THIS JUST IN ...

Following a successful first season of close and exciting racing with the inaugural XR1200® Trophy championship, Harley-Davidson UK and Ireland has signed a new agreement with British Superbike Championship organisers, MSVR, to continue the one-make race series in 2011.

Priority entry opportunities have already been opened up to existing teams from this year’s series, with the majority of the 22-strong grid having already showed an interest in racing again in 2011. New riders and teams will also have the chance to find out more and get involved by signing up at the Harley-Davidson stand at Carole Nash Motorcycle Live at the NEC in Birmingham.

The championship will continue to use a standard XR1200 motorcycle with a race specification upgrade kit supplied by Harris Performance. However, some further optional upgrades are expected to be permitted next year and Dunlop wet tyres will be allowed in addition to the Sportmax D211 GP tyres that are currently used.

Further details of the 2011 series including the calendar will be revealed at an XR1200 Trophy season kick-off event on Friday 3 December*, which will be attended by most of this year’s competitors, including series victor, Jeremy McWilliams, and runner-up, Mike ‘Spike’ Edwards.

Title holder and former MotoGP star, McWilliams, will also be holding autograph signing sessions and meeting fans at the Harley-Davidson Motorcycle Live stand in Hall 2 on Saturday 4 December at 11-11.30am and 14.15-14.45pm.

“We’re delighted to be able to announce our continuation of the XR1200 Trophy in 2011,” says Harley-Davidson UK & Ireland Marketing Manager, Jessica Tideswell. “Our first year was great fun, the dealers and teams provided fantastic feedback, we got great TV exposure with British Eurosport and met motorcyclists at events who had never previously considered Harley-Davidson as a brand.

“Most importantly though, our main objective was to prove that Harley can provide a great opportunity to just enjoy riding. Every rider who took part in the series – including experienced racers like Guy Martin and Niall Mackenzie – came back from riding the XR1200 race bike with huge smiles on their faces.”

Harris Performance Ian Mcleod echoes the sentiments, saying “It’s brilliant news that the XR1200 Trophy is running in 2011 and we’re really pleased to be involved. It’s been a great project to work on and very gratifying to see the results. We’ve worked with Harley-Davidson to provide a level playing field for cost-effective racing and the results on track showed that we created a successful partnership.”

BSB Race Director Stuart Higgs adds “The XR1200 Trophy definitely added a point of difference to BSB proceedings in 2010 and we hope that the new agreement means that we can continue attracting new audiences in 2011. The sound of more than 20 Harley-Davidson bikes thundering around a race track is unmistakable and has provided a fantastic spectacle for viewers. Having witnessed ambitious teenagers trying to take on legends like McWilliams this year, we’re interested to see what excitement the 2011 entries has in store! “

Dunlop Motorsport Manager Pat Walsh agrees that the series has plenty more action in store. “2010 was a fantastic start to the series, but it was also a big learning curve for many of the riders and teams. That showed in the increasing competitiveness at the later events in the calendar. Another winter of testing is likely to add to the excitement and we’re really please to be continuing the relationship with Harley-Davidson into 2011.”

Less than twenty-four hours after a transatlantic flight, and eight years since riding a motorcycle competitively, former AMA GP250 champion, Roland Sands was in the saddle of a Shaw Harley-Davidson XR1200 getting a few practice laps in round Mallory Park ahead of his guest appearance at Brands Hatch at the weekend.

Sands and Shaws Harley-Davidson have got strong links through the Shaws Speed and Custom Shop, which has made great use of his RSD components in customising Harley-Davidsons over the last eighteen months, and Dealer Principle, Steve Willis, has been on Sand's case to make a guest appearance since the XR1200 series was first planned.

Last seen on a British racing circuit riding a factory Honda in the British Super Cup Series, Roland was very quickly on the pace on the modified Harley XR1200 - to everyone's obvious amazement, not least his own - and was enjoying putting the bike through its paces alongside Shaw's main rider, better known in the British Super Moto Championship: Rob McNealy.

Sands is clearly not planning a return to competitive racing - he says he's got plenty of stuff that needs doing at home - and won't be drawn on whether he'll be guesting in the American XR1200 series, but he's really enjoying the chance to really make a bike work hard on a circuit, describing the XR1200 as a lot of fun.

It might not have been the fastest bike on the circuit at the Mallory Park practice session, but he's pragmatic about its capabilities: 'it needs finessing', he says, referring not to the bike itself but the manner in which it needs to be ridden: it responds well to an iron fist, but the last 5% of performance is achieved by a velvet glove.

He's been impressed by how flickable the bike is, even having taken its weight into account, and he's already thinking about how an XL with the Harris race kit and a lightweight swing-arm might work - but then that's what he does for a living these days, and the hardware that comes out of his workshop has provided a very welcome shot in the arm for a custom scene that is always in danger of stagnating.

