The International Allstars 2005 AMA Superbike Efforts
This year we began racing in the AMA, competing in Superstock and Superbike. We have signed AMA Superbike Pilot Reno Karimian #211, who I promptly nicknamed "RK". This has been a building year for the AMA team, we have been busy putting together sponsors that understand the advantages of supporting a team derived from a marketing company. We were not able to participate in a full season this year. We took some time off to do some research, development and training, but next year we are going full tilt the whole season.
As it was this year, next year's California races are going to be the ones to go to. These are the races where the Allstars bring the brunt of our marketing power to bear. When you walk down vendor row, you can't go more than 3 booths without running into an Allstars member or associate. For instance, at Laguna Seca we were in the Taylor Made, Mazda, Bridgestone, Suzuki and Shock racing booths, to name a few. At Infineon, we were instrumental in coordinating the event. I played the part of the pit reporter for all the races that weekend. At Fontana, once again, we helped coordinate the event by providing team members for traffic control, ticketing, hosting the bike show and coordinating the stunt show.
We have pulled out all of the stops and doubled our efforts in the AMA including going overseas to learn how to develop a more efficient race team. On July 22-24 Sheldon Hinkson (myself), Motorcycle Director and AMA Race Team GM from The International Allstars, went to Donington Park, England, to watch and learn from the MotoGP teams. There was a lot of networking going on with current sponsors and potential sponsors. I learned a few things that we will apply to the rest of this and the 2006 season. In conjunction with technical support from Grant Matsushima of Matsushima Performance and Tuning, we should be a Superbike force to recon with.
Rounding out the rest of the 2005 season is Virginia International Raceway and Road Atlanta. The team is currently on the road to Virginia following a spectacular send off bike night at Direct Wheels in Los Alamitos where we unveiled the new paint scheme for both the Superbike of Allstars AMA Racing Team and the Supersport bike of Matsushima Racing. The paint work was done by the teams' artist, Carlos Avelar, from House of Finishes.
I hope to see more new and familiar faces stop by the AMA pit tent. We welcome all of your thoughts and encouragement.
