Mission King Of The Baggers rider James Rispoli has stepped as much as the Harley-Davidson Manufacturing unit Racing group for 2024 after racing final 12 months for Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson. The previous Supersport rider, British Superbike competitor, and American Flat Observe racer is having a profession resurgence now that he’s racing in MotoAmerica’s uniquely American Harley-Davidson versus Indian Motorbike race collection. Rispoli (AKA, “Hogspoli”) was one in every of 5 King Of The Baggers riders who participated in Thursday’s pre-event press convention main into their race weekend at Circuit of The Americas alongside MotoGP. Right here’s what he needed to say:
Q:
James Rispoli, who final 12 months was on a privateer group, the group that gained the nationwide championship, and now full-blown manufacturing unit Harley-Davidson. You had your go. Full-factory group at Daytona. How are you feeling now concerning the transfer, concerning the bike, and about this weekend?
Rispoli:
First off, I’m tremendous grateful to get the manufacturing unit seat and to have the ability to get promoted up. It’s a dream of mine, so simply taking all of it in from there. Daytona was actually good for us. We got here away with two podiums, two third locations and sitting third within the championship. As you alluded to, 18 races on this season. It’s the longest we’ve been. It’s a extremely lengthy season for us and for everyone to ensure that we end each single race is fairly essential. So, I’m feeling actually good. I’m very excited. If anyone watched the races final 12 months, they have been fairly thrilling. The racing is so uncooked on this class nonetheless, that I believe it creates a whole lot of shut racing and a whole lot of nice racing. So, I’m excited to be right here. Excited to be alongside MotoGP. It’s actually, actually cool. I’m excited to get to FP1.
Q:
You had a few large spins, large slides at Daytona. Among the issues that you simply’ve discovered from there that you simply’re going to take to COTA?
Rispoli:
Yeah, simply quiet down a bit of bit. I believe new season, new bike, new group. You get a bit of aggressive. I’m a bit of bit extra the wild one on the market, I believe. I journey a bit of bit extra seat-of-the-pants. Possibly quiet down a bit of bit, but it surely’s good for the cameras. It’s good for every thing. So long as we will type of harness that power, we needs to be good right here. Simply excited to get two races this weekend. It’s one thing a bit of completely different, driving race one and race two in the identical day. We don’t usually do this, so will probably be a fast turnaround there. It’s a bit of shortened schedule for us. Every little thing is packed in. So, we’ve obtained to be on our A sport and are available away with some good factors.
Q:
Are you able to describe the distinction between the expertise that you simply had final 12 months on the Vance & Hines bike and now with the manufacturing unit squad?
Rispoli:
Final 12 months, I rode for Vance & Hines. They know easy methods to construct pace and easy methods to construct a terrific program. Terry Vance again within the day had probably the most profitable packages you possibly can have in AMA. So, they know what they’re doing. Shifting to the manufacturing unit group, you’ve obtained a bit of bit extra aptitude, I might say. every thing is new and pristine. Having that after which being able to be the event home for the category, per se, after which type of following go well with with Kyle of what he’s developed, and to type of take a bit of little bit of my type and be capable of put into the motorbike. However the variations in bikes usually are not too loopy. They each do their completely different energy trains, that are completely different they usually really feel completely different. Vance & Hines produced their very own swing arm, so there’s little variations between the bikes, but it surely’s not a loopy quantity. I believe it’s extra simply team-based and the way the morale is and we’re capable of obtain the identical purpose. I believe each groups are actually good. Each bikes have higher and weaker spots. I believe it’s an attention-grabbing query.
