Rennie Scaysbrook | January 24, 2024
Cycle News Lowside
COLUMN
Godspeed, The Go Show
When I was 12 years old, I was camped in front of my television in my home in Roseville, Sydney. That afternoon was the live broadcast of the final round of WorldSBK 1994 at Phillip Island, and Carl Fogarty had just taken his first WorldSBK title on the Ducati 916.
Anthony Gobert has passed away. He was 48.
But he was not the star of the show. Far from it. That accolade belonged to an 18-year-old who grew up an hour and a half south of me and who had just shown the best superbike riders in the world that a new generation had arrived. His name was Anthony Gobert.
Later that day, wildcard rider Anthony, freed from the obligations to help his one-time Muzzy Kawasaki teammate Scott Russell in a fruitless attempt to claim a second World title in race one, slammed the hammer down with such force it was felt around the road racing world. Gobert, that year’s Australian Superbike Champion, simply disappeared into the distance.
They didn’t see which way he went.
That day will always remain in my memory, as will the exhilarating sight of watching Anthony ride around the outside of Colin Edwards, Aaron Slight and more at what is now Miller Corner (turn four) at Phillip Island in 1996. I’ve never once seen anyone else do that, in WorldSBK or MotoGP. I’ve wanted my own green Kawasaki ZX-7R with a big number 4 on it ever since.
There was always something special about Anthony and Phillip Island, a bit like there is with Casey Stoner and Phillip Island. That’s because Phillip Island is a real rider’s track. I know that line is a little clichéd, but clichés exist for a reason. It’s hard to go quick at Phillip Island because it is so damn fast—only the very best can make it work at the Island.
Anthony was just that good. He was so good he didn’t need to try, which was one of his downfalls. Natural talent will only take you so far, no matter how much of it you have. There comes a time where you have to work at it.
The world never saw the best of Anthony Gobert. Although there were flashes of the absolute beast he was on two wheels, he was still so young when he went from WorldSBK to 500cc Grand Prix in 1997 that I’m positive his youthful, natural talent still had way more left in the tank. He’s been labeled by many as the greatest talent of his generation. When The Go Show was truly on, bending a motorcycle to his will with almost telepathic ease, it’s hard to argue with that claim.
Gobert’s proclivity for the party life was well documented, especially when he came to America, where he raced from 1998 to 2005, punctuated by a short but memorable stint with Bimota in WorldSBK in 2000 (one that saw yet more Phillip Island gold), a few rides on the Kenny Roberts KR3 Modenas and some rounds in British Superbike on a Yamaha.
However, in America, he found a country that indulged his every request—good and bad—and his escapades with all manner of people inside and outside the AMA paddock are too numerous to mention.
Gobert’s time with Vance & Hines Ducati alongside Ben Bostrom and, later, the factory Yamaha and Erion Honda outfits made him seriously good money, enough to set himself up for a very easy life if he applied himself to the task. But his bad boy antics never left his side, and after he was caught driving under the influence in Huntington Beach, California, in 2005, the twine holding The Go Show together started to unravel for good.
After he returned to Australia, Gobert suffered some very public run-ins with the law in 2008 that once and for all ended any hope he could return to racing. He vanished from public life until a series of uncouth and seriously distasteful social media interview videos surfaced in the last few weeks of his life, showing a man almost unrecognizable to the one who stood atop world championship rostrums across the globe three decades before.
Yet, despite all this, I will remember Anthony Gobert not as the shadow of his former self he would become in the last years of his life but as the guy who made a 12-year-old boy look at his television screen in absolute awe, knowing he’d just seen something and someone very special. That October day in 1994, Anthony Gobert became an idol to every Australian superbike kid who grew up in the 1990s and dreamed of doing what he just did.
I only met Anthony once, at the now bulldozed Oran Park in southwest Sydney, the track he, Mat Mladin, Garry McCoy, Josh Brookes, and his younger brothers Aaron and Alex all cut their teeth on as they came up the ranks. I was 15 at the time, and Anthony had just lost his ride with Lucky Strike Suzuki for testing positive for marijuana.
But I didn’t care. Anthony was to me as so many people remember him—warm, friendly, always up for a chat, and happy to indulge an annoying 15-year-old who was just gobsmacked to be talking to one of his racing heroes—despite the fact his world had just imploded in a very public fashion.CN
If you’ve not yet done so, or if you need a refresher of just how good Anthony Gobert was, check out this video below:
VIDEO | The Best of Anthony Gobert
Paul Carruthers was editor of Cycle News during the Anthony Gobert American years and remembers his country man fondly. Read what he had to say in Issue 3 of the Cycle News Digital Edition
