AMA Flat Track: Breaking News--Lloyd Brothers Motorsports Signs Brad Baker to Ride Ducati in '11 AMA Grand National Championship Twins Events!!

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Dave Lloyd, half of the Lloyd Brothers Motorsports team head-honchos that contest the AMA Pro Flat Track Grand National Championship Series Twins Events, checks the controls on Joe Kopp's #3 Lloyd Brothers Motorsports/
American Agip/Latus Motors/Motion Pro-sponsored Ducati 1098 during a break in the action at the Labor Day Weekend running of the Springfield Mile in September of 2010. LBM, Kopp and the Ducati turned some major heads around the world of flat track racing (let alone around the world!) last May in winning the Prescott Valley, AZ. mile event at Yavapai Downs, for the first win in an AMA Flat Track Twins event by anyone other then Harley-Davidson in almost 13 seasons. Kopp's win on the Big Duc was the shot heard round the world that (among other great moves last year in the series) helped to bring the crowds back to the series and get more old and new fans involved with the greatest sport on wheels.
Dave and Mike Lloyd have been campaigning teams in The Rolling Thunder Show for some time now, and as you can tell from the shot above, put out a great product on AND off the track that gives maximum exposure to their sponsors, their sponsor's products and the fans. The team has fielded mounts for some of the best in the business, from Henry Wiles, Aaron King and now-full time AMA Superbike pilot Larry Pegram.
Smokin' Joe went on to finish second in the year-end standings in the 2010 version of the AMA Pro Flat Track K&N Filters presented by Motorcycle Superstore.com Grand National Championship Series, and with his year-end announcement in Arizona being made official that he would be retiring from full-time competition, Dave and Mike Lloyd were left without a constant threat in the saddle for the Ducati for the 2011 season. Let alone that veteran leadership to help further develop the bike.
That has all changed within the last few days, and to find out more, you're going to have to read on about the great news to hit the AMA Flat Track Grand National Championship Series for the 2011 season!
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Brad Baker sits in his pit area during the Springfield Short Track round of the AMA Pro Flat Track Grand National Championship Series in September of 2010. The '09 AMA Pro Singles Flat Track Champion, who fielded the #1 Rod Lake/Mike Velasco/Brothers Powersports/Baker Boys-backed Honda CRF450 to a second place finish in the 2010 AMA Pro Motorcycle Superstore.com Pro Singles Championship, is obviously a proven winner ON and off the track. The 18 year old from Washington State has the form on the track, and with a smile like he's gleeming in the shot above, a media/sponsor/promoter's dream OFF the track as well.
In his championship-winning season in the Pro Singles' inaugural year, Baker won four events and made the podium 10 times in 13 events. Last year, in defense of his title, he again won four events and amassed 11 podiums in 16 events, only to come in runner up to '10 AMA Pro Singles Champ Jeffrey Carver, Jr. Oh, and when AMA Flat Track gave a few of the Pro Singles riders a chance to knock handlebars in some of the Expert Twins events last year, he also qualified for all three events he gave it a shot at, and brought home a best of 10th against the big boys at the Calistoga Half Mile in California. Not too bad for what would be considered a 'rookie' in the Expert GN Series!
Baker started off the 2011 season at Daytona last Thursday and Friday with a BIG bang. While sporting his new National #12 number plate for the new season in a new class, he finished 4th/3rd in the season-opening rounds on the tough and rough Daytona Short Track, all the while fighting it out with the nation's best on one of the toughest tracks that the series visits each year. On both nights he faced trying to get into a 48 rider field against 60-62 entrants, both nights he qualifed top 10 and started up front, and both nights with stellar race ending results. And keep in mind that on Friday, Joe Kopp, Bryan Smith and Nicole Cheza did NOT make the 48 rider cut off in Daytona. Long time veterans in the series at that!
Needless to say, this young man has a bucket-load of talent, and has more than proved he can mix it with 'the bigs' on the track. Read on below to hear what will undoubtely help him to rise to even new heights in AMA Flat Track Grand National Championship Series racing in the upcoming year.
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Some of THE BEST news to hit the 2011 AMA Pro Flat Track Harley-Davidson Insurance Grand National Championship Series came acrossed my laptop over the weekend, as it was learned that the Lloyd Brothers Motorsports team has reached an agreement with '09 AMA Pro Singles Flat Track Champion and '10 runner-up Brad Baker to contest the 2011 Grand National Twins Events on the team's Ducati. Baker, who set sail in his first full-year in the highly competitive AMA Flat Track Grand National Series at Daytona last Thursday and Friday with great rides to 4th and 3rd places in the season-opening events, will be bolting his new National #12 onto the LBM Ducati, which was taken to victory last May in Arizona by 2000 AMA GN Champ Joe Kopp.

