Henry Wiles and the Lloyd Brothers Motorsports team will be looking to improve their results from last year's event at the Allen County Fairgrounds as the team will roll out their Ducati-based 'L' twin this weekend for the Ohio National Championship event at round 4 of the 2013 AMA Pro Flat Track presented by J&P Cycles Grand National Championship season.
In the series' second Twins Series event of the young season, the LBM team will for the first time this year bring the big Ducati out of 'mothballs' after incorporating their newly-added Harley-Davidson XR750 at the Stockton Half-Mile on May 11, which saw Wiles and the team bring home a strong 3rd-place finish. Although Wiles is pre-entered on the team's immaculately prepared and new 2013 crew chief Brent Armbruster's H-D XR750, 'he will ride the Ducati' per team co-owner Dave Lloyd.
At last year's Lima event (pictured above in heat race 2) Wiles and the team had a smoking night, but just not smoking enough to unseat the current hot shoe at Lima in Slammin' Sammy Halbert.
After qualifying in the 2nd-place spot, Wiles took second in his heat and won the Dash for Cash on the Lloyd Brothers Motorsports/Ramspur Winery/Foremost Insurance Group/ENI USA-sponsored Ducati, and then after being forced to start from the fourth row of the starting grid, stormed home to a hard-fought 2nd-place finish behind winner Halbert, who took his second win in-a-row at the limestone and pea gravel facility. (In fairness to all, had Wiles' not jumped the start of the 25-lap National main last June 30, forcing him to start from the penalty line, the final results very well could have been different, and that is what the team is looking to improve upon this Saturday at Lima.)
During the 2012 Indy Mile, then-crew chief Dave Gamble and team co-owners Mike and Dave Lloyd make final preparations to Henry Wiles' #17 LBM/Ramspur Winery/Foremost Insurance Group/ENI USA-backed Ducati before hitting the track for the day's events, while team member/helper Jeff Heller of Dream Machines LLC looks on.
The LBM team will also be benefitting this season with some just-announced help from Ducati. Speaking with team co-owner Dave Lloyd just over ten days ago, Lloyd mentioned that Ducati will be 'officially back on the sheet' for the 2013 season as they have offered to help out with an engine and some parts help for this season.
"This will be a big help to us in being able to maintain our direction of offering diversity to AMA Pro Flat Track," stated Dave and will also help keep the Big Red Machine in the line-up for the events that it has proved to be a threat in, which have primarily been the mile events as well as the upcoming round at Lima this coming Saturday.
For the last couple of seasons, the team has gone it alone without any help from the Italian-based company, even enlisting help from 2006 MotoGP World Champion & '02 AMA Superbike Champion Nicky Hayden in getting their engines rebuilt after suffering two losses during the mid-point of the 2011 season.
And in the big picture of AMA Grand National Championship racing, this will also help to keep the wide variety of brand exposure on the grid we have seen the last three to four seasons in terms of involvement from not only the Ducati marque, but Triumph, KTM, Kawasaki and the long-running H-D XR750 among others, in The Rolling Thunder Show.
Check out the full press release below from the Lloyd Brothers Motorsports team, and get ready to get into the meat of the schedule as the men and women of the greatest racing show on two wheels in the world get ready to head to Lima and on as the 2013 AMA Pro Flat Track presented by J&P Cycles Grand National Championship season schedule heats up!
Press release courtesy of Dave & Mike Lloyd/Lloyd Brothers Motorsports AMA Pro Flat Track presented by J&P Cycles Grand National Championship Twins Series team.
Columbus, OH. -- June 24, 2013
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