great weekend at AMA Barber Superbike series for AGV Dainese riders

Awesome! There's no other words to describe the weekend at round 8 & 9 of the 2011 AMA Pro Road Racing series.

American SuperBike:
Martin Cardenas takes his first win on the big bike on Saturday, ahead of Jordan Suzuki's Ben Bostrom and Rockstar Makita Suzuki Blake Young, making it an all Dainese podium.

 

 

 

On Sunday, Blake Young wins SBK race 2, Martin takes 3rd, followed by Steve Rapp in 4th, B-Boz in 5th.

AMA SBK Riders Standings:
1 - Josh Hayes - 235
2 - Blake Young - 233
3 - Tommy Hayden - 182
4 - Martin Cardenas - 155
5 - Ben Bostrom - 130
9 - Steve Rapp - 95
10 Geoff May - 82

AMA Pro SuperSports:

Good weekend for the Dainese and AGV youngsters with James Rispoli leaving Barber with the series lead after a 2nd place on Saturday and a win on Sunday. Superbe ride for M4 Suzuki Elena Myers who went 3rd and 5th.

Very difficult weekend for David Gaviria and Tomas Puerta who both suffered crashes in both races.

Steve Rapp takes the win in the AMA Vance & Hines XR1200 race

AGV Dainese Riders Invade Top 5 at Daytona 200

Photo by John Hanson (Hanson Images)

Costa Mesa, CA – March 15^th, 2011

During a sunny weekend in Florida, at Round 1 of the series at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona last weekend, the AGV Dainese AMA riders started their 2011 campaign with bravado.

When the AMA Pro National Guard American Superbike class returned to the track in Daytona, the Dainese line up was stronger than ever with Rockstar Makita Suzuki Blake Young, Jordan Suzuki Ben Bostrom, 2010 Daytona SportBike Champ Martin Cardenas on his M4 Suzuki along with teammate Chris Ulrich, and Geoff May on the new Erik Buell Racing, along with privateers Shane Narbonne and Eric Haugo.  The AGV Dainese riders rode very strong races both on Saturday and Sunday with Blake Young making us all very proud at Dainese when he rode his Rockstar Makita Suzuki to victory in both races, taking the “double”!  Behind Blake, Ben Bostrom and Martin Cardenas were dicing it out in very close racing with a group of pretty fast contenders, Ben and Martin scoring Top 5 overall finishes.

AMA Pro National Guard American SuperBike Points Standings (after 1 of 21 races) for AGV Dainese riders:

Blake Young – 1st

Ben Bostrom – 4th

Martin Cardenas – 5th

Chris Ulrich – 10th

In the AMA Pro Motorcycle-Supersport.com SuperSport Class, Dainese’s Tomas Puerta was the strongest, leaving Daytona with a win in race 1 and a second in race 2.  David Gaviria was the surprise rider of the weekend with two podiums: a third in race 1 and a victory in race 2!  He is riding with Dainese and alongside Tomas Puerta on the Team LTD Yamaha squad.  He should be someone to watch!  AGV Dainese rider James “The Rocket” Rispoli, a favorite, struggled with his bike set up in race 1 and ended up 7^th, just behind Dainese rider Elena Myers (6^th).  In race two, James had a much better bike after discussing the problems with AGV Dainese rider Jason Pridmore and was able to stay close to the leaders and manage a podium finish, giving Dainese a sweep of the SS podium in race 2!  Elena Myers felt strong in race 1, but lost out in the drafting sequence on the banking coming out of turn 4.  She performed better on the final lap in race 2, but could only manage 7^th.

AMA Pro Motorcycle-Supersport.com SuperSport Class Daytona 200 Race 1 for AGV Dainese:

1^st – Tomas Puerta

3^rd – David Gaviria

6^th – Elena Myers

7^th – James Rispoli

AMA Pro Motorcycle-Supersport.com SuperSport Class Daytona 200 Race 2 for AGV Dainese:

1^st – David Gaviria

2^nd – Tomas Puerta

3^rd – James Rispoli

7^th – Elena Myers

In the AMA Pro Vance & Hynes XR1200 series, long time faithful AGV Dainese rider Steve Rapp took his Harley-Davidson XR1200 to a 4^th place finish on the Daytona International Speedway.

AGV Dainese would like to congratulate all of our riders for racing hard and representing us with pride on the always difficult Daytona speedway.

James Rispoli 2010 Year in Review

Double wins for Dainese riders last weekend at AMA Road Atlanta

Rockstar Makita Suzuki's Blake Young and M4 Monster Energy Suzuki's Martin Cardenas swept the top of the podiums last weekend in Georgia when they both scored a double-win for Round 5 and 6 of the AMA Pro road racing series.

 

The two Dainese riders battled hard in their respective classes to dominate their competition during the weekend.

In the American Superbike class, Dainese's Blake Young took his first win of the season on  Saturday, repeating his performance the next day after leading the whole race. Blake is now third in series standing, only 15 points from the leader, with 12 more races to go.

It was another positive weekend for AGV Dainese's Chris Ulrich who took his Team Roadracingworld.com Suzuki GSX-R 1000 to two Top 10 finishes. Ulrich is now 6th in the series points standing.

