The Superhooligan series, brain child of the Roland Sands Designs team, is going from strength-to-strength. There are still grumbles about pros turning up to race, but it adds to the whole intrigue and headline-grabbing nature of the championship. If you're not upsetting someone you're not changing anything. And some of those who are complaining the most are also getting sponsorship packages that most pro AFT racers would kill for.
Joe Kopp raced the DirtQuake USA round of the series on a Triumph, but was beaten by local racer Andy DiBrino on the See See XG750 (featured in Sideburn 24). Tempers flared momentarily when Kopp thought one of the other racers swerved intentionally in front of him, which is the other side of the pro debate: if a pro races with amateurs, on modified street bikes, they can't expect the same level of riding as they would in the AFT. They must take the rough with the smooth.
Smoking Joe travelled out to South Dakota with his Triumph Twin and, er... triumphed. DiBrino is still in the championship lead and in pole to win a $50,000 Indian FTR750 race bike (the Sideburn 27 cover bike, and the machine dominating the 2017 AFT series)
The series then went to the Buffalo Chip in Sturgis, acting as the warm-up to Ozzy Osborne. The Superhooligans are doing something few other race series ever have, reinventing, disrupting, exciting. The next round is at Wheels and Waves, California this weekend.