Having been conversing with team owner Dave Lloyd since the end of December of 2010 on his team's 2011 sponsorship search, I fired off an e-mail to him after reading that Brad had announced on Friday he would be competing in the '11 Twins Series events on the LBM Ducati. Dave and his brother Mike, long-time high profile competitors in The Rolling Thunder Show, have been working feverishly to get sponsorship together for this year, with high hopes of bringing the team back to the track for 2011. With last year's rider Joe Kopp announcing his retirement at the end of last season from full-time competition, and with the flat global economy still hitting everyone and everything in it's path (especially motorsports sponsorships) things weren't looking totally grim, but were nonetheless leaving them (and myself!) wondering if things would fall together in time for the series first Twins Series event (which is now going to be Memorial Day at the Springfield Mile, with the recent cancelation of the May Arizona Mile.)

Well, Stu's Shots can report to you that the great looking on-and-off the track Lloyd Brothers Motorsports Ducati team WILL be back for 2011. Dave was kind enough to fire back an e-mail confirming what I had heard/read, and is currently in the process of putting together official press releases (to be coming out in the next few days!) to announce this great pairing in The Rolling Thunder Show for the upcoming season. We should have all of the big (and little) details sometime in the next few days straight from one of LBM's owners, and we will have that official press release here on Stu's Shots for you as soon as we get it in our grubby little fingers.

A BIG congrats to Brad Baker and The Lloyd Brothers team for getting things together to make another great run at the AMA Pro Flat Track Grand National Championship Series. This is a team that brings an awful lot to the table in terms of exposure and bang-for-the-buck for it's sponsors and fans, and without them the series would surely suffer a massive hole in the paddock and on the track-figuratively and literally. We can't wait to see them hit the track together for the first event on the legendary Illinois State Fairgrounds mile oval at the end of May.

Stay tuned here as we will have all of the details posted once all of the particulars come together in the next couple of days.

Great news! Bravo guys!
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While you are waiting for this super news like we are here at Stu's Shots, take a look at the Lloyd Brothers Motorsports website here:

http://www.lloydbrothersmotorsports.com/

Dave and Mike Lloyd put together this great video at the end of the 2010 AMA Pro Flat Track Grand National Championship Series season. Great stuff, and if nothing else it will help some until the end of May rolls around to get you geared up for the new season and this great news:

http://vimeo.com/17893126

This is a fine example of great advertising and sponsorship exposure that the LBM team is famous for in The Rolling Thunder Show:

http://www.lloydbrothersmotorsports.net/LBM-web.htm.pdf
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K&N Filters was not only the title sponsor for the 2010 AMA Pro Flat Track K&N Filters presented by Motorcycle Superstore.com Grand National Championship Series, but was and has been a sponsor of many AMA Flat Track teams over the years and decades. They are also one of LBM's associate sponsors, and put together this great expose on the team and their fine work in AMA Flat Track:

http://www.knfilters.com/news/news.aspx?ID=2488
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A great example of news of the Lloyd Brothers Motorsports team and AMA Pro Flat Track being heard around the world comes from 2 Wheel Tuesday.com from The Netherlands. Brian Christner was originally living in the Las Vegas, NV. area when he was transfered to Amsterdam. He shares his love of motorcycles and motorcycle racing via his excellent website, and posted this great item about LBM at the end of December of 2010. Thanks Brian, always great to see more exposure for the greatest show on wheels!

http://2wheeltuesday.com/2010/12/a-bike-we-like-lloyd-brothers-ducati/
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