It's not over! Just prior to the 2016 Monster Energy Supercross season, Nick Wey decided to pull the plug on his Team Moto Mafia squad, as he couldn't make the team work from a sponsorship angle. With that move, the veteran of 18 pro seasons was effectively put into retirement--but Wey has always been hesitant to use the retirement word. Now we've heard he's coming back.
When Team Tedder/Monster Energy Kawasaki's Jake Weimer got the call from Soaring Eagle/Jimmy John's Suzuki starting in Oakland, it left Team Tedder in a lurch. The team continues to function with Dakota Tedder, but Weimer left a big hole. We heard Josh Grant connected to the ride, then a week ago we started hearing Wey's name attached. On Thursday night we received this news from Team Tedder:
Nick Wey Signs with Team Tedder/Monster Energy/Kawasaki Racing to compete in the 450 SX class along side teammate Dakota Tedder who is stepping off his Kawasaki KX450 to compete in the 250 East Coast Championship Series. See both of them back in action at Atlanta's Georgia Dome at the beginning round of the 250 east coast series championship Series on February 27th.
Dakota (pictured above on the #151) is currently racing 450SX and made the main event at Anaheim 2.
When we talked to Wey just after New Year's, he made it clear he wouldn't just sign with any team that had an opening.
There’s one thing of having your bike be competitive and another thing of riding a bike that’s not necessarily safe. So there are a lot of factors that went into me doing my own thing. For one, I knew what I was getting into. I chose what I wanted to use—the parts, whatever. I had peace of mind safety-wise because I’ve been on both ends of that—having a bike that wasn’t competitive and having a bike that maybe was fast enough but wouldn’t last very long. I don’t think at my age there’s necessarily a huge upside for me to do a bunch of learning as to a new team setup or a new manufacturer at this point, to be honest.
Clearly, it appears Wey likes the Tedder program. Plus he gets to stay on a Kawasaki, which is the bike he planned to race in 2016 all along. We'll see how he and Dakota do in two weeks!