In the Daytona Sportbike class, Dainese's Martin Cardenas dominated Road
Atlanta with 2 race wins for Team Monster Energy M4, making it 3 for the season. Cardenas now stands 3rd overall, 14 points from the leader.

Road Atlanta was a great weekend too for Vesrah Suzuki's Cory West. The AGV Dainese rider scored a very much deserved 2-3 finishes, taking him to 4th in the series points standing.

Joining West in the race for the podium on Sunday was AGV Dainese's Steve Rapp. Both riders were part of a group of 6 very close riders who diced it out until the the checkered flag. Despite leading the pack for a while, Latus Ducati's Rapp finished 6th on Sunday, repeating his Saturday results. 6th is also Steve's point standing position after 5 races.
 
In the Supersport class, Dainese's Tomas Puerta went 5-4, taking him to 4th in the points standing, while AGV Dainese's James Rispoli, after an unlucky Saturday race, finished 7th on Sunday.

We would like to also wish a prompt recovery to Dainese's Aaron Yates, the
Team Jordan Suzuki rider being out for a few rounds after breaking his leg
at the previous round at Fontana.

 

Team Dainese 2010 riders

On the eve of the first MotoGP of the 2010 season, here's a quick recap of who are the Dainese racers:

Moto GP
Jorge Lorenzo
Marco Simoncelli
Valentino Rossi

Moto 2

Stefan Bradl
Yannick Guerra
Simone Giorgi Grotzkyj
Fonsi Nieto

125 cc
Marcel Schroetter
Luca Vitali
Lorenzo Salvadori

National Championships

Europe: Danilo Dell’Omo, Marco Borciani (Italy); Maxime Berger (France); Guy Martin (UK); Michael Ranseder (Austria); Joan Lascorz (Spain); Niklas Ajo (Finland)
USA: Geoff May, Aaron Yates, Blake Young, Steve Rapp, Chris Ulrich, Martin Cardenas, James Rispoli, Tray Batey, John Jacobi, Steve Atlas, Mark Junge, Sammy Halbert

AGV Dainese Sammy Halbert Leaves Daytona with great results

After winning the first night of the Daytona 2010 Short Track, taking his brand new AGV motocross helmet on the podium for the first time, Sammy had a difficult night on Day 2. Despite a great qualifiers race the start of the twenty five lap National saw Johnson on the point with Sammy Halbert right on his heels. As Halbert tried to shoot under Johnson exiting turn two he hit a slick spot starting and started a slow spin right in front of the entire field. Somehow everyone missed him and with the engine still running Halbert rejoined the chase.
While Johnson was cruising, the large crowds attention was riveted on the # 7 as Halbert caught the back of the pack by lap night and started working his way to the front, by lap fourteen he was in tenth place and still working forward. That was where the fairytale ended however as his Yamaha gave up and Sammy's night was over too soon.

In the GNC Dash Sammy Halbert showed the same speed and determination as he had with last night's win. Halbert stayed glued to the bottom while Joe Kopp had his # 3 American Agip / Latus Harley-Davidson backed Honda riding the rim.

GRAND NATIONAL POINT STANDINGS: 1. Jake Johnson (42 pts / 1 win); 2. (TIE) Henry Wiles / Joe Kopp / Johnny Lewis (34); 5. Sammy Halbert (33 / 1 win); 6. Kenny Coolbeth (32); 7. Jethro Halbert (29); 8. Jared Mees (25); 9. Bryan Smith (18); 10. Don Mullen (17).

PRO SINGLES POINT STANDINGS: 1. Jeffery Carver (42 pts / 1 win); 2. JD Beach (35 / 1 win); 3. James Rispoli (32); 4. Stephen Vanderkuur (31); 5. Brad Baker (30); 6. Mikey Avila (29); 7. Mikey Martin (19); 8. John Long (14); 9. (TIE) Cory Strickler / Mike Poe (13).

AGV Dainese James Rispoli update From Daytona

The long awaited season opener for the AMA Pro Singles Flattrack season has come and gone. I had such an awesome time the last two weeks and while I feel I could of done better, I was able to achieve a couple of podium finishes for the week and got out of there in 3rd place overall for the championship which was much better than last years start.  My highlight of the week was making the podium and getting a second place finish on the new short track on its inaugural night at the famed Daytona Speedway in front of a sell-out crowd of more than 5,000.  The only thing better was winning at the famed Daytona Stadium in 2009, the last time anyone will get a chance to do it again.  Cool stuff for sure!!!

My trip started out a bit sketchy.  Like every Daytona, you prepare all winter long yet some how it always comes down to the last minute for everything to come together. This year was no different.  We managed to get it all covered with our new 2009 Cycle Dynamics CRF 450 getting prepped with components from RHC, Boughner Racing, K&N, Motion Pro, Spectro Oils, DP brakes, Engine Ice, Vortex gears and D&D pipe.   My trusty Bettencourt Suzuki which I used last year to take a win at Daytona was also prepped with a full rebuild from top to bottom.  I was ready for racing.  I couldn't have done all the prep work without the support and sponsorship help from my crew chief Dustin Say. Dustin put in a ton of hours stripping my bikes down to the bare frames and rebuilding them back to mint race condition.

