Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1540780
P102 FEATURE I TURNER RACING HONDA TRANSALP FLAT TRACKER bike had ever been ridden was from the truck to tech. "We were fighting an unknown chassis, an unknown motor, and everything else. We had a spon - sor that didn't do what they were supposed to do and left us hold- ing the bag for $60 grand, and one rider got hurt midseason and was out the whole summer. It took us to DuQuoin to even get hot rod engine parts. Prior to that, it was bone stock engines. Improbably, Dan Bromley claimed a top-10 finish in the bike's maiden race at Daytona. He would add a couple more, with a best finish of seventh coming at the Silver Dollar Short Track, before eventually stepping away from the program to do his own thing. Teammate Morgen Mischler had an even tougher go on the XL750-powered race bike for the 2024 Progressive American Flat Track season under the banner "Big Red SuperTwins." The fledgling effort expected a huge challenge, and a huge challenge was what was deliv - ered. In a losing race against time, the '24 off-season, pre- season, and season effectively folded on top of another. When starting from zero, play- ing catch-up with an all-new ma- chine is challenging even under the best of circumstances. It's more or less impossible when it's a real struggle to simply show up, never mind catch up. Lamb reflected on the insane level of difficulty encountered during the team's inaugural sea - son. "We built a brand-new bike, and when we showed up at Daytona, the first time the Chief among those mesmer- ized by that mystique is Mike Turner, owner of Turner Rac- ing. In the team's January 2021 announcement that confirmed it would represent American Honda in AFT Singles competi- tion, Turner reminisced about his days as a standout amateur when he looked up to the likes of Bubba Shobert, Ricky Graham, Doug Chandler and their ilk as his personal racing heroes. Those icons still raced in his imagination. Even when taking on the hugely important task of hunting titles for Honda in 450cc competition, Turner could not help daydream about someday doing the same in Mission AFT SuperTwins. "Since I came in and got the Honda deal, as early as '20 or '21," Turner said, "me and Al [Lamb] started looking at bring - ing Honda back to SuperTwins. "But at the time, there just wasn't a good platform as far as the motor package went. But when the Transalp came out— that 750—we started looking at the motor specs and all that good stuff. That really got the wheels rolling." Lamb, a former racer himself and owner of Al Lamb's Dallas Honda along with its associ - ated racing efforts, took the lead, while Turner stayed con- nected in an advisory capacity. Lamb assembled a who's who of motorsports luminaries, most prominently land-speed record holder Steve Watt, president of Maxwell Industries, and famed engine-builder Mike Lozano, the principal of Lozano Broth - ers Porting, to build and field an The Turner Racing crew celebrates the big win moments after Trent Lowe crossed the finish line.