Prepare the dirt: Team Öhlins USA Pro MX
The first event for Team Öhlins USA is June 11 at High Point Raceway in Mount Morris, Pennsylvania. A native of Palm Harbor, Florida, Michael Clarke, #699, has wins already this year in Round 1 and 2 of the Florida Winter AM Series that took place in January at Gatorback and Dade City. At each event Clarke earned the overall in the Open A class, once with two wins and once with a win and second-place finish.
Garret Toth, #687, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, has won three Branson titles and in 2008 took third at Loretta Lynn’s in the Schoolboy 2 class.
Hailing from Portland, Connecticut, #330 AJ Catanzaro is the 2010 Lites West Arenacross champion, earning that title with the most wins, at three, and a points total of 197, which is 37 more than his nearest competitor.
Team Öhlins USA principal, Öhlins USA Off Road Manager, Stacey Berger, said, “We’re fortunate to have secured such great talent for our initial effort of our own racing team. Already during testing these three have shown how dedicated they are to improving their skills and learning how to provide us with feedback so we can help them go even faster. Our anticipation for the season is hard to keep in check. We can’t wait to get out there into competition. We’ve already learned a lot that’ll help us assist every rider using our products.”
The team is competing on the latest version of the Yamaha YZ450F, winner of numerous magazine shootouts for best Dirtbike of the year. The bikes are maintained by the expert skills of Nick Burns, Timo Salonen, Steve Dumond, and Tim Wilkie, and the suspension needs are taken care by Stacey Berger and Marty Lange.
Team Öhlins USA is supported by: Triangle Cycles of Danville, Virginia; Yamaha; GYTR; MX1 West; Acerbis; Ariete; Yoshimura; Kenda Tire; No Toil; Shoei Helmets; Langston Racing Academy, which has been instrumental in providing top-level training for the riders; HIT Center (High Intensity Training) of Jacksonville.
Öhlins USA distributes and services the world’s leading performance suspension for automobiles, motorcycles, ATVs, and snowmobiles. Öhlins develops its proprietary and innovative suspension components at the highest levels of racing from open-wheel car racing, to Moto GP, to off-road competition on two and four wheels.
Öhlins USA also provides training for service centers and dealers. www.ohlinsusa.com.
