VOLUME 57 ISSUE 50 DECEMBER 15, 2020 P129
After three years of hustling the
XG750R around, Vanderkooi will finally
be on equal terms with the championship
favorites—and with no excuses in '21.
"It's kind of a relief," he said, "but at the
same time, not. It's like, all right, the pres-
sure is on. Now I've got to do my home-
work and go fast. If my physical condition-
ing isn't there, or I'm having an off day, I
can't say it's the bike."
Vanderkooi's 2020 teammate, Dalton
Gauthier, was present as well, although
he was still riding a V&H-tuned XG750R.
It gets murky behind that, as there are still
several moving pieces behind the scenes
as he maps out his '21 plans. No determi-
nation has been made as of yet on even
(Below) The tire test really wasn't about being the
fastest over the two days, but don't tell that to 2020 AFT
SuperTwins Champion Briar Bauman. (Bottom) Bauman
was the fastest of all despite being in "off-season mode."
"Terry Vance was nice enough to be a little lenient on
the contract and let me ride an Indian in December," he
said. "I've worked with [JCS Racing partner] Ben Evans a
lot over the years. He lives literally in the same town as I
do. Going back to when I was 10 years old, he built all my
engines up until I rode for a team.
"The consistency of the Indian is pretty good. The power—the
way it comes on to the way it decels—everything is so smooth.
The chassis is pretty good too. They did a hell of a job."
what class in which the uber-talented '19
AFT Singles Champion will participate.
He said, "We're here with the Harley-David-
son XG750s that Terry Vance kindly gave us
to test out for some racing for next year. We'll
see how it goes. I'm excited to see what we
can do and what kind of team we can build."
There's even still some degree of mys-
tery surrounding 2020's most successful
