Motourage

This Saturday night the AMA Pro Flat Track K&N Filters Grand National Championship presented by Motorcycle-Superstore.com heads to the Allen County Fairgrounds in Lima, Ohio for the 2010 edition of the Ohio National Championship.

Last year’s Lima winner Bryan Smith, who rode a Harley-Davidson to his victory at the Fairgrounds, will be switching to the Monster Energy/Werner-Springsteen Racing Kawasaki.  Smith came in second at this year’s Springfield Mile on May 30th, and is still seeking his first win of the 2010 season, currently seventh in the Expert rider point standings.

Can Joe Kopp and his Latus Motors Ducati break Harley's 15-year hold on Lima, Ohio?

2008 Ohio National Championship winner Joe Kopp, who also won aboard a Harley-Davidson last year, will be switching to the Latus Motors/ENI USA R&M/Lloyd Brothers Motorsports Team Ducati.  Kopp won the Arizona Mile at Yavapai Downs earlier this year aboard the team’s Ducati and comes into Lima with 118 points, leading the Expert riders in the Grand National Championship points chase.  Jeff Carver has 118 points in Pro Singles Grand National Championship standings and leads that division.

Top riders from across the country call this race one of the most demanding, fun and exciting races on the series.  The Harley-Davidson XR750 has won 23 of 25 Nationals on the limestone half-mile dirt track, winning 15 consecutive races since 1994.

The Ohio National Championship will mark the seventh event on the 19-race 2010 calendar. Smith will headline a field of former Lima winners including Kopp (’03, ’04), Jared Mees (’05, ’07) and AMA Pro legend Chris Carr (’91, ’99, ’00, ’01). Although Kopp is the current points leader, he is being chased by winners of the last two GNC nationals, Jake Johnson and Henry Wiles, who each have two wins of their own this season.  All of these leading competitors, in addition to three-time Grand National Champion Kenny Coolbeth and Nichole Cheza, are among the top riders coming to Lima.

The series competed most recently at Gas City I-69 Speedway in Gas City, IN on June 19.  “Hammerin” Hank Wiles nipped Mees by .624 seconds at the line, with Kopp finishing third.

Fairground gates open at 3 p.m. local time on June 26. There will be a number of vendor displays on the grounds including Budweiser, Lima Ford, Lima Harley-Davidson, K&N Filters and Memphis Shades.

Timed practice is slated for 3 p.m. with a rider autograph session and open paddock area set for 5:30 p.m. Opening ceremonies are scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. with the official racing program kicking off at 7:30 p.m. local time.  Pro Singles and Expert Singles will battle through nine qualifying races, culminating with the Pro Singles Main, a 12-lap feature, and the Expert Singles Main, a 25-lap showdown, wrapping up the evening of racing.

AMA Pro Racing and Vance & Hines are pleased to announce the launch of the new AMA Pro Vance & Hines XR1200 Series, a spec-bike five race championship featuring specially modified Harley-Davidson XR1200 motorcycles.

This exciting new series will provide loyal Harley-Davidson owners, dealers and enthusiasts a chance to join the action at selected AMA Pro Road Racing weekends throughout the country.

As the presenting sponsor, Vance & Hines will also serve as the official race kit supplier for the class.  The kit will consist of a Vance & Hines XR1200 exhaust system, a Fuelpak fuel management system, race bodywork including number plate, single seat tail section and belly pan, 17-inch front wheel with matching front fender, steering damper, oil cooler relocator and race decal package.  The cost for the complete kit will be $3500.

Spec XR1200 races will be run at select AMA and British Superbike events

“We have racing in our DNA, Harley-Davidson has racing in their DNA and we are truly thrilled to bring Vance & Hines and Harley-Davidson back into AMA Pro Racing,” Terry Vance, a prolific champion as both rider and team owner, said of the new series.  “The XR1200 has proven to be an exciting platform for spec racing in Europe and this class will be a perfect cost-effective platform to showcase new talent on a national stage.  Many of the finest motorcycle racers all over the world got their start in the AMA Supertwins class of the 1990s.”

As in all AMA Pro Road Racing series, Dunlop will provide the spec tire for the class and Sunoco will fuel the racers with their Sunoco 260 GTX fuel.  In addition to the Vance & Hines supplied kit parts, teams will be allowed to upgrade their suspension, hand and foot controls, brake components and instrumentation.

AMA Pro Racing Chief Operating Officer David Atlas welcomed the new series, “Adding another element to our events with a series of this caliber will be a great benefit to our sport.  The specification of the XR1200 package will put the premium on the rider’s ability and will provide a great new class of racing that has ties to the past.”

Vance & Hines is also pleased to announce that the XR1200 Series will feature a $5,000 purse payout at each of the five rounds, $2,500 going to the race winner, $1,000 to the runner-up and $750 for third.  Fourth and fifth place finishers will receive $500 and $250 respectively.

For the 2010 season, the AMA Pro Racing Vance & Hines XR1200 Series will race at five rounds of the AMA Pro Road Racing Championship.  The first race will be just north of Harley-Davidson’s Milwaukee headquarters at Road America in Elkhart Lake, WI.  Next up will be the classic Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, moving on to Virginia International Raceway and New Jersey Motorsports Park.  The season finale will be at Barber Motorsports Park.

For more information, please contact Vance & Hines Motorsports at (317) 852-9057 or www.amaproracing.com.

Flat Track fans are accustomed to seeing V-twin Harley Davidson motorcycles banging handlebars around oval dirt tracks in the U.S., but something you don’t see everyday is spec 883 Sportsters duking it out in a road race.  Today’s Motourage Video of the Day features the 1991 U.S. Pro Twins event at Mid Ohio.

Although not very well known away from the dirt track, Harley Davidson’s racing history is long and proud.  In 1908, Walter Davidson, Harley’s co-founder and president, rode a stock single-cylinder machine to victory in the Federation of American Motorcyclists two-day, 365-mile endurance and reliability contest through the Catskill Mountains of New York.  At the 1912 Bakersfield Road Race in California, a new track record was set on a Harley.  Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Harleys dominated at Daytona, and even after HD’s racing operations shut down in the U.S. in 1969, the American-built 250 and 350s had success in Europe for the next 10 years.  During the late 80s and early 90s, Harley Davidson sanctioned several spec-Sportster classes in support of AMA-sanctioned road racing events but was unable to compete with the Japanese four cylinder machines in the regular series.

Harley Davidson returned to American road racing full time in 1994 with the VR1000, a bike that saw a flicker of success underneath Doug Chandler, Miguel Duhamel Pascal Picotte.  Like the Buell 1125RR, the VR1000 was criticized for being a race-purpose bike and unavailable in Harley showrooms in the U.S.  After the 1999 season, Harley ended development on the VR1000 and pulled out of AMA-sanctioned events, but the company continues to see success with their V-Rod in the NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle drag-racing class and the XR750 in the AMA Flat Track Grand National Twins.

In 2008, rumors began circulating about a Harley-Davidson XR1200 Trophy series as a support class for the 2009 British Superbike championship.  Originally slated to run at eight BSB events in 2009, the series will now be split into two seasons with 2009 declared a development season and the original schedule being run next year. Similar spec Harley series are run in Italy and Japan with varied degrees of success.