ROUND 8/SEPTEMBER 15, 2013
NEW JERSEY MOTORSPORTS PARK/MILLVILLE, NEW JERSEY
AMA HARLEY-DAVIDSON
P80
AMA VANCE & HINES HARLEY-DAVIDSON SERIES
RAPP-O-LICIOUS
STEVE RAPP DOMINATES ON THE JERSEY SHORE
BY LARRY LAWRENCE
PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRIAN J. NELSON
S
teve Rapp dominated the
Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson Series race at New
Jersey Motorsports Park, racing
his Aerostar Global/Suburban
Harley-Davidson XR1200 to a
2.160-second margin of victory
while a battle royale waged on
behind him - with as many as seven riders vying for the second-
place finish in the closing laps.
The win puts Rapp on the
verge of winning his first AMA Pro
road-racing championship after
16 years of trying. After scoring
every available point in New Jersey, Rapp leads Travis Wyman
by 22 points. That means Rapp
needs only an 11th-place finish or
better at Laguna Seca to secure
the XR1200 crown.
Rapp ran away and hid from
the rest of the 16-rider field from
the opening lap. He built the lead
to 4.2 seconds on lap nine of the
11-lap final, before backing off his
pace in the final two laps.
"We had a good bike," Rapp
said. "We made a few changes
this morning, and they were definitely an improvement over what
I had been riding. We're always
making the bike better and getting confident, knowing the limits of the tires and the bike. I've
done well at this track in the past,