On the trip down I stopped off at Neeses SC to get some testing in since I have never ridden  a fuel injected dirt tracker before.  I changed suspension companies and also wanted to see how well my new Boughner Racing suspension was going to work.  The tests went well and the Honda was hooked up and handled better than I expected.  The Suzuki felt great too and it was really hooked up as well.  I left Neeses and made my way to Savannah, GA for some half mile testing.  I sat out the first two nights because I didn't want to put too much time on my new engines.  I waited to Saturday night so I could make some money.  During the evening it was clear the guys who raced the previous nights had their set ups dialed and already knew which lines were good on the track.  It took me a while to get adjusted to the new 09 CRF too, since the fuel injection made throttle control quite a bit trickier. I took my time getting up to speed, qualified fine and was ready to race.   In the race I had a problem with my bike really hooking up. I worked the entire track looking for a good line but ended up taking 5th overall.  While I wasn't particularly happy I made a few bucks to offset some fuel costs.  Later the next day working with Kenny Tolbert we discovered my tire gauge was reading 6 lbs off.  That meant I was running like 21lbs in my front Goodyear and 26lbs in my rear.  And I wonder why I couldn't get any grip.....

The next day we had a race at Barberville.  I made sure this time the air in the tires was correct and went out for practice.  The track was really rough, but I like it when the track is challenging like that.  I ran pretty good but wanted to slow the bike down a little for the heat race so I added a tooth to the rear gear.  I managed to win my heat and got ready for the main event.  In the main my bike was working really good and I felt strong. I managed to take a second place finish and collected a few more bucks and continued to learn about the new bike.

I finally made it to the short track at Daytona for a practice day.  When I got off the track the first time I was convinced it was not very good and it stayed not very good the entire day.  I knew that anything we did to set up the bikes to work in these conditions was going to be useless for the next days race and that was very true.  The next day was race one and it started around 10AM with the first free practice.  The next two practices would be timed and they would count for the qualifying positions.  I had a first good run and was fifth but on the second timed run I ended up eleventh.  I was not happy but since I still got a front row start I knew I could do something in the heat . I was on the outside of the front row but got an awesome start. We ended up with a red flag because a couple of riders got into each other.  On the restart I nailed it again and managed to run up front chasing Carver as we broke away from the pack.  I was catching Carver a little bit at a time but was making little mistakes here and there.  We both did, but in the end I had to settle for second place.  It was way cool and I really wanted to get up there on the podium the first night and thank all the great people who have been supporting me.

After a little celebration from the night before we knew things were going to be tougher on day two.  By now everyone was getting a feel for the track conditions and I expected it to be harder to qualify well too.  The track unfortunately was nothing like the night before.  Whatever set up worked on Wednesday was not working on Thursday.   Mike Boughner came over and worked on the suspension and things go a little better each time but I was really spinning up the rear tire.  It was too late but I knew half way through the practice that I should have used my Suzuki instead.  The Suzuki has less power and the day before I didn't use it because it hooked up too much!  I was committed now and had to make it work.  I ended up qualifying like eight and that was a little better than the day before. In the heat I felt confident I could make it work and end up either first or second but I got stuck behind a rider and couldn't get enough grip to make the pass.

In the final I initially got a great start but the race was red flagged.  On the restart I got pinched out and had to fight for every position.  I just couldn't get a lot of forward motion out of the bike and was forced to settle for a 6th place finish. I was not a happy camper about that. After I had a chance to cool down I reviewed the night with Dustin and realized some things we would do differently.  I got out of Daytona by making the main events on both nights out of 75 riders. I made it on the podium in the most prestigious of all short track races and came away with enough points to put me into third place in the championship.  Now all I have to do is find the funds to be able to make the west coast rounds so I don't fall behind in the points too much.

I want to thank all my sponsors for all their help.  To David Ashi for letting me crash in the RV at Daytona and to all the support, grub and everything.  I couldn't do it without friends like you.  To my bud Scott Rosey for being the man.   To my crew chief Dustin who flew down on his own dime to work with me, I couldn't of done it without you. To Rhonda and Dave Waters thanks for all the help down there I hope I made you laugh, the same to my good friend Broc, who had a tough Daytona but let me crash with him in Savannah.

James"the Rocket" Rispoli

Sammy Halbert Wins First AMA Pro Flat Track Grand National to Kick Off 2010 Season

 Slammin' Sammy takes a great win at Daytona with his brother Jethro in 4th. James "The Rocket" Rispoli takes 2nd in the Single Pro. First win for the AGV off-road helmet in Dirt Track and a first podium in Single Pro.

