If Marquez can make it here...

Update: It's not THAT John Burns. Who knew there were two guys with that name writing about motorcycles in the U.S.? I guess MO's guy is John P. Burns, while the Times' guy is John F. Burns. Most of what I wrote still stands, the only thing different is, I realize that I've been jealous of the wrong guy, for cracking one of the country's most elite writing markets...

John Burns, an ex-editor at Motorcyclist who recently landed at Motorcycle.com whoever he is, has carved out a nice niche as "the motorcycle guy" for the New York Times.

For the last year or two, I've been noticing occasional motorcycle reviews in the Times' automotive section. I'm sure that those freelance wins have firmly ensconced the guy with the big manufacturers, when it comes to assigning coveted seats at product launches.

This morning, I saw something new in my daily scan of NYTimes.com: a  feature on Marc Marquez.

Burns has obviously convinced the paper of record that Marquez is, or at least should be, a mainstream news story. They ran 1000+ words on him, which is a coup for  motorcycle racing in the U.S.

Although the feature was written from secondary sources, the author still did a good  job explaining just what a phenomenon Marquez is, without oversimplifying for the Times' general audience.

I wonder if, now that Marquez is on the Times' radar, they'll continue to pay attention? He'd be a great subject for the paper's weekend magazine.