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Congratulations to Victory Riders Mike “Jethro” Pearce and Dave Koehmstedt for their strong performance on the American Motorcycle Racing Assn. (AMRA) circuit this year.
Pearce ended the season second in points in the V Mod class, and Koehmstedt finished third in the Street Cruiser class.
The AMRA is essentially a race circuit for Harley-Davidson racers, but its organizers have welcomed Victory Riders who wanted to compete.
Koehmstedt, who owns PsychoMotive Racing Technology in Milan, Indiana, received credit from Pearce for being a driving force behind any Victory Riders competing on the AMRA circuit.
“He is the man. He is a great guy and a genius with these bikes,” Pearce said of Koehmstedt. “And he’s a true die-hard racer. He is a real driving force”
Pearce said he earned enough points to finish high in the points because he took part in every 2009 AMRA event.
“I made it my mission that I was going to place in the top five at every race,” Pearce said. “It doesn’t matter how you do at these events, but if you show up at every event, [you can do well]. It’s all heads-up racing on a pro tree. In the V Mod class, I’m running against V-Rod Destroyers, which are basically Harley’s all-out drag bike. Most of these V-Rods are running 9.20, 9.30 in the quarter mile.”
Pearce said his best performance in the eighth-mile was 6.41 seconds at 108 mph. In the quarter-mile, his best time was 10.11 seconds at 137.8 mph.
“It was persistence and going after it and staying after it,” Pearce said of his runner-up finish. “Next year I can get really serious about it. I know what I’ve got to do now. I tried harder at this than I ever had when I was running cars.
“Lloyd [Greer of Lloydz Motorworkz] gets the props because they put the motor together and Brian Turk is the one who got that whole bike together. And my son Christopher worked all year on the bike, too. I owe it all to these guys. I can’t do anything but drive it.”
Pearce first raced at a 2008 AMRA event on a Touring Cruiser, then focused his attention on turning a 2003 Classic Cruiser into a drag bike. He is especially proud that so much of the bike is stock, not super-light racing components.
“This 2003 is all steel, there’s nothing lightened on this bike,” he said. “It’s got steel fenders and a steel tank. The only thing non-stock are the clip-on bars, the rear control pegs and the pipe. It’s got Kingpin wheels and Classic Cruiser fenders.”
Pearce emphasized that the AMRA promoters and racers were very welcoming of the racers on Victorys.
“One thing I can say about all those Harley guys over there is they’ve been good as gold,” he said. “They are so glad there are other people out there racing. We’ve gotten a great response, all the way from Hells Angels who are there to the privateer racers and the promoters. They’ve been great to us. I got nothing but respect from all of those guys.”
Pearce plans to take time out of this coming weekend’s Lobsterfest party in Florida to make some runs on Saturday at Orlando Speedworld. “I’m going to run with the pro bikes that will be out testing this Saturday at Orlando,” he said.
Then the bike gets torn down and rebuilt over the winter with the goal of another strong showing on the AMRA circuit in 2010.
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