Michael Satterfield
Ducati North America partners with The Dillard Family Racing / Lloyd Brothers Motorsports team to back former Grand Prix motorcycle racer Stevie Bonsey for ten rounds of the American Flat Track (AFT) championship. The first race of their season will start with the Atlanta Short Track on Saturday, April 7 in Woodstock, GA at the Dixie Raceway.
Stevie Bonsey, one of the fiercest riders on the AFT circuit mounts his official comeback after a serious crash left the Salinas, CA native with a broken neck in 2016. Bonsey made an appearance at last year’s finale promptly battling up front and finishing just 0.041 seconds off the podium.
The bike is built around Ducati’s twin-cylinder four-valve liquid-cooled Testastretta 11° Monster 821 engine specifically set up for American Flat Track racing by the Lloyd Brothers Motorsports team and the support from Ducati and sponsorship from long-standing Ducati collector Jim Dillard.
Lloyd Brothers Motorsports has a history running Ducati-powered machines. History was made together in 2010 by snapping Harley-Davidson’s nearly two-decade winning streak with a victory at the Arizona Mile as a privateer effort. The expanded 2018 program with Bonsey at the controls shows a seriousness of winning intentions by all involved.
“I feel privileged to get a chance to ride of Lloyd Brothers Motorsports Ducati for the 2018 season, it’s going to be a challenging season with a class full of so much talent, but I truly believe we have a bike and a team more than capable of going out front.” Says Bonsey
Team co-owner David Lloyd said “We are very happy to have Ducati involved with both our team and the AFT series. Since 2010, we have been racing air-cooled Ducati two-valved engines and have managed a Main event win and podiums; we have now put together two proof–of–concept liquid cooled four-valve engine race bikes that have shown very well the few times on track. With our latest revisions, we are excited and thankful to have sponsorship to be able to race our Ducati Monster 821-powered machine this season with one of the most talented racers, Stevie Bonsey”
“We knew that this combination of Team, Rider and Bike would give the Ducati brand an opportunity to contend with the top in the field in the fastest growing motorcycle sport in the US. We’ve given our Ducati fans a team to cheer on and we’re excited to see progress in action as the season develops”, said Ducati North America CEO, Jason Chinnock.
