Attack Performance lines up in-house built CRT bike at US rounds

Thursday, 19 July 2012
In just over a week’s time the MotoGP™ grid crosses the pond from its prolonged stay in Europe to contest the Red Bull US Grand Prix in Laguna Seca with local team Attack Performance lining up an in-house built CRT machine.
"That would be a great goal."
Engine: ZX10R
Brakes: Brembo Carbon
Suspension: Öhlins
Power: 220+
Top Speed: NA

Huntington Beach, California, based Attack performance, spearheaded by owner Richard Stanboli, has tasked its AMA rider Steve Rapp to contest both the Laguna Seca and the following Indianapolis round on-board its ambitious CRT project. Having only decided to enter as a wild card in March this year, Stanboli and his team have had a mountainous task, with testing only taking place the weekend before the race. Furthermore, all this has taken place whilst contesting the AMA Superbike series, which the team will also be doing simultaneously at Laguna Seca.

The bike itself has an APR chassis (Attack Performance Racing), which is an aluminium twin spar design, machined almost entirely from billet, along with a heavily tuned Kawasaki ZX10R engine putting out over 220hp. It will run carbon Brembo brakes, along with full Öhlins suspension.

With just over one week to go until the APR bike rolls out onto the Laguna Seca tarmac for the very first time, motogp.com caught up with Stanboli before he headed off for the shakedown test at local track Buttonwillow Raceway Park, to find out more about his ambitious project.

What is your motivation behind the CRT project?

"It has always been a long-term goal of ours to build a real racing motorcycle completely in house. In the past years the AMA has gone away from pure bread race machines to a more controlled environment. Furthermore we had involvement with Kawasaki and Suzuki for a number of years so we had contractual responsibilities that eliminated the option of building our own machines.

"Early this year we had a program to race the AMA and so we contacted Mike Trimby (IRTA General Secretary) and set the gears in motion for the Wild Card entry. On 31 March we had the OK and we proceeded to design and build the machine. Ironically we picked up a sponsor for the AMA just about the same time and now we are doing both. I guess it is feast or famine."

What are you hoping to achieve at the US MotoGP rounds? What targets have you set yourself and Steve?

"We have no really expectations. I think the building a machine in such a short period of time is an achievement in itself. Just to show up and race a GP is a great goal in itself.

"Rapp has a lot of track experience and has been on the AMA podium there [at both tracks] several times. I do believe we have the home court advantage to some extent so we hope we can run with fastest CRT and see what happens."

What has the greatest challenge been for you?

"Time has been the biggest challenge. Doing the AMA series and keeping our sponsor happy while building the CRT bike at the same time."

If successful, could you see yourself entering MotoGP full time in 2013?

Bike Specifications:

Chassis: APR (Attack Performance Racing) Aluminium twin spar machined almost entirely for billet.

Stay tuned to motogp.com for an in-depth interview with rider Steve Rapp.

Source www.motogp.com