ZAYAT TO TRAIN WITH RICKDICULOUS RACING

Team Hammer, Inc., racing as M4 SportbikeTrackGear.com Suzuki in the MotoAmerica series, is sending youngster Xavier Zayat to work extensively with riding coach Ken Hill and Rickdiculous Racing between now and the season finale in New Jersey. In the meantime, Cameron Gish will fill in and race Xavier’s GSX-R600 racebike during the upcoming MotoAmerica/World Superbike round at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

“We know Xavier has the talent and ability to ride a motorcycle, and he has been working hard, but he has really struggled to adapt from winning relatively short ASRA/CCS and WERA races to competing in longer races aboard our team’s GSX-R600 on spec tires in a stacked MotoAmerica Superstock 600 field,” said team owner John Ulrich.

“We have done everything we can to try to make Xavier feel comfortable with the bike and the spec tires,” added Ulrich, “including giving him the same chassis set-ups used by race winners Valentin Debise and Cameron Petersen, and also including making every set-up change he has requested. Now we are going to try additional coaching.

“We sincerely hope that sending Xavier off to work extensively with riding coach Ken Hill in the relaxed atmosphere at half a dozen Rickdiculous Racing days at Utah Motorsports Campus will help Xavier establish realistic goals, regain his confidence and understand how to deal with the spec tires over MotoAmerica race distance. We will be in constant contact with Ken Hill during this process and are looking forward to seeing how Xavier progresses prior to the September 9-11 MotoAmerica finale at New Jersey Motorsports Park,” Ulrich concluded.

This year marks Team Hammer’s 36th consecutive season of operating as a professional road racing team. During that time, racebikes built and fielded by Team Hammer have won 61AMA Pro National races, have finished on AMA Pro National podiums 150 times and have won five AMA Pro National Championships (the most recent in 2012), as well as two FIM South American championships. The team has also won 133 endurance races overall (including seven 24-hour races) and won 13 Overall WERA National Endurance Championships with Suzuki motorcycles, and holds the U.S. record for mileage covered in a 24-hour race. The team also competed in the televised 1990s Formula USA National Championship, famously running“Methanol Monster” GSX-R1100 Superbikes fueled by methanol, and won the F-USA Championship four times.