Charting a motor course

Dean Gopher has big dreams, hoping to become the first Israeli to compete in Moto GP, the premier class of motorcycle road racing.

By ALLON SINAI
Dean Gopher fell in love with the asphalt racetrack and hasn’t looked back since (photo credit: Courtesy)
Dean Gopher fell in love with the asphalt racetrack and hasn’t looked back since
(photo credit: Courtesy)
If you happen to be passing an empty parking lot in Rishon Lezion and see a motorbike rider executing perilous-looking twists and turns, you may well be witnessing the future star of Israeli motor sport.
It may of course also be a random teenager with a taste for danger, but those are the conditions in which Dean Gopher is forced to train, due to the severely lacking motor sport infrastructure in Israel.
The 20-year-old Gopher is coming off his rookie season as a professional rider, which began by coincidence and ended in unexpected success.
The Ra’anana native began his sporting career as a horse rider, only to fall in love with the asphalt racetrack.
Gopher has big dreams, hoping to become the first Israeli to compete in Moto GP, the premier class of motorcycle road racing.
Gopher didn’t know that he would be racing professionally in the past season until two days before his first race. He arrived in Serres, Greece, as part of an organized group of Israeli riders who travel across the world and hire motorbikes for a few hours of fun at local racetracks. However, Gopher saw he could compete with the professional riders on the Romanian Superbike Championship tour and decided to enter the first race of the season. He finished in second place and hasn’t looked back since.
Gopher ended the season as the leading rookie in the 600cc class, finishing in second place in the overall standings behind Romanian Alin Nasaudeanu.
“My first season was a great success,” Gopher told Metro. “I began competing quite coincidentally, but I was hugely successful. I wanted to compete in the race in Greece, as we were already there and I finished in second place. It was the first time I ever rode a 600cc bike. I don’t even have a license for such a bike in Israel, as you have to be 21 to get one.”
Gopher credits his father for his love for motorbikes.
“My father always had motorbikes so I must have caught it from him,” he explained. “I began racing after several years of training in Israel and falling in love with the sport. I began training three years ago because there was supposed to be a racing circuit launched in Israel. So we bought a 125cc motorbike and practiced, but then the season was canceled. It hasn’t been relaunched since. I’ve wanted to race ever since, but didn’t have the opportunity to do so.”
Gopher has struggled with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) his entire life, but has always found a refuge in sports. He was a junior national champion in horse racing before turning his attention to motorbike racing.
“I don’t see much of a connection between horse riding and motorbike racing. Even though both involve riding, they are very different,” he said. “In horse riding you are working with an animal that has its own wishes. Sometimes you can do everything perfectly, but because you are working with an animal, things won’t go as planned. With the motorbike it depends entirely on you.”
In order to realize Dean’s dream, his family has invested NIS 150,000 to NIS 200,000 a year, with Gopher receiving little support from the Israeli sporting establishment or sponsors. He traveled throughout the year with coach Niv Haimi and a Romanian mechanic, and his expenses are only likely to grow as he continues to climb the professional motorbiking ranks.
He is hoping to join the European Junior Cup, powered by Honda, in the 2016 season. The entry-level series supporting the FIM World Superbike Championship aims to provide affordable racing on equal terms, and was set up in order to unearth the motorbiking stars of the future.
Spaniard Javier Orellana claimed the EJC title last season and now looks forward to a promotion within the SBK championship. The 2016 European Junior Cup will race at eight European rounds of the FIM World Superbike Championship. As it is open to racers aged between 14 and 21, this is the final year that Gopher can participate.
In the meantime, he works on his fitness at the gym while practicing his technique on the motorbike in deserted parking lots in Rishon Lezion.
After almost two decades, the new motorsports law was passed by the Knesset in 2010, once more legalizing the sport, which was outlawed in the 1990s. However, little progress has been made since – leaving Gopher to improvise solutions.
“It isn’t ideal, but that is the best we have,” he said.
Despite the lack of local competitions and Israeli bureaucracy forcing any aspiring racer to go abroad to fulfill his goals, Gopher’s rise is part of a growing trend. Israel currently has four aspiring car racing drivers: Roy Nissany, Yarin Stern, Alon Day and Bar Baruch. Baruch races for Israel F1, the country’s first professional Formula racing team. The team took part in the FIA’s F4 circuit in 2015 as well as the F2 Italian Formula Trophy. Over NIS 4 million was invested in the team founded by Gil Baruch, the father of 19-year-old Bar.
Unlike his fellow Israeli dreamers, Gopher is targeting motorbiking history and he doesn’t plan to stop until he reaches the summit.
“We are aiming for the very top. I don’t like to aim any lower,” he said. “My ultimate goal is to reach Moto GP. Some might say that is impossible, but I believe I can do it and to me that is the most important thing.
How long does it take to achieve the impossible? “I don’t know how many years it might take, but I’m hoping no more than five.”


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