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How to Lose $4,500 in Single Corner – AKA “The Pass” Between Tyler O’Hara & Michael Barnes at NOLA

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Whether your poison is World Superbike or AMA Pro Racing, this weekend provided some excellent motorcycle racing. Out of all the memorable moments where we yelled at the TV this race-day Sunday (and there were more than a few), our favorite, hands-down, has to be “the pass” that Tyler O’Hara pulled on Michael Barnes coming down the final stretch at NOLA.

Full-throttle on the Harley-Davidson XR1200 race bikes for the win, a race that would also who would win AMA Pro Racing XR1200 Championship, O’Hara pulled a classic move on Barney — no really, he pulled Barnes back by the arm just ahead of the finish line.

It is debatable whether O’Hara would have caught Barnes on the drive to the finish, and both riders have a good on-track rivalry, and off-track sense of humor, but Barnes was clearly not pleased with O’Hara’s race shenanigans (we think it is sort of winning, in the Charlie Sheen sense of the word).

Nonetheless, the AMA ruled it an “avoidable contact” and displaced O’Hara from 1st to last in the race, which sent him into third place for the Championship points.

In other words, Tyler O’Hara lost $4,500 dollars in prize money ($2,000 for second in the race, $2,500 for the drop from second to third in the Championship), while perpetrating one of most awesome/punk-kid moves we have ever seen in motorcycle racing. The video of “the pass” is after the jump. Leave your thoughts in the comments.

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Racing

Have You Done a Lap Around Road America?

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In case you haven’t done the 14 turns of Wisconsin’s 4.048 mile track, we have got a video of some guy named Josh putting in a very tidy lap on his Yamaha YZF-R1 at Road America this past weekend. Setting off from pit lane, he gives a wave to his friend Geoff before entering the course on this nice Sunday morning ride. From what we understand in the YouTube comments of this video, Josh is quite the motorcycle enthusiast…even his wife rides!

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Racing

Redux: AMA Superbike vs. World Superbike at MMP

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Last year we combined the QP2 times from World Superbike with the Qualifying times from AMA Superbike, to see how America’s finest motorcycle racers stack up on against the international championship of a similar name. Of course there are different regulations in each series (not to mention a variety of other factors), which vary a bit on how teams are allowed to modify their race bikes, so there isn’t an exact comparison between the two series, but it makes for something interesting to mull over with your morning coffee, and the results this year may surprise you.

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Racing

Video: The Best Highside Save Ever?

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During the second AMA Pro Supersport qualifying session at Sears Point, #422 Genki Hagata had a moment that every motorcycle racer knows all too well: a highside. Still completing his out-lap, Hagata’s Yamaha YZF-R6 lost traction at the rear wheel, and then abruptly regained it, which for most riders would usually mean an ejection seat straight into the kitty litter, but not for Genki.

Holding onto the bars throughout the incident, Hagata avoided crashing (again, as the case would be for the weekend), and while he missed making the cut-off for Supersport grid by only a few tenths of a second, we still think he was the big winner of AMA Pro Racing’s third road-racing stop of the season. See it to believe it after the jump, and thanks for the tip ??!

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Racing

Have You Met the KTM AMA Superbike Racing Team?

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Things looked dubious reagrding the KTM/HMC Superbike Racing Team competing in the 2012 AMA Pro Racing season, but despite talk of the opposite before the season, the factory-backed squad is now on the race card. Someone must have tipped off KTM that its “Ready to Race” slogan really carried no water in the American street-bike scene unless the Austrian manufacturer actually raced here in the United States. That is just fine by us, as it means that KTM has committed itself to the AMA racing ranks, adding another competitive manufacturer to the struggling series’ roster.

It also bodes well for Chris Fillmore, Stefan Nebel, and the rest of the HMC Racing crew, who were out testing at Homestead-Miami Speedway after the Daytona 200. With Fillmore taking 12th & 14th finishes in the two races of AMA Pro Racing’s first Superbike round, KTM/HMC Superbike Racing is aiming for Top 5 finishes this season, as the squad continues to build its American road-racing program. You can meet the factory-supported AMA Superbike crew in the video after the jump.

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Racing

MotoGP: Steve Rapp & Attack Performance Granted Wild Card Status to both US Rounds on a CRT Entry

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Roadracing World is reporting that AMA Pro Racing team Attack Performance has gotten the green light from Dorna to enter both American MotoGP rounds as a CRT entry, with AMA Superbike rider Steve Rapp slotted as the rider of the machine. Listed as the machine’s constructor on the entry, Attack Performance is presumably building its own race bike, which is almost certainly to have a Kawasaki ZX-10R motor at its core.

