I was only just saying how much I was looking forward to seeing AFT Singles points leader Dalton Gauthier on a twin (again) in the most recent race report thoughts and Black Hills Harley Davidson has made it so. Gauthier will race a Harley Davidson XG750R for the rest of the 2019 AFT Production Twins season.
The Black Hills team of South Dakota are currently running James Rispoli and have signed Gauthier for the rest of the year, with seven Production Twins races scheduled to run.
Gauthier is phenomenal on a single and looks like he has the skills and build to dominate a powerful twin (though great flat trackers come in all sizes). He says, 'I've seen what the bike can do and I feel I can win races on the thing. My goal is to ride the AFT Twins series next year, and I want to show everyone that I can ride a twin as well as a Single. Just have to stay consistent and put in some good rides. I’ve raced the Production Twins class twice this year and did pretty well, so I know what to expect and am quite confident.'
Cory Texter leads the series, with Rispoli and Gauthier currently 9th and 11th, respectively. Rispoli put his Black Hills XG750R on the podium at the most recent Production Twins race, Lima Half-Mile. It had slipped my mind, but Gauthier, has had two Production Twins rides this year on a privateer Kawasaki, scoring finishes of fourth and fifth.
The seven Production Twins races that remain are half-miles at Black Hills and Williams Grove, and miles at Sacramento, both Springfields, Minnesota and the Meadowlands.
My only concern would be wondering if double duty will affect Gauthier's Singles performance in comparison to riders concentrating solely on that class, especially going into crazy August. Springfield won't be such a stretch because the Singles raced at the rained out Springfield 1 and the meeting is split for the rescheduled Springfield 2. We will find out soon.