Vance & Hines Rolls into 2023 KOTB Season with Veteran Expertise and Championship Credentials
Santa Fe Springs CA – February 13, 2023 – Vance & Hines continues its run on the championship of MotoAmerica’s King Of The Bagger sequence in 2023 with skilled riders and a crew coming off a championship in flat observe racing. Each group riders, James Rispoli and Hayden Gillim, have beforehand ridden for the Vance & Hines/Mission/Harley-Davidson Group.
James Rispoli returns to the group after a powerful 2022 season aboard the Harley-Davidson Street Glide. Rispoli earned a second place and a third-place end within the six-race season, the place he incessantly diced with manufacturing facility groups from Harley-Davidson and Indian.
Rispoli has a formidable racing resume in each flat observe and street racing. After profitable back-to-back AMA Professional SuperSport championships within the US, Rispoli raced for 5 years within the prestigious British Superbike championships, then returned to flat observe, profitable the 2020 AFT Manufacturing Twins title in dominant vogue with seven wins aboard a Vance & Hines-built Harley-Davidson XG750R. Rispoli will pilot a Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson Street Glide bearing his signature #43 in 2023.
Gillim returns to the Vance & Hines King Of The Baggers group after focusing completely on Superbike racing in 2022. Whereas rejoining his former group, he’ll have a dramatically improved motorbike to experience. The swap from Road Glide to Street Glide, together with the competition-driven growth on the engine and chassis will give him a greater dealing with and extra highly effective bike than his earlier KOTB experience.
Gillim has racing expertise in MotoAmerica, MotoGP, WERA and American Flat Observe and has wins or championships in nearly each class he’s ever raced. He has a profitable pedigree as effectively. He’s a cousin of Nicky, Roger and Tommy Hayden and hails from racing hotspot, Owensboro, Kentucky.
Vance & Hines places its prime technical group on the KOTB program in 2023. Crew chief Steve Polk has the identical tech group that helped Jesse Janisch win the AFT Manufacturing Twins championship in 2022. With group supervisor Craig Koontz and technicians Josh Sutter and Ricky Castro, there’s little question that this group is aware of methods to create profitable race bikes. Gene Burcham gives suspension experience at every occasion on the circuit as effectively.
The group is sponsored by Mission Meals and makes use of specialised racing elements from Harley-Davidson.
MotoAmerica, seeing the recognition of the KOTB class enhance every year, has expanded the race schedule in 2023 to seven of their 10 race weekends. Every of these seven weekends will characteristic a KOTB double-header, making it a 14-race season for the Vance & Hines/Mission/Harley-Davidson group.
“We’re actually completely satisfied to see curiosity within the class develop and the rise within the variety of races this yr,” mentioned Group Supervisor Craig Koontz. “James, together with his robust technical suggestions and nice using, was an actual asset to the group this previous season. Having James and Hayden on the observe collectively goes to be thrilling to look at. We’re desirous to get to Daytona to see how we stack up towards the remainder of the sphere.”
The King Of The Bagger sequence is a racing class showcasing touring-style bikes with fairings and saddlebags. KOTB races happen at tracks across the nation with the primary of the bagger races slated for March 10 on the Daytona Worldwide Speedway.
ABOUT VANCE & HINES
The Vance & Hines model has at all times been about enhancing the exhilaration of the motorbike experience. It began over 40 years in the past, when Terry Vance and Byron Hines had been two younger fans within the fledgling Southern California motorbike drag race scene. Terry at all times needed to go quicker, and Byron knew methods to make that occur. Briefly order, their on-track success and innovation drew the eye of different racers, riders and motorbike producers, which in the end translated to business demand for his or her services and products. At present, the Firm’s mission and exercise is identical; make bikes go quicker on the racetrack and take these learnings to make impactful merchandise for riders all over the world. Because the Firm’s inception in 1979, it has run manufacturing facility race applications in partnership with Suzuki, Yamaha, Ducati and Harley-Davidson in drag racing, street racing and flat observe. Vance & Hines relies in Santa Fe Springs CA and has its Racing Growth Heart in Brownsburg IN. Be taught extra concerning the firm’s historical past and merchandise at www.vanceandhines.com.
