Buell is back and ready to take on the Daytona 200.
The company which left Daytona International Speedway with a pile of broken motorcycles in 2006 has re-committed to racing by partnering with a non-industry sponsor, one of the best dealerships in the U.S., and a team manager with Buell in his blood.
Richie Morris Racing will campaign a Buell 1125R in the 2009 Daytona SportBike class with backing from Geico Powersports and Bruce Rossmeyer Harley-Davidson. Veteran Michael Barnes will be the rider. Morris added that there would be a second bike and rider announced in the near future.
“The way the world is today with everything, I’m a very, very fortunate guy to be sitting here surrounded by these kind of people and a company like Geico,” Morris said in the media center at Daytona International Speedway on Friday morning. “I’m just an old motorcycle racer that’s busted up and can’t race any more, but I’m still hanging out with my friends and my family and still being involved with a sport that I love and being able to make a living at it. I’m very fortunate.”
Despite the company’s dismal record from 2006, Buell Pres. John Flickinger said he believed the 1125R could be competitive in both the 200 and the championship.
“The reason we’re supporting Richie Morris racing is because we think we can be competitive next year,” he said. “We’re expecting that. But we also understand that we’re stepping up to a new level of racing, so we’ve got a lot to learn, obviously, and we’ll learn as we go. But we’re expecting to be competitive and more importantly we’re expecting to take the Buell brand to a new level and we think we have to be successful racing to do that and that’s why we’re going racing.”
Making the distinction between the 1125R and the prototype XBRR that failed so publicly in 2006, Flickinger said “We came to the 200 and we were still not done developing those motorcycles and unfortunately we did not fare well in the race, but we learned rom it. And certainly we’re anxious to get the 1125R a proven platform, a platform that we’re selling every day, today. Not a prototype race machine that’s not available for sale. So we have a long term commitment to racing.”
Morris confirmed that Geico had a three year commitment to sponsor his team.
“So we have a long term commitment to racing and to step up our level of racing each year, so we continue to grow our successes,” Flickinger said.
He also said this is not a factory effort, but consistent with the Buell philosophy of supporting privateer racing efforts. “So, Richie’s an independent privateer racing owner and we’re going to support him with technical support and engineering support and product and parts and all those sort of things, like we’ll support other privateer teams as well. So, no it’s not a factory effort. Richie’s going to be putting together his team and I’m sure that’ll evolve over the next coming weeks as well, but we’ll provide the support to help him be successful next year.”
The team was already hard at work with Barnes, Buell employee and test rider Shawn Higbee, and veteran tester Jeremy McWilliams, who qualified the XBRR eighth for the 2006 Daytona 200, taking part in the tire test.
