Rider Files

The first issue of Roadracing World in October of 1990.

Editor John Ulrich is just about always running wide open, so I doubt if he even realized this, but this month is the 20^th anniversary of the launch of Roadracing World. The paper quickly grew to become the paper of record for motorcycle road racing in America.

I’ve had a number of bylines in RRW over the years and at one time I was proud to be the only writer/photographer who was contributing to Roadracing World, American Roadracing and Cycle News all at the same time.

Ulrich began at Cycle magazine before moving to Cycle World and then becoming editor at Cycle News. He then took American Roadracing, a publication at the time that was WERA’s newletter, and turned that into a national publication. He lost control of American Roadracing when that publication was sold.

He was still editor for a while, but a major blowup took place between Ulrich, the publisher and advertising department. Ulrich was forced out at AR. He won a settlement in a lawsuit that followed and started Roadracing World in October of 1990.

You can check out the online version of RRW at www.roadracingworld.com.

Happy birthday RRW.

Kevin Erion and his Two Brothers Honda Hawk not only shook up the establishment in the BOTT Modified class, his success started an explosion of Honda Hawks being campaigned by club racers across the country. The business side of Two Brothers Racing was launched servicing those Hawk racers. (Larry Lawrence photo)

The AMA’s Battle of the Twins Modified Class was a relatively quiet class featuring lightly modified Moto Guzzi, Harley-Davidson, Ducati, BMW and a few other oddball or out-dated bikes. While the main Pro Twins GP class had some star power with Jimmy Adamo, Gene Church, Dale Quarterley and Randy Renfrow, realistically the Modified class was a laid-back place where club racers could play on same track as the big boys during AMA Pro weekends.

That is before Kevin Erion came along. He shook things up. Not only did Two Brothers Racing come in with immediate success – Kevin won his very first pro event at Daytona in 1988 – they also looked the part with their team van and trailer painted up in matching colors. The crew was color coordinated as well wearing team gear, easily becoming the best looking Pro Twins Modified team on the grid.

If that didn’t ruffle enough feathers, Kevin went on to tally a class leading three national wins in his rookie year en route to the championship. How dare this young whippersnapper come into this little class and not only look good, but take away all the accolades as well.

Kevin seriously considered not racing in ’89. He’d done what he wanted to do, win a pro title, but Craig was once again conspiring to keep his little brother in the game. Craig came up the idea of taking a mild-mannered Honda Hawk (a beginner’s bike with an under-powered 650cc v-twin engine) and making it into a race bike. It was just the kind of challenge little brother Kevin could sink his teeth into.

That little Hawk GT, along with a fun advertising campaign featuring a cartoon character Hawkman taking aim at all the Ducks that ran in racing publications, helped launch the successful Two Brother Racing company. Inspired by Kevin’s success and the relatively cheap entrée into road racing the Hawk provided, the bike exploded on the club racing scene and to this day has a cult following. Two Brothers began selling parts to service those club racers and it took off from there. Eventually Kevin branched out on his own to start Erion Racing.