AMA Flat Track: From a Dream, to the Desktop to the Dirt-The Eaken Racing/Luke Gough & Rick Howerton-Built Kawasaki Twins Series Machine

Rick Howerton and Luke Gough talk during the rain delay at the Springfield Mile I round of the 2011 AMA Pro Flat Track Harley-Davidson Insurance Grand National Championship Series on May 29, with the #62 Digger/Dick Ford/KK Cycle/Eaken Racing/Sakaida Trucking/Howerton-sponsored Kawasaki 650R-based mount at the ready.  The 5-Time Australian Flat Track Champion was tasked with debuting the team's new Twins machine at the first round of the season in round 6 of the series and just missed making the National main in the bike's first true racing tryout by just .110 seconds.

Howerton, a long time fan of the AMA Flat Track Grand National Championship Series, decided he wanted to give back to the sport he loved and built the 650R-based Twins Series machine starting in late summer 2010.  Working from his original dream, Rick started putting everything together for the build on his work pc, and came up with a splendid design and working concept that in it's original outing on the track at Circleville, OH. was lapping within reach of the track record. 

The pictures and stories that follow are about Rick Howerton's vision in bringing a challenge to the track in today's AMA Pro Flat Track Series.
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The man behind the Eaken Racing Kawasaki, as ridden by Luke Gough in the 2011 AMA Pro Flat Track Harley-Davidson Insurance Grand National Twins Series.  Rick Howerton has been around racing all of his life (his father Jackie is a former USAC Silver Crown driver/owner) and has been a major flat track racing fan since the early-mid '80s when Team Honda had their shop just two doors down from the Howerton facility. 

Rick told me when he was 14 years old back in those days he used to ride his BMX bike around the shop and down the street to the Team Honda facilities and became good friends with Skip Eaken, Sparky Edmondson, Gene Romero, Doug Chandler, Bubba Shobert and Ricky Graham from the Team Honda superteam. 

That relationship with Skip Eaken has stood since and his pairing with the man that took Bubba Shobert to three straight AMA Grand National Championships in the mid-late '80s is now hoping to put a dent in the H-D XR750-dominated world of AMA Flat Track.
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This is the computer model of the Eaken Racing/Howerton Products Kawasaki 650R-based machine as put together by Rick Howerton at Howerton Products in Indianapolis.  Starting from what he had working in his head, Rick took to the task of generating a computer model to actually do the build off of, and from there the build got into full swing.

Rick has what to many would be the IMAX of computer screens in his office in a 31" unit with wonderful graphics.  The shop is located just 8 blocks from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Gasoline Alley, amongst a plethora of other racing shops set-up in the area on the westside of Indy.
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Everything  built in the Howerton Products shop starts as raw product in the form of sheeting, in various sizes and dimensions.  Some of Howerton's many clients include John Force Racing in NHRA and Michael Waltrip Racing in NASCAR, along with many of the IndyCar teams located close to the shop on the westside of Indy.
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Various frame and swingarm pieces in mid-build sit on the shop bench ready for the next step in the building process.  Most of the pieces in the build are 1/1000th of an inch thick.  Photo courtesy of Rick Howerton/Howerton Products.
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Completed swingarm assemblies sit on the shop bench after final prep.  Photo courtesy of Rick Howerton/Howerton Products.
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The roughly 2.5 gallon gas tank has over 30 hours of labor alone in it between the stamping and rolling, from what started as flat sheet metal.  Photo courtesy of Rick Howerton/Howerton Products.
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The frame assembly awaits further pieces to become a true rolling chassis.  Photo courtesy of Rick Howerton/Howerton Products.
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Axles, swingarm pivot and head neck assembly are ready for installation.  Photo courtesy of Rick Howerton/Howerton Products.
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Triple clamp assemblies are ready to be put together.  All of the aluminum parts are made from 7075 aluminum, while all of the stainless pieces are made from 17-4 stainless.  Very light, very strong and VERY expensive.  Photo courtesy of Rick Howerton/Howerton Products.
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The seat and tail section on the street build are the same as found on the AMA Grand National Twins Series version.  The wire assembly hanging from the rear of the tail section is for the LED brake and tail light assembly.  The dzus fasteners alone cost around $100 apiece, as shown in front of the 'HRP' logo.
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Tune in tomorrow for part 2 of our look at the Eaken Racing/Luke Gough/Rick Howerton Kawasaki 650R-based AMA Flat Track Twins Series machine, and we'll also look more at the street tracker version of this great build project, which is a mirror copy of the full-race version.
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