AMA privateer Taylor Knapp will race a Latus Motors Racing Buell 1125R in the AMA Pro Daytona SportBike class this weekend at Road Atlanta. Knapp will ride the bike left vacated by Alan Schmidt, who has been released from the team. “Alan’s a great motorcycle rider. I’m sure he will do great things in his career, and we wish him nothing but the best,” said Ronnie Saner, Crew Chief for Latus Motors Racing Buell. “It just wasn’t the magic situation for him on this team. A rider and a team have to fit together in a lot of ways, and not every fast rider and every fact crew chief are capable of winning races together, are they? There’s a lot of personal relationship to it. Alan’s a very talented guy, and we have parted ways on a friendly basis and we wish him all the best.” Knapp, who has many significant achievements on his racing resume, including the 2008 Suzuki GSX-R1000 Cup Championship, was recommended by several sources to Saner, who contacted Knapp last week. “The plan was to run at Road Atlanta,” Knapp told Roadracingworld.com Monday. “Then I called him back and said, ‘Hey, I’ll be at Talladega if you want to do a shakedown there.'” Saner grasped at the opportunity and brought his Buell and a skeleton crew to the WERA National Challenge round at Talladega Gran Prix Raceway, a short circuit near Talladega, Alabama. “My first impression was ‘Man, I can’t ride this thing. It’s not what I expected,'” recalled Knapp. “I give a lot of credit to Danny [Eslick], because I thought I was gonna hop on it and have no problem being faster than a 600, but it wasn’t. It’s really hard to ride that thing. “But we kept making some changes. Ronnie changed the triple clamps and the wheelbase and the geometry, threw on a new set of tires and we took it out in the 750cc Superbike race. Robbie Jensen was in the race and I didn’t think we could hang with his [Suzuki GSX-R] 750, so I thought we would just get some track time. But I was reeling him in, so I was like, ‘Let’s make a race out of it.’ I made a run at him, caught him and then in the last corner I went in real hot, backed it in sideways and got him to the line.” “I went out there on used tires and pump gas, because there’s Michelin money to win,” said Jensen. “I didn’t see him until the last lap.” With $600 of Michelin contingency money on the line, Jensen (who won a total of four races on the day) protested Knapp because the Buell 1125R was not legal for the class, and Knapp was disqualified. But Saner and Knapp were both happy, saying they accomplished their mission of getting Knapp comfortable on the Buell heading into the Road Atlanta round of the AMA Pro Road Racing Series.