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Aaron Yates and members of the GPTech team take a final look at the team's #20 BCL Motorsports/GPTech GP212 before Double A-ron heads out for another practice session at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday, August 11, 2012. Yates and the team were taking part in AMA Pro Road Racing's and IMS's hosting of the pre-race testing held at The Brickyard the weekend before the 5th Annual Red Bull Indianapolis MotoGP. After getting used to the team's Suzuki GSX-R1000 set-up, Yates and the GPTech team were ready to do some tire testing with the Bridgestone 'Battlax' spec tire of choice for the MotoGP and CRT class.
Yates, in his first big return to racing after suffering a severely broken leg at Fontana in March '10, went on to finish 16th at Indy the next weekend in his and the team's MotoGP debut. After having raced a couple of WERA events before the Indy round, Erik Buell Racing brought him back to the Superbike class in AMA Pro Road Racing's premier U.S. series towards the end of last season, and Yates rewarded himself and the team with a 4th-place finish in one of the season-ending rounds.
EBR announced yesterday that Yates would be back with the team, and full-time for the 2013 AMA Pro National Guard Superbike Championship season and along with returning sponsors AMSOIL and Team Hero will be on-board the team's EBR 1190RS superbikes, starting with the upcoming Daytona doubleheader opening round in less then 40 days. Great news for EBR and for Aaron!
You can read the full press release below and we're looking forward to seeing #20 back on the track full-time again for the 2013 season!
Thanks to RoadRacing World.com for this press release announcing Aaron Yates' signing to ride for Erik Buell Racing in the 2013 AMA Superbike Championship.
The GP Tech team goes about readying the #20 BCL Motorsports/GPTech GP212 mount for rider Aaron Yates just before the afternoon practice session of testing hosted by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in August '12, while The Enforcer waits in the background with his helmet on and his steely-eyed focus on what was yet to come.
In only their third outing on-track before the next weekend's events surrounding the 5th Annual Red Bull Indianapolis MotoGP, Yates and the team were still in the process of becoming familiar with the MotoGP-spec Bridgestone tires (after testing at two other venues with AMA-spec rubber) and making adjustments to the electronics on the GSX-R1000-powered CRT machine.
Only getting a brief minute to talk before he headed back out for more laps, I took the time to introduce myself to one of the true legends of AMA Pro Road Racing. Having been a long-time fan of Yates' I explained, that it was great to see him back out at it again and that the sport needed more guys with his personality. He took the time to thank me and shake my hand while casually saying 'we're just going to do what we can' and try and 'have some fun' in the process. He also assured me his leg was completely healed from his devastating injuries suffered in an AMA Superbike practice session in California in spring of 2010.
Roadracing World.com reported earlier today that the GPTech team has been granted wild card entries with their CRT (claiming rules team) machine for all of the U.S. rounds in the 2013 season. You can read more on that below.
Aaron Yates looks over the GPTech MotoGP CRT machine as the team preps the bike for another test run at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on August 11, 2012. The team had previously entered wild card entries in the Moto2 class at Indy with Jason DiSalvo in 2010 and Jake Gagne during the 2011 round, and decided to 'step-up' to the premier class at the 5th Annual Red Bull Indy MotoGP.
With the new claiming rules team bikes allowed on the grid with the multi-million dollar MotoGP prototypes in order to help fill the grids, the GPTech team was one of the first along with Attack Performance Kawasaki to field entires in the first season with the new rules in one or both of the U.S. rounds of the series.
Yates put in a great effort for himself and the team in what was his first big race back at the track. He had previously done some WERA events in order to get re-acclimated to being back in the saddle again after his long break from the track after being injured at Fontana back in early 2010 while still riding for the Michael Jordan Motorsports AMA Superbike team (note Yates' leathers from that season). Although they finished 16th and first out of the points in the final, they were still running at the end and held the distinction of being the last bike running at the end of the 28-lap race.
Hopefully with the team announcing their intent to run all three U.S. rounds in the upcoming 2013 season they will be able to utilize the fine efforts of 'Double A-ron' again. With the first U.S. round scheduled in Texas in late April '13, they have just a few precious months to get ready. And regardless of the outcome, it was great seeing Yikes Yates back on the track again!
David Swarts at Roadracing World.com reports today that the GPTech MotoGP team has been awarded wild card entries for all of the MotoGP rounds in the United States next year for their CRT effort. Read on:
http://roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=50411
Here's a great glimpse at the team's efforts from their inuagural outing in the MotoGP class at the 5th Annual Red Bull Indy MotoGP round in August, thanks to Dean Adams and SuperbikePlanet.com. This also has a great shot of the bike in it's 'raced-in' livery as opposed to the 'testing' basic graphics as what were used during the team's initial outing at IMS just a week before the Indy round:
http://superbikeplanet.com/2012/Aug/120817p2wsaxz.htm
And this was posted on Roadracing World.com back in early August '12 about the team's efforts to get ready for the Indy round over the August 17-19 weekend:
http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=49267
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