Steve Rapp will not be riding the San Diego BMW/Locust Powered by Lee’s Cycles S1000RR he has piloted for most of the 2011 AMA Pro Superbike Championship at the season finale September 2-4 at New Jersey Motorsports Park (NJMP) and will instead close out the year on an Attack Performance Kawasaki ZX-10R.
“Steve’s going to be on our bike at New Jersey,” Attack Performance Kawasaki Team Owner Richard Stanboli told Roadracingworld.com Tuesday. “I guess some stuff happened with his team and he gave me a call. We went to Buttonwillow a couple of weekends ago to let him throw a leg over the bike and see how he liked it, and he was instantly at track record pace on take-off tires during track day sessions.
“LeoVince USA has stepped up to help make it all happen. So we’re going to have Steve on one bike, J.D. [Beach] on another and we’re building a third bike to have as a community spare bike.”
“I’d like to thank San Diego BMW and Locust for bringing me into the team after Gary got hurt and for all of their hard work this season. The BMW is a great bike, and I think we made a lot of progress with it,” Rapp told Roadracingworld.com Wednesday. “I’ve ridden for Richard in the past and really enjoyed working with him. I think we worked really well together. I had been talking to Richard through the year about maybe riding the bike either at a test or a race, and when all this transpired it made since for me to go with Richard and try to do well on the Kawasaki.”
San Diego BMW/Locust Powered by Lee’s Cycles rider Jeremy Toye confirmed Rapp and Australian Chris Trounson will not be riding with the team at NJMP.
“There’s some end of year stuff, money-wise that didn’t come through,” Toye told Roadracingworld.com. “It’s not worth the money for the Trounsons to come over for one round, and without them our bills are tight.”
And Toye also said that contrary to what current Australian Superbike Championship leader Glenn Allerton told Roadracingworld.com during the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Allerton will not be riding with San Diego BMW/Locust Powered by Lee’s Cycles at NJMP.
Toye said he will be racing his San Diego BMW/Locust Powered by Lee’s Cycles S1000RR at NJMP.