DAYTONA BEACH, FL (March 4, 2010) - (www.amaproracing.com) AMA Pro Racing kicked off the 2010 AMA Pro Flat Track Grand National Championship before a standing room only crowd at the "World Center of Racing" on the brand new DAYTONA Flat Track.
The large crowd that braved the cold temperatures were treated to some very hot racing all night. Woody Kyle Racing / Fredericktown Yamaha / Kings Kustoms/AGV/Dainese backed Sammy Halbert blasted around early leader Joe Kopp on lap eight and pulled to over a two second lead by the end of the 25 lap National.
"I just found my line on the track and was able to get out to a good lead," said Halbert. "I looked back late in the race and had a good lead. I yelled a few times in my helmet, I was pretty sure I had it won. It's really special to be the first winner at this new facility."
Kopp had gotten the hole shot and was settling into a lead over Coolbeth when AGV Dainese's Halbert came knocking on Coolbeth's door on lap three. Halbert wasted no time in his charge to the front and by lap ten he had pretty much locked the win away.

The sixteen lap Pro Singles National got off to a rough start when JD Beach hit the ground on the first lap in turn three.The restart saw AGV Dainese's James Rispoli off first but, Jeffery Carver sliced his way into the lead on lap four and was never headed. Rispoli pressured in second while Stephen Vanderkuur grabbed the last podium position. Mikey Avila made his Pro debut a success with a fourth place finish.

RESULTS:
GNC SINGLES: 1. Sammy Halbert (Yam); 2. Henry Wiles (Kaw); 3. Jake Johnson (Hon); 4. Jethro Halbert (Yam); 5. Joe Kopp (Hon);

PRO SINGLES: 1. Jeffery Carver (Yam); 2. James Rispoli (Hon); 3. Stephen Vanderkuur (Hon); 4. Mikey Avila (Hon); 5. Brad Baker (Hon);

James Rispoli Breaks Femur

Road Racer X magazine is reporting that AGV Dainese's James Rispoli broke his femur during motocross training over the weekend.

Wishing The Rocket a very prompt and fast recovery.

Rispoli Breaks Femur

November 16, 2009 by admin  
Filed under News

Road racer, dirt tracker and landspeed record holder James Rispoli had another busy weekend. The young gun release his new web site www.jamesrispoli.com on Friday, tested a big non-Harley twin for an Ohio based team on Saturday, practiced some motorcross on Sunday at a local NY track and took his first helicopter ride after a stalled landing pitched him over the bars and he broke his femur. He was flown to the Erie County Trauma Center where they performed a successful surgery on the clean break inserting a rod into the bone attached by screws. He is resting comfortably and will return home on Tuesday where he will be able to start rehab with an expected full recovery. James wanted to thank all the folks at the practice track that made quick decisions on his behalf that allowed for this successful outcome.

Rispoli gears up for the season finale

AGV Dainese's James Rispoli is on target for his season goal. Good luck from all of us at AGV Dainese USA.

Big supports and good luck to Sammy Halbert who will be dicing it up in the AMA Pro Grand National Twins Championship where Sammy is currently 4th in points.

PR from the "Team Rispoli"

For Immediate Release

October 21, 2009 Pomona, Ca

James “the Rocket” Rispoli gears up for the season finale of the inaugural AMA Pro Singles Championship at the THE FAIRPLEX AT POMONA, CA. James has already solidified an outstanding second place finish overall out of 68 pro-riders in the championship riding while riding his Weirbach Racing team bikes. For this weekend’s final race of the season, James will be riding a bike provided by Sammy Sweet Racing as part of a one-off-race sponsorship package.

James, a multi-discipline rider came from a significant 19 point deficit after the second race of the season to catch and pass the point’s leader only to give way to a mediocre 5^th place finish at the Indy Mile. With a 10 point deficit to make up and three races to go there was still a great chance with the Springfield Mile, Springfield short track and Pomona half mile races left. Then the odds started to pile up. With the Springfield mile called for darkness, and races winding down to only two, James laid it all on the line in the last-chance Springfield short track that was rescheduled for Monday after a rain out there during the Saturday evening program. Qualifying fourth, “the Rocket” got the hole shot, led all but the last lap and set fastest lap time in the race. In a brave last-ditch effort move to take the win James went for a small opening going into turn three only to have the door closed causing an unplanned high side exiting turn four falling short of the finish line. That 16^th place race gave the championship away but solidified his place in the history books.

“I am really blessed to have such great people who believe in me as I move forward in my career as a professional motorcycle racer,” said James. “Everyone around me gave 110% and we charged back from some mistakes, miss-queues, injuries and set-up problems. It was a shame so many races were rained out or cancelled because I know what I can do both on and off the track and the championship was mine to win. Meanwhile, I learned a bunch from everyone and I can’t thank Dick Weirbach and his crew for a great season. I also wanted to say big thanks to Sammy Sweet and my friends Dave and Ryan Wells. Sammy came up with a frame, stout motor and the labor while the Wells family provided the suspension and wheels. Between them they came up with the parts needed to put a bike together for me to race at Pomona. And, a huge thanks to the team of Chris Carr and Kenny Tolbert for bringing the bike out to the west coast. I sincerely look forward to riding hard, smart and fast for my team and to put on a great season finale show for all the fans that will come out to watch the pro-singles race. I know it’s going to be a hec of an east vs.. west coast show down so stay tuned.”