The talk in the makeshift pit area is of the tyres being way more than the bike needs, inspiring confidence in their ability to provide all the grip that the heavyweight Harley can use, and the sense is that it's a proper old school race bike: a good rider will hit the limitations of the bike before those of the tyres, and a long way before the best riders will find their own boundaries, setting a level playing field that will let them show how good they are.

The Shaw race team managed a couple of practice sessions before the rains came, but it was enough to reassure everyone that it was going to work before heading back down to Sussex to prepare for the Beach Party tonight (Thursday) and the revealing of a very special set of bodywork, and ready for practice on Friday.

With the teams now more used to what the XR1200 can do, and how it does it, I suspect that Brands Hatch is going to be a good race.

The revised race schedule has been announced - and it means a packed couple of weekends for our Harley-Davidson teams, with one extra race added in at both Brands Hatch and Cadwell Park.
Here are the dates and times for the remaining five races:

Brands Hatch

Saturday 7th August 4pm
Sunday 8th August 2:55pm

Cadwell Park

Sunday 29th August 5:30pm
Monday 30th August 11am
Monday 30th August 3pm

The XR1200 teams heading north to Knockhill had a weekend full of promise ahead of them. Firstly, with a slightly diminished pool of bikes and riders, there would only be 18 bikes on the grid, meaning everyone was in with a decent chance of scoring points. Secondly, with two races scheduled, the opportunity to learn from the first race and go out and do better in the second would make for an enticing prospect. Incidentally, a lot of work has been going on - the chief focus has been on suspension and the time-consuming process of adjusting the springs and damping to cope best with each rider's weight and riding style. There was a lot resting on this weekend!

As you'll see from the photo, Saturday's qualifying session was dry and bright and the action on track was competitive and great to watch.

However, the weather forecast was appalling, with heavy rain predicted for race day, but wet weather racing is always interesting, requiring subtly different skills - and some of the guys lower down the field after qualifying session reckoned they would be in with a good chance of some good points in a wet race.

Quick update on Darren Fry - he is battered and bruised from the crash at Mallory, but otherwise OK. Sadly he won't be up to racing this weekend at Knockhill, so the Black Bear team will be sitting this round out - but plan to be back in action for Brands Hatch next month.

We've found that where the championship standings appear on other websites, they are wrong - some don't include all the riders and others credit guest riders with points (and the rules say guest riders cannot score points). Its taken a bit of working out, but here goes:

Finish	No.	Rider	Team	Laps	Time	Difference	MPH	Best
1	9	Lea GOURLAY	Stratstone Racing	14	14:47.958		80.03	1:02.459
2	99	Jeremy McWILLIAMS	Warr's Racing	14	14:48.031	0.073	80.02	1:02.451
3	11	Mike EDWARDS	RidersMotorcycles.com	14	14:49.604	1.646	79.88	1:02.868
4	31	Torquil PATERSON	Edinburgh H-D	14	14:49.951	1.993	79.85	1:02.861
5	17	Alex GAULT	Stratstone Racing	13	13:55.180	1 lap	79.01	1:02.991
6	4	Dijon COMPTON	Harley-Davidson Leeds	13	14:03.601	1 lap	78.22	1:03.410
7	29	Darren JAMES	Warr's Racing	13	14:09.478	1 lap	77.68	1:04.390
8	3	Rob HOYLES	Harley-Davidson UK	13	14:14.022	1 lap	77.26	1:04.692
9	88	Ed SMITH	Stratstone Racing	13	14:17.761	1 lap	76.93	1:05.016
10	8	Rob McNEALY	Shaw Racing	13	14:17.970	1 lap	76.91	1:04.670
11	55	Julian TILLOTSON	Guildford Harley-Davidson	13	14:18.805	1 lap	76.83	1:04.807
12	44	Gary BYRNE	Blade Motorsport	13	14:24.040	1 lap	76.37	1:05.569
13	6	Gordon GRIGOR	West Coast H-D	13	14:26.274	1 lap	76.17	1:05.403
14	69	Rhys BOYD	Team GFI-Preston H-D	13	14:33.460	1 lap	75.54	1:05.575
15	2	Adam CHILD	Harley-Davidson UK	13	14:33.809	1 lap	75.51	1:05.942
16	25	Bernie PRICE	Jersey H-D.com Racing	12	14:00.763	2 laps	72.44	1:09.090
DNF	39	Darren FRY	Black Bear Racing	13	13:50.971	1 lap	79.41	1:03.104
DNF	18	Joe MOORE	St Leger Harley-Davidson	5	5:36.792	9 laps	75.35	1:05.399