AMA Pro Road Racing Set for 2-Day Test at Miller Motorsports Park on May 2-3

Mike Smith's #68 Fast By Ferracci/SBS/Pro Grip/Michelin-sponsored Ducati 916/955 sits in the Ferracci pit area during the St. Louis Superbike Challenge Weekend at the Gateway International Raceway stop on the AMA Superbike Championship Series tour in August of 1995.  Eraldo Ferracci can just be seen behind the bike trying to cool off in what was to this day undoubtedly the hottest weekend ever attended by the AMA Road Racing Series ever.  The poorly-attended race was a blip on the radar to the series after showing up at a track that was at the very least 'sketchy' in terms of safety concerns, not to mention the landfill that sat across the street whose aromas permeated the air throughout the weekend.  Needless to say, the series never returned to the track dubbed 'The Dump' by several fans and insiders.
The weekend was so hot, humid and hazy that the view of the St. Louis Arch, which is normally very clear from the track just across the Mighty Mississippi River, was all but obscured due to the haze (and aromas) that hung in the air, with the triple-digit temperatures making for a very long and unpleasant weekend for sponsors, racers, team owners and fans alike.  We spent over half the weekend in the air-conditioned comfort of our car it was so bad!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

          AMA Pro Road Racing Back in Action at MMP Test

 

                         Two-Day Test at Miller Motorsports Park, May 2-3, Fans Welcome!

DAYTONA BEACH, FL (April 27, 2011) - The AMA Pro Road Racing Championship returns to asphalt May 2-3 at next week's official, two-day test at Miller Motorsports Park in Toole, Utah. Located just outside Salt Lake City, the beautiful MMP circuit will play host to the majority of AMA Pro's top competitors as they prep for both Round 2 at Infineon Raceway (May 13-15) and for MMP's BigM Weekend presented by Lucas Oil, which will see AMA Pro Road Racing's Round 3 run alongside Round 5 of the World Superbike Championship, May 28-30.

Heading up the field in AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike testing will be reigning SuperBike champion Josh Hayes (Monster Energy Graves Yamaha) and current points leader Blake Young (Rockstar Makita Suzuki). Hayes will be joined by fellow Yamaha SuperBiker Chris Clark (Y.E.S./Pat Clark/Graves Motorsports), while Blake will have teammate Tommy Hayden and Suzuki's Australian Superbike star, Josh Waters, for brand-centric company.

Team M4 Suzuki's Round 1 standout (and reigning Daytona SportBike champ) Martin Cardenas will likewise be honing his skills at MMP in the new-to-him class, joined by veteran teammate Chris Ulrich. The Michael Jordan Motorsports effort will be out in force with riders Ben Bostrom (Jordan Suzuki) and National Guard-sponsored Roger Hayden.

Foremost Insurance Pegram Racing's Larry Pegram will represent just one of a trio of BMW S1000Rs testing at the MMP facility, with Iron Horse BMW fielding both Chris Peris and Tony Kasper. In all, a total of fourteen AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike riders are currently registered for the test.

The AMA Pro Daytona SportBike class will see at least twenty-two of its riders take to the track at Miller, a field that includes Ducati riders Jason DiSalvo on his Daytona 200-winning Team Latus Motors Racing machine, P.J. Jacobson (Celtic Racing), and Jake Holden (DNA Roberson Motorsports), plus a slew of ferocious Yamaha and Suzuki riders.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------















Image courtesy Miller Motorsports Park
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No fewer than eight Yamaha R6's, in fact, will be running at Miller, led by Monster Energy Graves Yamaha's Josh Herrin. He'll be joined by Tommy Aquino (Y.E.S./Pat Clark/Graves Motorsports), Melissa Paris (HT Moto Yamaha), and a trio of AMA Pro Motorcycle-Superstore.com SuperSport graduates: LTD Racing/Y.E.S. Yamaha's Huntley Nash, Cameron Beaubier, and 2010 Top Gun Champion Tyler O'Hara.

On the Suzuki side, 2009 Daytona SportBike Champion Danny Eslick (Richie Morris Racing/GEICO Powersports) will lead the Suzuki delegation to Utah, joined by M4 Suzuki's talented Dane Westby; Westby's teammate, Santiago Villa; and Vesrah Suzuki's highly capable Taylor Knapp and Cory West, among others. A trio of SuperSport Kawasakis will be headed up by Fernando Amantini, while Honda pilot Tyler Odom will likewise put his machinery through its paces.