You can follow the action on James' web site www.jamestherocket.com

AGV Dainese's James "The Rocket" Rispoli lands speed record

 

AMA National landspeed record holder James "the Rocket" Rispoli posing with his sponsor Charlie Benton of Cycle Dynamics at ground zero on the Bonneville Salt Flats!  Average Speed 149.100 MPH on a 650 Kawasaki twin!!!  Photo courtesy Philip Rispoli 
Hi everyone;

What insanity!  I just finished my mile race at Indy and hopped in the van to head to St. Louis to catch a morning flight out to Salt Lake.  You see I had a date with a ten foot black beauty and a chase for a new landspeed record.
I was tired but quite excited at the same time.  The flight was non-eventful as we rented a car and headed out on 80 west.  This is an all familiar road I had just traveled on a few weeks earlier on my way to Lodi Cycle Bowl. This time however the race discipline I was about to do was one I never tried before. The bike, was one I never sat on, and the record, one that stood tall for a lot of years.  My dad flew out with me and I was going to meet up with my sponsor, Charlie Benton, an incredible guy and someone who believes I have what it takes no matter what I do.  Charlie is a quiet guy but an engineer who not only can build an awesome motor but is a world class fabricator as well.  He built the bike in his work shop in North Carolina and start to finish it took him three months.  In those three months Charlie kept me and my dad up to speed on the development as well as the testing.  Charlie was concerned about the stability of the bike and personally performed the initial tow in airport runs as well as the power runs with a stock motor.  It wasn't until he was satisfied with the bikes handling that he gave me the OK that we were going to Bonneville 100 percent.

When we arrived at the hotel I rested and prepared myself for the next morning.  It was 5 AM  when the alarm went off and we headed down to meet Charlie and Jim his helper in the lobby.  It would be our morning meeting place for the next four days. We headed out to the salt flats which were several miles away and waited till 6 AM when they released a line of cars, trucks and rigs out on to the salt.  It was amazing as we followed each other out for what seemed like 10 miles until a small city of  trailers, trucks and cars started to appear in the middle of the salt bed.  The sun was just coming up and I was in awe of the whole thing.  My dad, who was driving was flipping out because this was the first time he was ever at Bonneville.  I had a chance two years earlier to be part of a team that built the record breaking NASCAR machine so some of this was familiar.  All and all it was cool because for the next (4) days I would be on the salt with over 250 other record seeking competitors from (8) countries from around the world.

We checked in and I went to the riders meeting at 7 AM.  I stayed a little afterward so I could ask some additional questions and then I headed out for a short walk around the pit area.  I went over to Chris Carr's BUB number 7 pit and Chris gave me a some input about the salt and what it was like to ride on it.  It was helpful but his streamliner vehicle is way different then what I was about to do.  After our little chat I headed to my pit and worked with Charlie and my team to ready our bike.  In about an hour later we were on line waiting our turn to head down to the zero starting point.  We chose to go on the "run what you brung" short course first so I could get a feel for the bike, the shifting points as well as a feel for the salt before I went all out for a record.  When it was my turn to go out I staged and awaited the green flag.  Once I took off it was incredible as I headed down slowly shifting trying not to spin up the wheels and eased it into higher gears as I went along.  I ended the first run at a speed of 136 MPH without trying and the bike was as stable as a rock.  I was mentally ready to do a record run.

The team was excited that we did so well without really trying too hard and we brought the bike back and readied it for another run.  At Bonneville you can make as many runs as you can, as long as you get in line and wait your turn.  Sometimes it would take 2-3 hours of sitting on line before you got a shot at a run, so getting in three or four runs a day is about as good as it gets.  That makes for a long day and at times a frustrating one as well, especially if you get close to a record, but don't go over it like I did.

We set up for the second run on the AMA short course and got the call to the line.  The bike and I were ready and I headed out.  I went through the gears clean but had a head wind that I could feel start to push me around a little bit. I steadied the bike and headed through the time traps. My time was 143 MPH and the record for the 650cc class I was in was 147.471.  I thought I did everything right but the top speed escaped me.  We adjusted some things on the bike and went out one more time getting to 144 MPH before we called it a day.

Our second day on the salt went as good as our first.  We did a total of (4) runs and came as close as .001 MPH to the record but just couldn't get over it. It was crazy and I was starting to feel this whole record thing might be a silly idea.  On Thursday we all vowed we would get it and made some gearing changes, and actually took some components off the bike that were hanging out in the wind, maybe adding some extra drag.  It was our third run on Thursday when I got a start with almost no wind, and the salt was really starting to get hard from four days of sun.  My down run got us over the record with a 148.250 and I was super excited, however a record is not real unless you can back it up the opposite direction.  The problem was it was already 5 PM and the course shuts down at 6 PM.  We had an hour to prepare our bike and make a run the opposite way on the course with a speed above the record again.  This was getting close and we all rushed around to get everything in order.  We drove the bike down the other end of the course and waited our turn.  When we got the OK to go I was a little nervous since this was the first time all week I was on this course and the salt felt a little different since not that many bikes went on it.  I took off and squeezed the throttle and went through the gears being careful not to spin up the tires.  I got the bike up to full speed and shifted into sixth gear as I went through the mile marker.  I came out the other side and new from my speedo and tach that I backed up the record.  The official speed was 149.950 MPH and I couldn't have been happier. We stayed around for Thursday and were going to test to see if we could break the partial streamline record as well which stands at 152MPH.  We did one run at 151.500 MPH and then called it quits.

