Cycle News

IN THE WIND P34 MYERS MOVES UP E lena Myers is stepping up to the big leagues—the Super- bike class in the MotoAmerica AMA/FIM North American Road Racing Series. The young road racer is not only making the move to the premier class from the former championship's 600cc class—Daytona SportBike—but is also taking on team management as well with her self-run Team- 21Motorsport. "I just hated playing the typi- cal preseason game, like, 'Oh, I don't know when I'm going to be riding,' so I decided to start my own team," Myers said. "It was a conversation that I had with my dad one night and it was like let's do it. I felt like now would be a good time to do that." That leap paid off as the North- ern California native was able to secure a title sponsor: McGraw Powersports Insurance. "McGraw Powersports is lo- cated in the same area I grew up in so it's pretty cool to have that parallel with that company," she said. "We're really looking to have big presence at Laguna Seca." Why Superbikes? Myers says, "Why not?" "As far as riding a Superbike goes, it's always been a dream of mine to ride a 1000," Myers said. "I rode one a few times and im- mediately fell in love with it. And I think now with MotoAmerica having the new series it's look- ing really good for a rider like me—who hasn't had experience in the Superbike class—to get my start with them and kind of see where it goes. I'm not going to have too much time before the season starts. I know its going to be a steep learning curve, but I feel like the past few years [in a stacked 600 series] has really challenged me, and I've learned an awful lot from being in that class with the best racers in the country. It will be a big challenge, but I'm up for it. I'm really excited to get the season under way." Also, Myers felt that even go- ing back to early days of racing the bigger bikes have always suited her. "I always did better on the 450s versus the 250s," she said. "The bigger bikes have always suited me better, I thought. I know with the 600 I always struggled a little bit with some corner speed. Ob- viously you need to have that on a Superbike, but I feel like I have a lot of control in my right hand and I feel like my exits are the best part of my riding. And riding a Superbike, if you can get the thing off the corner than that's where all your time's going to be made up. I feel like it will suit me very well." In addition to her title sponsor, Myers has also added two new sponsors—Gimoto for leathers and NPmoto for under gear. Andrea Wilson Team Owner/rider Elena Myers moves up to the Superbike class for 2015. PHOTO COURTESY OF TEAM21MOTORSPORT

• Cover