Harley-Davidson and Dorna hope to do more than just demo runs of MotoAmerica’s
Harley-Davidson King of The Baggers racebikes at Grand Prix circuits in the future, but the nature of the burgeoning collaboration between the two remains to be seen.
Harley’s CEO Jochen Zeitz joined Carmelo Ezpeleta, CEO of Dorna Sports, and Carlos Ezpeleta, Dorna’s Chief Sporting Officer, in a brief news conference before MotoAmerica racers Kyle Wyman and James Rispoli turned demonstration laps on their racebikes at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
“We are very proud to continue our relationship with Harley,” Carmelo Ezpeleta told journalists and guests at the event. “It is clear from our side that … this is very important to us. Harley is very important in the American market and it is very important to us.”
“We are a natural fit,” said Zeitz. “We will be exploring the opportunities to see what we can do in the world of racing.”
Collaborating with Harley could increase the popularity of MotoGP in the United States, and such a collaboration could increase the visibility of Harley in countries where MotoGP is popular, the representatives said.
However, what that collaboration will look like is unknown at this point, other than it will not be a duplicate of the successful MotoAmerica races. At this point, Dorna is talking to Harley and Harley only, and has no plans to open discussions with other manufacturers, Carlos Ezpeleta said. In MotoAmerica, Harley races against Indian in the King of The Baggers class.
Later in the day, Grand Prix racers Marco Melandri, John Hopkins and Simon Crafar were scheduled to test the factory Road Glide racebikes.
The participants were quick to point out that it is not Harley-Davidson’s first involvement with international Grand Prix racing. Italian Walter Villa took an Aermacchi/Harley-Davidson RR-250 to three straight 250cc Grand Prix World Championships from 1974-1976.