I want to say it was an incredible week of land speed racing.  The salt is like nothing you ever raced on before, and their are so many factors that cause you to lose a little speed here and a little speed there.  I found that we need to think through tire spin, cross winds and its effects on my distance to the finish line and drag.....that funny thing that slows you down fractions of a second all the way through the mile markers.  I also can't thank my friend Charlie Benton enough for thinking of me when he thought he wanted to go for a land speed record.  Charlie and I won the Daytona Moto-ST when I was just 16 years old and now at 18 years old we have a land speed record together as well.  I look forward to working on new projects and challenges Charlie comes up with and promise I will do whatever it takes to continue to put us in the record books. At the end of this season I promised Charlie I would autograph the helmet I used to break the record and give it to him to place with the bike which will eventually end up in a museum for sure.  Also, a huge thanks to my dad who helped worked through the details and coordinated this week long event. I love you!

 Till next time...do what I like to do GO FASTER...  

James"the Rocket" Rispoli

AGV Dainese's Rispoli: A Day at the Beach; Grove City Mile

Race report by the Rocket.

"Hi everyone;

It was hot, I mean real hot. I pounded down the liquids to keep hydrated, stayed consistent throughout the day's qualifying, heats and main event and got out of there all in one piece gaining another three points toward the championship.

The place; Grove City Ohio. The venue; Beulah Park mile and what a mile it was. This is the second year that the AMA Pro Flat Track Grand National Championship raced here and this time it looked like the rain would stay away and the sun would shine, shine, shine. If you asked me I think the track took more water during the day than is found around a small Caribbean Island. I mean the water truck seemed to always be on the track. Officials and crew did their best but the sandy-beach like surface broke apart and raised the dust level to new highs. Ruts would develop in only a few laps and it was hard to see a 12 or 25 lap main run successfully on the track. But somehow they got the race off and I made it a point to be out front, out of the deep roost and away from the mayhem of the pack rats looking for glory.

My Weirbach racing Honda was my weapon of choice this weekend and Dick did a great job of getting things set up so out of the box we were almost right on. Since no 450's ever rode the track we were guessing at gearing. I made my choice during the week and told Dick what I felt we needed. I ran this track last year on a basic twin Aprilia and had an idea what we needed. We were right on from the first practice.
I went second fastest in the free practice, third fastest in the first timed practice and fastest in the second time practice. Each time out the track got a little slower. The last time out was a mess. The track was really rutted, super dry and super bumpy. The front wheel was off the ground in the turns causing you to be on the edge of washing out several times a lap. While I set fast time I came in and said I was hanging it all out just to go a second slower than my first qualifying time. And, that was a lot faster than the second place rider. It was crazy for a mile track for sure.

I won my heat by a good margin but it was the second heat and the track was already rough. A rider went down on the first lap so I knew I couldn't get fast heat so I settled for just going for the win. We watched some of the expert heats and I was glad I wasn't in those. They didn't water or treat the track between heats so the second and third heats were racing in a dust cloud. I watched bikes coming off of turn four and just fish-tail their rear wheel all the way down the straight, fronts plowing sand and bumps entering turn one. I waited around for our time to go out for the final and it was still really hot. I was a bit upset that they didn't drag the track for our class. Seems even though we put on a good show we get the short end of the stick when it comes to track prep, especially when the time is getting short.

In the final I had second pick on the line and thought I would get a good start like I was all day long. Unfortunately my rear tire hit a rut, pitched me sideways and caused me to be 4th going into turn one. When I exited turn two I put my head down, secured the third spot and was just short of making a move on the second place rider. It took me around three laps to finally break away but by that time Vanderkurr was already rocking out the place. Steven and I had the only times in the 44 second range in the final and I had to settle for second place overall. It was a good race and I kept the bike on two wheels to collect another three points on Baker. This was not where I wanted to be but I was OK with now only being three points out of the lead. I learned a long time ago from Chris Carr that winning is great, but it is consistency over a long time that wins championships. I never forgot that.

One last thing I wanted to tell everyone. On my way back from California with my west coast buddy, we had a terrible accident in his van. The good news was we walked away with almost no scratches on Friday morning two days before the race. It was clearly a miracle since the van hit a tree when we went off the road and flipped several times coming to a stop on the side of the highway in some tall bushes. The airbags went off and we had our seat belts on and both did their job. It was our own fault for not getting enough rest. This was a huge lesson that I want every racer to make sure they listen to. Please, if you are tired, pull off the highway and go to sleep. Pushing it will only lead to something you will be sorry for later. We both lived to tell the story and race two days later. Someone up above was watching over us.

I am heading to Peoria this weekend and hope to at least finish out Indy and Springfield before I end the season. It doesn't look like we can do Pomona so I will catch some last road race venues to close out racing for 2009.

Till next time...do what I like to do GO FASTER...

