Team Cycle World Is Going Racing!
TEAM CYCLE WORLD IS GOING RACING!
ROUNDUP
CURRENT AMA PRO RACING AMERIcan Superbike rules were instituted under the premise of establishing parity and reducing costs. Despite the political firestorm that engulfed nearly every aspect of the series last season, the changes appeared to work: No fewer than three riders—series champ Mat Mladin, Josh Hayes and Larry Pegram—scored multiple wins. All three, however, were factory-supported. Here’s what we—and hopefully, you,
our readers—want to know: Does this alleged across-class equality extend to privateers, who previously had no realistic shot at a podium finish, never mind victory?
To find out, we asked American Suzuki to supply a 2009 GSX-R1000 on which Team Cycle World will compete in select American Superbike events, beginning with the May 14-16 West Coast Moto Jam at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California. We have also entered Round 7 of the series at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, to be run in conjunction with the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix, July 23-25. More events may follow.
Attack Performance will prep the bike, making full use of the products it manufactures and sells—bodywork, clip-on handlebars, rearset foot controls, triple-clamps, rear-wheel lift kits, etc.—along with other readily available AMA-homologated aftermarket parts from companies with whom it has longstanding relationships. Cycle World has a history with Attack Performance: Company principal Richard Stanboli served as the crew chief for two CIkbacked Daytona 200 race efforts (“Assault on Daytona,” June, 1994; “Daytona DNF,” June, 1995) with staff ace Don Canet in the saddle.
American Superbike-spec engines and technical support for the EMPro engine-management system will be supplied by Yoshimura Racing via its new engine lease program. In theory, this turn-key $1400-per-doubleheaderrace-weekend package provides privateers with performance on par with that of GSX-Rs campaigned last season by Rockstar Makita Yoshimura Suzuki riders Tommy Hayden and Blake Young. Series-spec Sunoco fuel and Dunlop tires remove two equally critical variables from the competition equation; say what you will about a control tire, but it is the equalizer.
Cameron Beaubier will handle riding duties. The 17-year-old American competed in the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup series in 2007, winning the race in Germany and finishing on the podium in Holland and Portugal. In 2008, he joined the Spanish national championship as part of the Red
Bull MotoGP Academy. Beaubier made his World Championship debut last year with the Red Bull KTM 125cc team; his best placing was 14th in Germany. Back in the U.S. this past March, Beaubier won the AMA Pro Supersport season opener at Daytona on a Rockwall Performance Yamaha YZF-R6. Kevin Schwantz, the 1993 500cc World Champion, has agreed to coach Beaubier in his Superbike debut.
At the conclusion of the project, the ready-to-race Team Cycle World Attack Performance Yoshimura Suzuki AMA Pro American Superbike will be raffled off, with all proceeds going to the Cycle World Joseph C. Parkhurst Education Fund to benefit the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation’s scholarship program for brain-tumor survivors.
Join Team CW at the racetrack!
Matthew Miles
