From a press release issued by AMA Pro Racing:

Aaron Gobert: 2004 AMA Superstock Champion

PICKERINGTON, Ohio — Aaron Gobert’s triumphant victory in the 2004 AMA Repsol Superstock Series completed one of the most determined comebacks in the history of AMA racing.

Two years after suffering what were then thought to be career-ending injuries in a Daytona crash, the middle brother of the famous Australian motorcycle racing family made a complete recovery to earn his first AMA championship. In doing so he lays claim as the first of the Gobert brothers to win a racing title in America.

“It feels really good to win this championship after all I’ve been through in the last couple of years,” said Gobert, who won the Superstock title in his fourth season of AMA Pro Racing. “In a way the accident at Daytona in 2002 gave me a tremendous amount of motivation. Every day I’d go into therapy hoping to accomplish just one more thing. I carried that focus into my return to racing and I believe it helped me to win a very competitive championship.”

He added that many of the doctors who treated him during his recovery stay in touch and follow his racing career.

Gobert began the year with an emotional victory at Daytona on the Graves Yamaha R1. Even though Daytona marked his sole win on the year he followed that up with five additional podium finishes. He finished outside the top five only once in a series that saw three different points leaders.

Five riders, Gobert, Ben Spies, Jamie Hacking, Tommy Hayden and Jason DiSalvo won Repsol Superstock races in 2004 on three different brands of motorcycles.

Gobert looks back at his Daytona victory as the most important of his career. “I actually told my team what my strategy was before the race and I went out and did it,” Gobert explained. “A lot of people said you can’t strategize Daytona, but winning that race meant so much to me that I visualized how I was going to win, I told my team how I was going to do it and we went out and put it all together. If there was one race to win that was the one.”

Gobert had to delay his wedding plans due to the Hurricane Ivan-rescheduled VIR series finale. Gobert and girlfriend Melanie Riley were to be married in Australia on Oct. 6, but opted to delay the ceremony so he could compete at VIR.

Gobert went on to explain that he’s been trying establish a name for himself and come out of the shadow of his more famous brother Anthony. “I still say that Anthony was the fastest rider ever to walk the paddock,” Aaron said of his older brother. “I’m sure if he would have won this championship he would have done it by dominating, but I’m happy that I’ve been able to let people find out that I’m more than just Anthony’s little brother.”

Gobert now looks forward to defending his No. 1 plate in Superstock next year and looks to a new goal of winning the AMA Supersport title. “It would be great to win two titles in one year,” he added.

The victory marks the second AMA Superstock championship for Yamaha and its first since Tom Kipp’s victory in the class (then called 750 Supersport) in 1995. Gobert also becomes the first foreign rider to win the series.