Vance and Hines chose and otherwise quiet Thursday in December to announce some huge news, the line-up of their 2020 team. And it's exciting. Jarod Vanderkooi is retained and joined by 2019 AFT Singles champ Dalton Gauthier and 2016 AMA Twins champ, Bryan Smith. Smith's long-time crew chief, Ricky Howerton joins Vance and Hines as crew chief. Howerton is quoted as saying, 'I think the Harley-Davidson Factory Team has all the ingredients in place to field bikes that can win ev

I'm not sure how long I can keep this up. I watched all the practice, qualifying, heats and semis, then fell asleep for an hour after setting my alarm for 2am. Ugh. There were no Production Twins at the NY ST, so the extra class was the Bultaco Invitational. It was won by Charlie Roberts, one of the main men behind the Rookies Class of 79 charity, that raises funds for injured flat trackers. The 40-odd year-old Bultacos were only about 1s a lap slower that the latest, tuned 4

The 2016 champion was missing from the So Cal Half-Mile on Saturday, the second race he, or his team, have decided to sit out this season. Giving the Super TT a swerve was somewhat understandable if they were struggling, and they seem to be. Bryan Smith's weakest discipline are TTs, but missing this half-mile was harder to fathom. Smith is well known to be a mile specialist, but in his title-winning season he scored a first, second and fourth at half-mile tracks. He did fail

Sideburn ed's morning after bullet point debrief of the Daytona TT TWINS We have been getting very excited about new Estenson Yamahas and team changes, but the entry list for the twin class was very thin. 26 riders aiming for a new, reduced, 16-rider main. The track took what looked like a 1/4-mile drag detour down the tarmac banking, before braking hard for a hairpin. The dirt section had two dogleg kinks, one each before and after the jump. The jump itself was a decent size