12-time Canadian champ Steve Crevier is locked and loaded for the season opening round of the AMA Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson XR1200 series, contested at Daytona International Speedway on March 14-16. A last-minute decision by the MotoSport Plus / Dominion Lending Centres / Motörhead Services XR1200 team will see the Maple Ridge, BC legend fighting for a podium spot after sorting out some long standing gremlins at the end of 2012.
“I’m just bored,” Crevier jokes when asked how the Daytona trip came together, hinting that this off-season already feels longer than most others. “It’s just an opportunity to have lots of fun and to get out there and race. My friends at Dominion Lending Centres and Steve Bray at MotoSport Plus are happy with what I’ve been doing and they’re supportive of it. We’ve had great success with the bike in Canada, even though we never really sorted it out until the last race of last year.”
Indeed, it was the very last day of competition at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park last year when crew chief Dan Thomson finally traced an ongoing acceleration problem to a faulty coil pack. “Our bike was always lagging off the corners,” Crevier explains. “In Indy last year we were losing 10-15 bike lengths getting on the gas in turns, even though the bike always made good peak power on the dyno.” After borrowing a coil pack from fellow XR guy Lee Kuhn Sr. at Mosport, Crevier went out and immediately knocked a second off his lap times.
“We went to Indy two years in a row, and the best I could finish was fifth. Now I feel like I got robbed,” Crevier admits. “I knew we could do better, and now I’m excited to show everyone how fast we can run and that Canada can do good. The US racers have full teams, huge trucks, spare bikes, engines… we’ve got one bike. But we’re gonna run up front.”
Crevier finds the XR1200 race bike, and the spec series in Canada and the US, ideal at this stage in his racing career.
“The XRs are just a gas,” he beams. “Racing took a sour turn years ago when the economy was good – it wasn’t fun. I made some money, but they were trying to chase out the small guy. Today, it’s a whole different game. They want the smaller guys. Now I ride for fun. The XR series is low budget, but offers super entertainment value to fans.”
Crevier is quick to point out the help of Motörhead Services out of Detroit, a couple who has supported him over the years and is backing his Daytona experience. Along with the support from MotoSport Plus, Dominion Lending Centres and Deeley Harley-Davidson, Crevier has high hopes for his first trip to Daytona since 2008.
Stay tuned to www.insidemotorcycles.com during the AMA Daytona 200 races on March 14-16 for daily results on how Crevier and the rest of our Canadian teams are doing.
–Exclusive to Inside Motorcycles
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