Kent has done that to Fagerhaug now
three times.
Danny runs wide, Fagerhaug gets [INAUDIBLE].
Kent is in front of him.
Really, Kent should have it.
It's Danny Kent that's going to win his first Rookie Cup
Race on Sterla Fagerhaug.
[MUSIC -- "GOD SAVE THE QUEEN"]
HAYDEN GILLIM: In Europe, everybody's more aggressive--
brake a lot earlier, but run the corners a lot faster.
It's just a little bit harder.
JAKE GAGNE: This is where you want to be.
If you want to be at the top and race against the fastest
guys, then Europe is where you want to be.
DANNY WALKER: You're 12, 13, 14, 15 years old, you've got
to travel clear across the world to be here, and then
you've got to compete against the best kids in front of
200,000 fans.
If that's not pressure, I don't what is.
BENNY SOLIS: The race didn't go like I wanted it to.
Second to last lap the bike started sputtering, so I
didn't finish the race.
Yeah, we're going straight home now.
And then, hopefully, when we get to Italy it'll be a better
weekend for me.
[BASS MUSIC PLAYING]
BENNY SOLIS: This was actually the Red Bull suit from the
first year of the Rookies Cup.
I'm just afraid to wear it.
I don't want to crash in it 'cause I'm kind of keeping it
as a memory, 'cause that year went really good for me.
Most I'm I'm just nervous, but I'm trying
to calm myself down.
But before a race, if I'm real calm, I
normally don't do good.
So I know it's a good sign when I'm nervous.
I can do sometimes 50 to 100 laps 'cause it's pretty small.
But it's a good work out.
I like it.
I play the video game a lot.
I just like to know where the track goes around, the
configuration and what turn comes up next.
But the game doesn't help much with anything,
like bumps or anything.
It's just the shape of the track and all that.
ADRIANA SOLIS: When they ask me, like, what kind of
motorcycles?
And I usually say the one that drags the knee.
And they're like really?
Then I'm like, yeah.
It's like, aren't you scared?
Aren't you?
Yes, I am.
BEN SOLIS: I get scared, but I've been there, and I know
what Benny's feeling.
And when you race, it's like OK, crashes are normal.
So when I see my boy crash, and as long as he gets up
right away or he's moving and he's OK then I feel OK.
ADRIANA SOLIS: I guess I changed from fear to
excitement.
It's really exciting to see him race.
BEN SOLIS: Sometimes we stretch it to the limit, like
OK we can't pay this bill because we've got to go buy
tires for the 125.
So my wife kind of gets mad, and she tells me, well you're
not going to pay the bill, you're going
to buy him the tires?
And I said well, we got to go race.
BENNY SOLIS: My mom and my dad also support me because they
work really hard to help me do it.
ADRIANA SOLIS: It's what he wants.
I have to support him either way.
Because if I was in his position, he'd be doing the
same for me, right?
Right?
[LAUGHTER]
ADRIANA SOLIS: This is a gift that God gave my son and he's
putting all his energy and effort to it.
Now we need to be with him.
BENNY SOLIS: We're leaving tomorrow
around 11, around there.
And then we arrive Italy, in, I think, the next day.
ADRIANA SOLIS: I'm the one who takes them to the airport.
So I stay home nervous, waiting for them to come back.
BEN SOLIS: I got to think about it like,
is this really happening?
So it's amazing.