MotoAmerica 2021 | VIRginia International Raceway | May 21-23

Has it gotten any better at not blowing headgaskets?

 

I don't think there are many of those ktms around, unless I'm mistaken that's not the old ktm Jr cup bike

 

I'd assume Scott is racing the same "R" spec 390 that Dumas raced and won the title with a few years back. Cup bikes were hugely restricted.

As for more riders jumped from green to orange, I'd say that if KTM shows a huge upgrade to their new for '22 390, that might happen but realistically it's really doubtful given the kids on them don't wanna develop a bike for 2-3 years to be competitive, they know usually that class is a year or 2 then onto Twins or larger if all goes well so there's pressure to be on the best platform from day 1. The Kawi is a known commodity, proven winner, and setup notes, track data, etc... is all readily available.

 

R model is like $20k with the race kit, is it class legal I wonder? Thats pretty close to what a turn key Graves 400 will cost.. I dont see them buying the ktm when the 400 has data like it does so you make sense with that thought.

 

Damn. Knew he was banged up but not that bad. Impressive amount of courage there.

 

I think I read his family runs a KTM dealership and that Filmore said KTM USA was helping him out this year so my guess is the bike was provided or VERY cheap.

MSRP is $10.5k new so twice that of say a Ninja 400 - not cheap that's for sure.

 

His dad owns a motorcycle dealership and they sell Kawasaki, KTM, Yamaha, and a couple of other brands that make other stuff. Tyler has been racing a KTM Duke 790 in CCS last year and he was crazy fast on it! I remember one weekend at NJMP he was like 0.8 seconds faster than the MotoAmerica Twins record and he also had a slightly faster lap time than Mesa's fastest on his ZX6R. He did quite a few Middleweight races on that bike last year and usually finished top 5 even when he'd start towards the back of the grid. I'm not really sure on the entire reason they stuck with KTM, but maybe because he seemed to gel with that bike, they tried out the RC390? A while ago when I talked to his dad, he mentioned that they were going to try out a ninja 400 at a track day to see how he goes on that, but evidently they ended up settling on the KTM. Price-wise the KTM is definitely more expensive with that race kit. Makes it like a $22k bike (retail), but I'm sure being a KTM dealer he got a much better deal. Also I think KTM still has pretty decent contingency.

 

a graves 400 is like $21k so its even really if you were to buy a turn key bike from either manufacture.

 

Will there be any r7 that show up?

 

Can confirm.. My girlfriend was watching some of the races with me this weekend and asked "who's that one guy? The first guy sounds like an announcer but the other guy just sounds like hes from the south"... I had to explain to her that he's American road racing royalty and to stop besmirching his name...

 

Really. Once the comments about events on the actual race track play out we are posting pages and pages of repetitive personal opinions, many very critical, about announcers, the announcers’ diction and word choice, the state of American professional road racing, on and on, that just restates stuff covered fully last season, and already covered fully again in the race posts this year. Motoamerica is pushing the sport hard through some strong headwinds, the quality of racers at the front is great, there’s lots of great talent coming up, grids are growing, life is good.

 

If you go that route, yes. But the difference is the KTM you still have to put it all together and have it ready after that price. So it's only that price if you do all the work. Not really "turn-key" like the Graves. And the Graves 400 is only that much because of the labor involved. I can build an equivalent bike to what Graves does for much less than that. So IMO the 400 is still the better bang for the buck, which I'm sure is the reason why all but 2 bikes on the grid are 400s lol

 

But you said Graves. Should’ve stopped right there.

 

Via LinkedIn (not sure if its behind a wall) https://www.linkedin.com/posts/moto...orts-racing-activity-6807754074063163392-QK7m:

BOOM, another homerun in the books. Following suit with the first 2021 event at Atlanta, MotoAmerica Superbikes at VIRginia International Raceway was another success.

Total Nielsen USA Linear TV ratings topped 337,000 AA Households with International TV TBD. Nieslen P2+ crested 400,000. In addition, Digital views of racing & highlights topped 5.7M during race weekend and the following week. Social Media Reach topped 7M for the same period.

Attendance increase was 21% over the last MotoAmerica event at VIR in 2019. The hills were filled with teaming, happy fans, toyhaulers, campers, RV’s and about every type of personal motorized vehicle imaginable. Such increases were also seen at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta where attendance topped 25% increase from prior.
Onward!