Erik Buell Racing only earned two points in the 2014 World Superbike season, but they’re reorganizing and planning to return for 2015.
For 2015, EBR’s riders will be Niccolo Canepa and Larry Pegram. Pegram will also work as team manager. The team will once again be known as Team Hero EBR, as Buell is still closely associated with Hero – they own almost half of his new company.
Although Pegram earned EBR’s only WSB points in 2014, it’s arguably Canepa who is the bigger announcement. Canepa won World Superstock in 2007 and was second in WSB’s EVO class in 2014.
“Being on track with the EBRs in 2014, it was very exciting for me to see an American motorcycle in our championship, and by the end of 2014 the 1190RX was getting quite fast. They came a long way from mid-season and really got my attention,” said Canepa. “I am looking forward to being part of the next step up in performance.”
“It was an incredible task to take on last year, having riders and motorcycles new to the circuit, and team members with no experience on our bikes. But it was part of a long term plan,” said Erik Buell. ““For 2015, based on what we learned last year, we have made many changes and look forward to seeing how these all play out. At the highest level of competition like this, everything has to gel and we think we have the right combination to address what we learned last year.”
I don’t like the bikes but give them credit for trying. That said it seems their bikes are light years away from being competitive, I believe they were down as much as 20mph in top speed compared to the top guys. Not to mention having riders like Pegram or Yates is not a recipe for success, great guys with more talent than I’ll ever have buuuut past their prime let’s say.
Too bad the bike is such a pile – put some REAL brakes on it, give it some HP and then we’ll see….
Given it was their nascent year, scoring points in WSBK and a podium in AMA Superbike demonstrably shows they’re moving in the right direction. The 2014 season was based mostly on a stock bike with an eye towards understanding how the package needed to be improved. All that said, their season was remarkably successful. It will be interesting to see whether they can maintain that progress in 2015 and beyond.
It will be interesting to see if they can maintain their current position as grid filler. The bike is a pile and Pegram was over the hill 10 years ago.
What Blackie said…
I loved Buell’s older bikes when he was with the MoCo. However, he sticks to ideas that are proven failures (see: ZTL brakes). I have never religiously followed AMA racing, but it was my understanding that Buell pilots back in the day actually improved performance by retro-fitting disc brakes. Wouldn’t that be a strong hint that it’s time to abandon ZTL?