Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

AMS Ducati’s Jeff Nash and Ricky Lundgren are trying to build an AMA Superbike team with sponsorship from Yahoo! Sports. Thanks to a relationship he has with a marketing consultant, AMS’s Lundgren raced in Pro Thunder at Daytona wearing Yahoo! Sports’ graphics, colors and advertising slogans as a test bed for Yahoo becoming involved in two-wheel racing.

“This buddy of mine, we used to play college hockey together,” explained Lundgren. “He pretty much controls the advertising purse strings of Visa, Charles Schwab and Yahoo. He sets up sponsorship deals for golf tournaments and other sporting events all the time.

“They feel like they’ve really missed out on getting involved with Supercross and the X Games-type stuff. But I can’t just go to him and say, ‘Hey, you’ve got to throw all of this money into road racing because we think it’s the greatest sport.’ We have to show them something.”

Lundgren said that he and Nash were trying to arrange more rides for himself and Daytona Pro Thunder winner Kirk McCarthy in classes with more television exposure this season in hopes of attracting enough sponsorship from Yahoo! Sports to run a full 2003 season of AMA Superbike on Ducatis.

Nash recently told Roadracingworld.com that moving AMS to a larger facility over the off-season was the first step toward expanding his race team.