James "the Rocket" Rispoli"

AGV Dainese's James “the Rocket” Rispoli to pilot Bonneville Salt Flat bike

For Immediate Release

August 13, 2009 Southport, NC –Cycle Dynamics chooses young gun James “the Rocket” Rispoli to pilot Bonneville Salt Flat bike.

Owner and fabricator Charlie Benton, has always wanted to go to the Bonneville Salt Flats with a bike he built from the ground up and take home a world record. Charlie, a veteran tuner relies on his experience and knowledge that dates back to the glory days of NASCAR where he operated the machine shop and designed heads for the legendary Cale Yarborough. Charlie uses the same competitive spirit when working in his own full on machine shop at his Southport race facility. In 2007 Benton built and tuned the race bikes for the Pair of Nines Moto-ST race team of Hall of Famers Gary Nixon, Jay Springsteen and Jimmy Felice. Later that year he started his own team with at that time 16 year old racing Phnom James “the Rocket” Rispoli and Kevin Schwantz racing school instructor Ted Cobb to race the Moto-ST of Daytona. On March 2, 2008 Benton’s team of Rispoli and Cobb took home first place gold at the legendary speedway. Now Benton sets his sights on the 650 twin land speed record and feels the now 18 year old Rispoli is up for the job.

“I’m excited about what we built and the test runs prove the bike will be stable at speed,” said Benton who was concerned about safety first during the build process. Benton went on to say, “Now with the airport speed trials behind us we can concentrate on the final details of the build and preparation for the Bonneville run. I am also really happy to be working with James again. I have followed James over the last two years and he has really been showing very strong potential not only in his native Pro Flattrack racing but his debut Pro Supersport racing this year as well. His determination, grit and can do attitude is exactly what I want on the salt with me. We should have a great time and have a very good chance of coming home with the record.”

“What an unbelievable opportunity with Charlie and his Bonneville bike,” explained Rispoli. “Just look at the thing, it looks fast just sitting there,” he continued. “I have been to the salt before where I was part of a crew that brought home a stock car record. But now I’m there to actually pilot Charlie’s radical new 650 twin for a record run and that is just awesome.” In addition to the Bonneville run, the team will also run the Maxton Mile in September looking to secure the pavement record as well.

Cycle Dynamics will be on the salt August 30^th – September 3^rd. James will race the AMA Pro Racing Indy Mile Dirt Track Mile on August 29^th and fly back September 4^th to Springfield Illinois for the Legendary Springfield Mile.

