By Chris Genovese, the “Marketing Guy”
When we were brainstorming ideas for the 2024 riding season, the items on our list all fell into one of three categories:
1 – Rides, bike nights, and other motorcycle events
2 – Organizations and “causes”
3 – Rider safety, training, and preparedness
So you might wonder how the heck we landed on, among other things, becoming a sponsor of High Rev Racing, Western New York’s only bagger racing team(?).
Well, it all goes back to our great experiences with the team and events we’ve been a part of at A+ Performance Cycles in Lockport. And I’ll explain now that our High Rev sponsorship 110% falls under category #3 for Rider safety, training, and preparedness.
First, please note that The Kantor Gullo Law Firm has a history of sponsoring racing teams. We’re just like you and we love to see skilled riders pushing themselves and their machines to compete on the track and win. The Kantor Law Firm sponsored the moto cross racing teams out of American Harley-Davidson for many years, and now those racers are the owners of the place! It’s impossible to ignore the fact that each racer and team commits countless hours of training and resources to their sport, and these are licensed racers on an officially sanctioned track. In the case of High Rev Racing, we’re talking about the Outlaw Bagger class of the American Superbike Racing Association, sanctioned by the American Motorcyclist Association.
In the vetting process, we talked to Scott Danielewicz and Craig Braymiller about our firm’s focus on rider and safety and how that would fit into our sponsorship. Scott, a partner at A+ Performance Cycle, acts as the team’s owner and lead builder/technician, while Craig is the team’s lead racer and manager. Emilio “Wheelio” Jiminez is the other racer for the team, and we’d previously enjoyed his stunt work at A+ events, along with Christian Restivo and friends. The answers we got back from Scott and Craig were perfect.
Scott grew up racing on dirt bikes with his dad, and both are looking forward (again) to this year’s reunion at Zoar Valley Motorpark, aka “Zoar in ’24!” When we started talking about safety, he was quick to point out that there is a different level of cooperation among riders when it comes to racing on the track. “We know all of these guys because we race them each weekend and season after season. They’re some of our best friends now as much as they’re our competitors. Ultimately, we want to run hard and win, which means I have to set up the bikes to safely handle the conditions of the track so our guys can get after it. And at the end of the day, we all just want to beat each to the line and then go home to our families in one piece!”
Craig’s take on track safety was a little more surprising. He said, “I got myself into trouble as a kid and because of that I couldn’t legally ride a motorcycle on the roads of our state until just recently. So racing on a track was the only way that I could get that feeling, and to do that I had to be compliant with the rules of the track, go through the training, and become a licensed professional racer. I’m all about safety now, and in my opinion, every rider on the road should have to go through special training and receive a certification and insurance for any road bike that can go almost as fast as we go on the track.”
“Our guys,” as we sometimes like to refer to the High Rev team, travel around the Northeast and into Canada throughout the racing season and share their experiences on their social accounts. On July 8th there was an especially interesting and, frankly, long post from @HighRevRacing716 on Facebook about that weekend’s challenges and outcome. The TL; DR version includes both racers preparing for the weekend of races at Michigan’s Gingerman Raceway and discovering major engine challenges with Emilio’s bike on Saturday. So, they drove a couple hours that night to pick up a donor bike, drove it back a couple hours so that Scott could work on it all night long. He finally got the “new” engine into Emilio’s bike and started it up at 6am. Emilio took the bike out and practiced on it and then both racers rode in back-to-back races on Sunday in two classes and fought and finished fourth and fifth!
Another thing that’s pretty great about High Rev Racing is how their on-the-track innovations translate to “the shop” at A+ Performance Cycle. These guys offer high performance inverted front ends for baggers at the shop that have been developed directly from their racing experience. They have also invested in their engine building business and are the only independent shop within reasonable driving distance that has a dynamometer aka “Dyno Tuner,” offering those services in-house. It’s easy to see why they have so quickly developed their reputation as leaders in the growing and popular “performance bagger” category.
So the key here is to recognize that these are professional builders and racers on a closed track, and they’ve got many (many) hours of experience and training and certifications and special safety gear that covers them from head to toe. This allows us to enjoy their machines and talent and accomplishments. And, at the same time, recognize that, when it comes to safety, it’s a whole different “ballgame” on our roads where almost NOBODY is professional, sometimes not even the professionals!
So please ride safely and stay within the limits of your machine and riding ability/experience. Don’t attempt to do stunts on public roads and don’t ride while under the influence of alcohol or drugs. And if you or somebody you love goes down, please call the lawyers that have been winning cases for injured riders for 30 years and supporting the riding community at The Kantor Gullo Law Firm.
