For Immediate Release
October 1, 2009

     The 2009 AMA Superbike series marked the second full season of competition in the series for the Four Feathers Racing team. Following a great 15th position in 2008 AMA Superstock series points with Indianapolis Motor Speedway as the team’s title sponsor, in 2009 the team contested the American Superbike class, Daytona Sportbike class, and 4 MotoGT events all with Toyota Trucks as our title sponsor. Proving to be able to overcome any obstacle the team developed into a top ten contender all season long in every class, while using replacement riders! Unfortunately the team’s rider and team principal was injured in the very first session at the season opener at Daytona and missed the entire season.

     At Daytona former 200 winner Steve Rapp filled in on the #27 Toyota Trucks/GreenerAcres.org R6 in the Daytona Sportbike class. Running as high as fifth, the team finished an incredible 12th place in the grueling 200 mile night race. American Superbike duties were carried out by veteran Mark Crozier bringing the #27 Toyota Trucks/GreenerAcres.org GSXR1000 home in 20th position.

     California Speedway was next on the schedule where Steve Rapp again rode in the Daytona Sportbike class. The team earned their first Superpole appearance earning 8th on the grid and finishing with their first two top tens with a 9th place finishes in the double header. The American Superbike class was ridden by Shane Narbonne, the youngster had a great run finishing 14th. It was an impressive run especially considering he had never ridden the bike until that weekend.

  

     The third round would take us back to the east coast for Road Atlanta. The team had two riders Shane Narbonne and Mark Crozier. The American Superbike class was the focus of the event where both riders scored top twenty results. Mark finished 17th and 18th at his home track and Shane brought home two 20th positions at a track that what new to him.

     The fourth round was held at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama. The weekend was plagued with severe weather as up and down as the track action. Riders Mark Crozier and Shane Narbonne  rode well even putting the teams Daytona Sportbike on top of the charts in a wet race warm up with rain specialist Mark at the controls. The weekend was highlighted by his 14th place finish in American Superbike.

     Round five was back to California, among beautiful hills of Napa valley sits Infineon Raceway. The team had two new riders for this event, local rider Bobby Fong and Atlanta’s Ryan Elleby joined Mark Crozier for the event.  Bobby put the team back into Superpole for a ninth place qualifying position in Daytona Sportbike. Bobby rode to another team top ten finishing eighth on Sunday. Mark had his best Daytona Sportbike finishes with two top fifteen finishes with a 13th and 15th. In American Superbike the team shined once again scoring their first top ten in the class with a tenth and eleventh for Ryan and Mark respectively on Sunday. Saturday’s race the pair scored a 15th and 20th even though there were off track adventures.

     Wisconsin’s Road America is a fan favorite and close to home for the team. The team received a call from four time World Superbike champion Doug Polen and added him to the roster for the event. This marked his first time on the AMA Pro Superbike in more than ten years. The first week of June in the Midwest always has a strong chance of rain and it was again the case. Dry weather brought the team’s best qualifying to date with an impressive third position in Daytona Sportbike’s Superpole. The races were in the wet and Saturday saw both bikes on the ground, Mark crashed out of the top ten early while Bobby crashed out of fourth late in the race. The class highlight was a 14th on Sunday. American Superbike was ridden by Mark Crozier and Doug Polen and their skills shined through the rain as the finished 10th and 13th on Saturday. They finished up the class on Sunday with another top twenty in 19th.

     The next round took us back to the hills of Northern California to Laguna Seca on the Monterey peninsula. It was a special Fourth of July weekend shared with MotoGP. New rider for this weekend was Hawk Mazzotta who is a native of Carmel Valley. With limited time on our Daytona Sportbike he was able to qualify in the top thirty and pass over ten riders in the race to finish 16th. Bobby Fong qualified in tenth position and rode a solid race to a 10th place finish. Hawk pulled double duty and rode the American Superbike to an impressive 13th position in front of over 100,000 fans.

     Mid Ohio is the home race for the team and is always a special event. This round the team added two new riders. Matt Lynn and Josh Day were added to the roster with Matt riding both classes and Josh in Daytona Sportbike. The two would also share duties in the team’s first entry into the MotoGT two hour endurance race.  Qualifying would see the team in second position with a finish of 5th after the setbacks of a first lap crash. Josh earned another top twenty finishing 19th in his first try with Matt’s class highlight being a hard fought 17th place. American Superbike is where Matt put his skills to good use and put the bike in 11th place in his first ride for the team.

     Topeka was the sight of the next event and the track was the topic of controversy to say the least. Track safety was the issue and even though the track officials tried to make last minute attempts all of our riders except for Josh Day chose not to ride at the facility. Josh put the MotoGT entry in Pole position and went on to finish fifth after a crash by his weekend teammate Bryce Prince. Josh continued his upward trend by finishing in 15th in Daytona Sportbike.

 

     Virginia International Raceway was the next round and is also a fan and rider favorite. This event marked the return of Mark Crozier for the team in the American Superbike class and the continuation of Josh Day in Daytona Sportbike with Huntly Nash joining him in the class. Dominic Jones was teamed with Josh for the MotoGT event and crashed out of a forty second lead ending the day after a third place qualification. Huntly had a great run putting in two solid finishes with a 19th and 20th. American Superbike saw Mark return to his ways and put in another top fifteen with a 14th and 17th for the weekend.

     The season finally was held a New Jersey Motorsports Park which was new for the series.

Josh Day and Mark Crozier and Huntly Nash finished up the season with Australian Scott Charlton joining Josh for the MotoGT race. Qualifying third the team took the lead in the pits and never gave it up. 1st place by over three laps at the end was a great way to finish the season! Josh scored 17th in Daytona Sportbike on Saturday with Huntly matching him with his own 17th on Sunday. Mark finished out the American Superbike season with a 17th and 20th.

     In the team’s second year of AMA Pro Superbike competition their results back up the 2008 results highlighted by multiple top fifteen finishes in Superbike and Superstock and the overall 15th position in Superstock class points.

     2009 saw the team earn 1 win, 2 top 5’s, 10 top 10’s, 13 top 15’s, 18 top 20’s, 9 top 25’s, with 1 pole position and 4 Superpole appearances. All of this was achieved on a one rider budget and put into play with replacement riders with no testing or development. The team has overcome adversity to prove that we are a top tier team that will be successful under any circumstances.

      After a very successful surgery Scotty Van Hawk will be back stronger and faster than ever for 2010. The team will also field a yet to be named rider in both Daytona Sportbike and American Superbike classes along side him.