AGV Dainese's James Rispoli interview at Mid-Ohio

James Rispoli wins at Motorcycle mecca in Sturgis

Hi everyone;
So far what a trip its been.  Yep I left Attica NY with my left coast buddy Chad Cose to travel to Sturgis, the Mecca for motorcycles the first week of August each year. This was to be my first time heading there and I was going to chase several races leading up to both the AMA Hot Shoe and AMA GNC half mile in Rapid City South Dakota to earn a little money and test out a few new things on my bike.  It also was my first road trip as a 18 year old and both Chad and I intended to be on the road for two weeks until we made it back to Ohio for the AMA GNC mile event August 16th.  The initial trip had us traveling around 1,100 miles to the Black Hills but on the way we were stopping off for a short track and TT just over the boarder in South Dakota to earn a little cha-ching.  I was able to enter three classes, for the short track and TT running my Weirbach Racing/Bettencourt Suzuki.  I manage a 2nd, 5th and 8th place finish on a slick one line groove track.  I lost to some locals but still managed to make some cash to support my two week road trip as well as gain additional track time on the slick groove tracks that make up the South Dakota dirt track market in preparation for the AMA Pro races coming on the following Monday and Tuesday.  
After our racing there we loaded up and  headed out to make it to Sturgis for the AMA Hot Shoe event and stopped to sleep in the back of a Burger King parking lot.  We arrived at the track at around 11 AM, unloaded and started to work on the bike changing tires, prepping some gearing and making sure we were ready to rock when practice came out.  The track was a cool track and in the first practice I was like 5th fastest..  We made an adjustment to the gearing,  wire brushed the tire  to deglaze it a little and changed the air pressure and went out for the next timed qualifying runs.  In the heat race I had both Carver and Texter and I got a great start.  Carver and I did a little bump and grind in the first corner but I came out in front and led the entire  heat race.  There were two heats with identical overall times of 1:24.008 so in the final I was given first choice on the front row.  In the main event I got a smoking start and led pulling away while running the bottom groove. Unfortunately the groove down there was drying out and was getting really slippery. I was moving around to find some traction when Baker caught up to me.  I made a huge mistake coming out of turn two and drove it way too hard into turn three and four to make up time and ran it wide on the tenth lap  slipping the groove .  It was a drag race to the line but  Baker got me going into turn two when the red flag came out and ended the race.  I was given the race win when the reverted back the one lap and that was awesome. This was my first AMA National race in Sturgis and my first Hot Shoe this year and to take a win here was really special.  It was special because my good friend and fellow Coolskunk rider national #64 Aaron Creamer was killed in Sturgis at a race 5 years ago.  I thought of Aaron while I was out here and I know he rode on my shoulders taking in the great view from the front of the pack.  I dedicated that race win to him.
With the hot shoe under my belt I was hyped to race the AMA GNC half mile the following night.  I was going to change bikes and ride our Weirbach Racing Honda and I was pretty confident we would run up front again.  I met Dick Weirbach at the track the next day and we checked over the bike and had a spare bike with my number plates ready as a back up.   The track looked like it was going to be good and in practice I was like second fastest.  The gearing we choose was good but my rear tire was spinning really bad.  I discussed the situation with Dick, and even called my dad to see what he thought.  We made the adjustment and went out for the final qualifying where I was clearly in the hunt. We got ready for our heats but we were questioning our tire pressure the whole time.  I had dropped it significantly and while I was able to hole shot and run up front, we were a little afraid the rear tire would heat up too much and start the loose traction.  That's what happened.  I had the lead but was caught by Chebultz.  He went by me really hooked up late in the race when my tires were starting to fail me.  I learned a huge lesson in that race and was going to be much better prepared for the final.  But then the rain came!  It poured and the race was called.  We ended up qualifying but all of received (1) point so no one gained any advantage from this race.  It was too bad because I really felt we could have won that race too it it went the distance.
So we headed out of there with half our purse winnings and saddled up the next day with another half mile race that Del Shelsted was promoting. I only had my Suzuki and I knew it was going to be a challenge since the yellow bike is set up only for short track racing.  The engine is in the 50 HP range and that plus its lightning fast handling make it ideal for slippery or cushioned short tracks.  I knew on the half mile I would be giving up a lot of straight away speed.  And, that's exactly what happened.  I qualified 2nd but on the straights was getting pulled (2) bike lengths.  I made up all my time in the corners driving it in realllllllllllly deeeeeeep and was squeeeezzzzing the rear brake a lot to hold it on the groove.  It was working but I was really pissed how easy riders were going around me down the front and back straight.   After the race national #4 Chris Carr called my bike a "turd" like I needed to be reminded. I was  just glad this wasn't a national.  In the final 15 lap race I worked every angle on the track that I could and I ran it in as hard as I could as well.  On the last lap I came in really hot and got under like three riders and managed to jump off the corner to take the last podium position which was mad cool.  The position paid better a lot better than getting paid third at the national so it was a sweeeeeet race to play at.  I also remember why we never race the "yellow-one" on anything bigger than 16 second lap time!
With the Sturgis races gone it was time to make our way back home.  But we had a little twist.  Chad wanted to head to Lodi California because there was a race this weekend August 8th.  I was OK with going along since my bike and gear was already packed in his truck.  I called dad, let him know the change of plans and next thing I knew we were on our way.  We arrived at Chad's house on late Wednesday and on Friday we took a ride to see some sponsors, Motion Pro and A&A racing.  It was really cool to head over to the Motion Pro guys since they have been great sponsors for me for years.  I got to sign a life size poster I sent them of me on the Aprilia Twin on the Springfield Mile as a thank you gift at the end of last season that they have hanging up in their warehouse and that was so cool.  The Motion Pro folks are so cool and it is awesome to finally see their facility and they were so pumped I stopped in while I was making a pit stop on the West Coast.  It was equally cool to stop in to see Ray and Rochelle at A&A since they are now distributing the TOP ONE OIL we have been sponsored on for a couple of years.
Anyway, my trip is only half way over and Saturday night August 8th I race the famous Lodi Cycle bowl again.  From there Chad and I head back across the country where we will stop at my motor builder in Michigan and then off to the mile race in Ohio.

Till next time...do what I like to do GO FASTER...

James"the Rocket" Rispoli  

AGV Dainese Youth Rocks at Laguna Seca AMA Supersport

 

 

AGV Dainese's Russ Wikle, James Rispoli and Garrett Willis capped the weekend in AMA Supersport with great performance at Laguna Seca on MotoGP weekend. While Russ scored another podium with a 2nd place finish, James "The Rocket" Rispoli continues to impress with a good performance in 4th, followed by Garrett Willis in 5th.

Good jobs boyz!

James Rispoli impresses in AMA Pro Road Racing Debut

AMA Pro Singles Flattrack points leader takes fourth in debut AMA Pro Road
Race

Written by Press release

Monday, 08 June 2009

Ransomville, NY-- NPS Racings James Rispoli making his AMA Pro SuperSport debut did the seemingly impossible. With only his crew chief and helper the team faced several challenges all weekend long and still managed to take a fourth place finish overall. With rule specifications that appeared different from the beginning of the season, the team had to scramble to make changes to forks and refit the bike with a stock / legal ECU. The changes throughout the weekend were not easy and the team worked hard with lots of support to get the job done. There were many firsts on this trip. It was the first time the team and rider participated in AMA Pro SuperSport competition, the first time the bike was set up on Dunlop tires and the first time James rode on Dunlop tires as well. In the above photo (courtesy of AMA Pro Racing), AGV Dainese riders #5 Russell Wikle and #71 James Rispoli. Below, James Rispoli and AMA American Superbike racer Shane Narbonne, both privateers are suported by Dainese, James wears an AGV GP-Tech helmet (photo by C. Favro).