If the team undertakes the next steps in the process of racing in MotoGP, and it is true that Attack Kawasaki is building its own bike, then the team will have a short amount of time to put together a competent race package, as there are only four months until the Red Bull US GP at Laguna Seca.

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Racing

Photo of the Week: Think Outside the Oval

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Ben Bostrom signed on to ride for a certain AMA Superbike team owner by the name of Michael Jordan in 2011, trading in his signature number 155 for his employer’s legendary 23. “I think having MJ as a boss is awesome!” he enthused, when speaking about his then-upcoming debut.

As with any new rider and team pairing, there were rough patches to work through, but it was clear early on that the combination had potential. By the second round of the season Ben had put the Jumpman bike on the front row of the starting grid, outpaced only by proven factory machines.

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News

Erik Buell Racing Partners with Hero MotoCorp

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While we have been expecting Erik Buell Racing to join forces with a larger company at some point this year, today it comes as a bit of surprise to learn that EBR has partnered with Hero MotoCorp. The deal sees Hero becoming the title sponsor for two teams in the AMA Pro Racing National Guard Superbikes Championship — Team Hero and AMSOIL Hero, while Erik Buell Racing will give Hero design and technology inputs for bikes destined for the Indian market.

In practicality, this partnership would seem to suggest that Erik Buell Racing will help Hero MotoCorp, a company recently freed/dumped from its partnership with Honda, build sporty two-wheelers for the Indian motorcycle market, while the cash-infused Indian manufacturer will help the boutique American sport bike maker continue to go racing in the United States. This news also puts Danny Eslick on the Team Hero EBR 1190RS for the 2012 season, while Geoff May will continue with the AMSOIL Hero EBR 1190RS. Thanks for the tip Kevin!

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Racing

Hayden & Bostrom Test at Homestead-Miami Speedway

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The start 2012 AMA Pro Road Racing series is almost upon us, and the folks at Michael Jordan Motorsports are rapidly gearing up for the new season. Traveling down to the Homestead-Miami Speedway in Florida, MJM riders Ben Bostrom and Roger Lee Hayden took their Suzuki GSX-R1000 race bikes around newly added track for the first time. While Bostrom and Hayden won’t have to race at Homestead-Miami until September 23rd, the season-opener at Daytona, Florida is rapidly approaching and only two and half months away.

Shooting the Homestead-Miami Speedway test with some on-board cameras, the Michael Jordan Motorsports team has put together a great three minute clip that stars Bostrom’s boot, among other things. Joking aside, the video is well-put together (a rarity in the AMA paddock), and has some great shots of Bostrom’s shifting and knee-slidding around the Floridian track. Look for #23 on the Jordan Suzuki, while Roger Lee will again represent the men and women of the Army National Guard on the #54 bike.

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Racing

Josh Hayes to Test Yamaha YZR-M1 at Valencia

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AMA Pro Racing Champion Josh Hayes will get a chance to swing a leg over some MotoGP machinery later this year, as the American rider will get to ride with the Monster Tech 3 Yamaha squad at the post-season test in Valencia. Taking place immediately after the final 2011 MotoGP round in Valencia, Hayes will ride Colin Edwards’ 800cc Yamaha YZR-M1, as the Texan Tornado will presumably be released from his Tech 3 duties so that he can begin testing his CRT bike at the first 2012 season test. The ride is joint-promotion by both Monster and Yamaha USA, and it also sees Josh Hayes’ better half, Melissa Paris, riding Bradley Smith’s Tech 3 Tech 3 Mistral 610 Moto2 race bike at the Spanish test.

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Indy Mile Flat Track Grand National Cancelled

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Because of the ongoing investigation into the overhead stage-rigging structure that collapsed in high winds, and killed five people at the Indiana State Fairgrounds this week, the Indy Mile AMA Pro Racing Flat Track Grand National has been cancelled.

A series of investigations into the collapse of the stage’s structure and its wreckage are currently still underway, and with no time set of the conclusion of those investigations, event organizers had no choice but to cancel the Indy Mile Flat Track event that was to be held during the Indy GP weekend. Fans holding tickets to the Grand National will be offered refunds at their point of purchase.

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