Thirteen AMA Pro Motorcycle-Superstore.com SuperSport riders are slated to begin testing on Monday, the sessions serving as a preview of the highly anticipated Larry H. Miller SuperSport Challenge event, which will take place during the BigM Weekend and be broadcast live on SPEED2 Sunday, May 29, at 3:05 p.m. PST. Along with the BigM Weekend's AMA Pro Vance & Hines XR1200 race, the Larry H. Miller SuperSport Challenge will also be included in an AMA Pro Road Racing Special that will air Monday, May 30, at 9 p.m. PST.

The Motorcycle-Superstore.com SuperSport group will be led by Daytona winners Tomas Puerta and Daniel Gaviria on their Team LTD/Y.E.S. Yamahas. SuzukiScoopFans Racing's Elena Myers was also scheduled to attend the test, but having broken her arm in a Supermoto accident last Monday, she'll be forced to sit out the test and focus instead on healing in time for a possible return at Round 2. Corey Alexander, however, will be present to represent for Suzuki, while standout young-gun Benny Solis (Team Roadracingworld.com) will lay down laps on his Honda.

The above riders will be joined by Ducati pilots Brad Graham, Jose Flores, and Nicholas Hayman; newcomer Shelina Moreda (Triple Crown Industries Yamaha); and many more.

AMA Pro's Vance & Hines XR1200 riders are prepping for their first-ever appearance at MMP, and a minimum of eight of the big-twin pilots will be testing May 2-3. They'll also be preparing for the aforementioned expanded television coverage on SPEED and SPEED2 during the Memorial Day weekend, comprising a live broadcast on SPEED2 (Monday, May 30, at 12:20 p.m. PST) and inclusion in SPEED's AMA Pro Road Racing Special (Monday, May 30, at 9 p.m. PST).

Daytona winner Kyle Wyman will lead the XR1200 testing group on his RMR Bruce Rossmeyer/Daytona Racing machine, joined by teammates Chris Fillmore and Michael Corbino. AMA Pro Flat Track multi-time champion Joe Kopp (Team Latus Motors) will also be on track, as will SuperSport Top Gun champ Tyler O'Hara and a handful of other Harley-Davidson XR1200 pilots.

The two-day test will begin with team move-in Sunday night, and on-track activities will run 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. both days, the schedule comprising five morning sessions and seven afternoon sessions. AMA Pro National Guard SuperBikes will share the track with AMA Pro Daytona SportBikes, while Motorcycle-Superstore.com SuperSport riders will run jointly with AMA Pro Vance & Hines XR1200 pilots.

Fans are welcome to attend the test, free of charge, and are encouraged to come out and cheer for their favorites. For directions and information, visit http://www.millermotorsportspark.com/ or call 435-277-RACE (7223). For additional information about the BigM Weekend presented by Lucas Oil, visit www.BigMweekend.com. For information or tickets to AMA Pro Road Racing's upcoming Round 2, May 13-15 at Infineon Raceway, visit http://www.infineonraceway.com./

AMA Pro Racing is the premier professional motorcycle racing organization in North America, operating a full schedule of events and championships for a variety of motorcycle disciplines. Learn more about AMA Pro Racing at www.amaproracing.com

For additional information contact:
AMA Pro Racing Communications, (386) 492-1014, communications@amaproracing.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Own a Piece of AMA Superbike History: Flyin' Fred Merkel's '95 Yoshimura Factory Suzuki GSX-R750 For Sale On eBay

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Flyin' Fred Merkel bends the #27 Yoshimura Factory Suzuki GSX-R750 through a turn at Gateway International Raceway, just east of and over the river from St. Louis, during practice for the AMA Superbike round (and the only AMA event ever held at the track) in August of 1995. Merkel won the '84-'86 AMA Superbike Championship while riding Honda Interceptors tuned by Mike Velasco, one of the Fabulous Burner Brothers of the era (and still is!) Flyin' Fred then went off to Europe in '88 and won the '88 and '89 World Superbike Championships while riding a Honda RC30 for Team Rumi. Those were the first two years of the new series, as well. #27 then returned to the States in the early '90s to run the AMA Superbike and AMA 750 Supersport Series for Muzzy Kawasaki and then Yoshimura Suzuki, winning several races in the 750SS series along the way. He was forced to retire early due to a season and career ending crash at a west coast AMA round at the end of the '95 season. He currently resides in New Zealand, and as a spokesperson and fan favorite for the sport, is sorely missed. Here's to Fred Merkel, one of the original iconic AMA Superbike racers of our once world level racing series.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A fine piece of AMA and U.S. Road Racing history is currently for sale on eBay. This would make a great addition to anyone's collection. Maybe in glass for an end table or mantle piece for the fireplace? Of course, it would have to be a pretty good size fireplace. I'm just sayin'...................


CycleNews.com reports that Flyin' Fred Merkel's 1995 Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R750 Superbike is for sale by the former 3-Time AMA Superbike and 2-Time World Superbike Champion. Bids start at $35K and you still have time to get on the bandwagon with a racing machine for the ages and ridden by one of the true champions, icons, and spokespersons of the sport.


Here's the story as posted by CycleNews.com I found this morning:
http://www.cyclenews.com/articles/road-racing/2010/07/07/merkel-selling-his-suzuki

And here is the listing for this great find over on eBay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Suzuki-GSX-R-Racebike-Fred-Merkel-Suzuki-1995-GSX-R-Superbike-_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem2eae44fdf1QQitemZ200492252657QQptZUSQ5fmotorcycles#v4-37
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DMG Has a Long Road Ahead of Them to Fix AMA Superbike

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Flyin' Fred Merkel on the #27 Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R750 gets on the brakes coming into a turn at Gateway International across the river from The Arch in St. Louis during qualifying for the AMA Superbike round in August of '95. Merkel came out of the 250GP class in the AMA series to become one, if not the most flamboyant of AMA Superbike Champions the sport has ever seen. After winning the AMA Superbike Crown in '84-'86 riding Mike Velasco-prepped VF750 Honda Interceptors, Merkel headed across the pond to contest the new World Superbike Championship in '88 for Team Rumi on a Honda RC30. He won the first two seasons' championships in the process on unfamiliar tracks under unfamiliar surroundings. After returning to the AMA series in the early '90s, he campaigned bikes for Team Muzzy Kawasaki and Yoshimura Suzuki in the old 750 Supersport class as well as the Superbike class before having to retire early due to an ugly crash at Firebird Raceway in Chandler, AZ. in late '95.
The United States has also seen several other riders who parlayed pretty good AMA careers into World Superbike Championships---Doug Polen '91-'92, Scott Russell '93, John Kocinski '97, Colin Edwards '00 and '02, and Ben Spies in '09--winning nine championships in the series first 22 years.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

While perusing the internet of the usual suspect websites while trying to dig up some half-way interesting news to comment about this weekend, I came acrossed the following article penned by the super Chris Martin over at SpeedTV.com.
Chris makes some damn fine points about how the U.S. or AMA American Superbike (it's AMA Superbike--let's just leave it alone at that!) series has been looked down upon from across the pond as of late for a feeding ground for rider talent to nourish and move up into World Superbike or eventually the MotoGP series. While attending the Miller Motorsports Park round of World Superbike over the Memorial Day weekend, Chris got the opportunity to talk with some of the higher ups in WSBK, and got an earful on how or what they thought about the AMA series as of late since all of the problems that were stirred up in and around the series when the DMG people took over. And it's not real positive.
In spite of the 'let's make happy'-stance that has helped the AMA series to look more positive since the first of this year, the damage created by the series under the helm of Roger E sent some pretty negative vibes and smoke signals to the European crowd in how they viewed AMA Superbike as a feeding ground for talent. And how they still feel that way in spite of those positive changes this year. Once considered one of the major proving grounds for racing in Europe, the AMA series is suffering badly due to mis-management problems from the recent past, let alone the economic fall out we have all seen. And rebuilding what once was may prove to be even harder now that the negative ripple has had it's effects.
This is well worth the time to check out to see what Chris heard about how the AMA series is looked upon now from afar. They may have to rebuild Rome if this is any indication of the damage that the Daytona Motorcycle Group has inflicted in their dumming down of the series in the last two years. They've been on a positive path this year, but this could be a long journey.

Read on and thanks to Chris Martin for penning this article over at SpeedTV.com:

http://moto-racing.speedtv.com/article/martin-land-of-inopportunity/P1
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks for coming by to check us out and have a good and safe week!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For Sale Across the Pond--You Can Own a Piece of Honda Motorcycling and Road Racing History....

I came acrossed an interesting story over the weekend that a '2010' Honda RC-45 with ZERO miles on it was for sale. The link to the article is here thanks to the great people at www.motorcyclenews.com who posted it. Per the article, this zero miles model is for sale and you can own it now if you hurry, as I would imagine this one could go fast, if not already:

http://www.motorcyclenews.com/MCN/News/newsresults/General-news/2010/February/feb1210-0-mile-rc45-spotted-on-mcn-bikemart/?&R=EPI-122148

Probably one of the most exotic of race motorcycles to ever hit the track, the U.S. versions were said to cost in the neighborhood of $500K at their peak in '98 and '99, and put out close to 200hp in their finely tuned trim from the boys at Team Honda. The RC-45 reaped three major championships in it's glory, the '95 and '98 AMA Superbike Championships with Miguel Duhamel and Ben Bostrom, respectively, and the '97 World Superbike Championship with John Kocinski with the Team Castrol Honda folks. Duhamel also won the '96 Daytona 200 riding one of these exotic beasts.

Here are a couple of videos I found on www.YouTube.com from the good folks at Honda that chronicle the '97 World Superbike Championship and the assault that Kocinski and team launched on the world, including his then team mate Aaron Slight:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNxztuow9rw&feature=related

Link to '97 World Superbike race at Sentul with eventual '97 WSBK Champ John Kocinski battling with teamster Aaron Slight on the Team Castrol Honda RC-45's. Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD5Sc2Ub7-Y&feature=related

To help celebrate such a fine piece of motorcycle road racing history, I've thrown in a few pics from the Stu's Shots files to showcase this fine piece of machinery and it's impact on racing, at leasst here in the States since I didn't make it across the pond to watch Johnny K bag 'em and tag 'em in '97.

First up is a shot as the '45' is most likely best remembered in the States, with sponsorship from the Smokin' Joe's folks. The cigarette money was starting to dry up, and sponsorship was being curtailed to the point where sponsors of such product could only market in a certain way, thusly the Smokin' Joe's campaign after having been under the 'Camel' marque for several years prior. Camel went to the Smokin' Joe's tutelage in the '94 season and hung on through the '97 season here in the States. This particular shot is of Miguel Duhamel on the #17 Smokin' Joe's Team Honda RC-45 at St. Louis' Gateway International in the dreadfully hot August of '95.

Then we see a couple of shots of the massive '45' under the paddock tent at Road America in '98. Both shots are of eventual '98 AMA Superbike Champ Ben Bostrom's bike while it is being overseen by Al Ludington and the Team Honda squad for the weekend's event.

Next up is a shot of Ben on the #11 RC-45 going into turn 8 at Road America during practice for the '98 event. And last but not least is another shot of Miguel on the #17 '45' while coming out of turn 8 in practice for the '98 event.

I hope you enjoy these shots as we get ready to start the new week. We now have less then two weeks before the World Superbike season starts up and then another few days after that the U.S. teams will hit the track at Daytona mid week on March 3rd. With the news that the purses would be increased for at least Daytona, the entry list is starting to look much better then it did a little less then a month ago. And with two superbike events running before the premier Daytona 200 scheduled to run March 5th, the season kick off is looking much better. And last I checked on www.speedtv.com at least we will get to see the '200' albeit it looks like tape delayed with a 9 p.m. Eastern Time slot shown. Hey, at least we're still on the schedule on the same day and don't have to wait a couple of weeks to see the action. And don't forget the twin short track races at the new Daytona short track on March 3rd and 4th as well. And, if you are a Supercross fan, that race is scheduled for Saturday March 6th as well.

Take care and thanks again for dropping in to read up on trivial motorcycle racing items and view old race shots with us. As always I/we really appreciate your taking the time to come on down and hang with the crew at Stu's Shots and we'll keep trying to showcase the archives as we discuss the present and the future in the coming year. Have a great week and God Bless!