Milwaukee, Jan., 26—Fast, liquid-cooled and with big shoes to fill: The Harley-Davidson XG750R motorcycle will be the only bike raced by the Harley-Davidson Factory Flat Track Racing Team in 2017. The new flat-tracker will replace the Harley-Davidson XR750, the most successful flat-track racing motorcycle of all time.
The Harley-Davidson Factory Team will contest the 2017 American Flat Track (ATF) racing series and ESPN’s X Games Minneapolis Harley-Davidson Flat Track Racing event exclusively aboard the XG750R bikes. The racing season opens during Daytona Bike Week at the March 16 ATF Daytona TT on a new circuit featuring a jump to be constructed inside Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida.
“There is extraordinary energy building behind the new American Flat Track series and after decades of XR750 dominance, it’s time to bring a new level of performance and technology to the track with the Harley-Davidson XG750R,” said Harley-Davidson Vice President and Managing Director U.S. Mike Kennedy. “The new Daytona TT promises to be a thrilling event. If you are in Daytona for Bike Week, ride to the race and help the Factory Team kick off an exciting season.”
With a custom chassis purpose-built for flat track racing, the XG750R flat tracker is powered by a race-modified, liquid-cooled, fuel-injected 750cc Revolution X V-Twin engine originally engineered for the Harley-Davidson Street 750, a motorcycle designed for maximum urban maneuverability with rebellious Dark Custom attitude.
“Unlike our competitors, we are going flat track racing behind an American-made production engine,” said Kennedy. “The XG750R is a purebred racing motorcycle, but its modified engine is based on the same Revolution X V-Twin anyone can buy from a Harley-Davidson dealer in a Street 750 motorcycle, an engine designed by Harley-Davidson engineers and assembled at Harley-Davidson Vehicle and Powertrain Operations in Kansas City. There’s a direct link from the Street 750 to the XG750R flat tracker the Factory Team will be racing for a championship, and that link is our passion for performance.”
The XG750R raced through a development season in 2016 alongside the air-cooled Harley-Davidson Factory Team XR750 motorcycles. The XR750 has carried racers to countless victories and 37 AMA Grand National championships in 44 seasons of competition. That winning DNA is the foundation of the XG750R, an evolutionary step into the future of flat-track racing. Its race-tuned Revolution X engine and racing chassis were developed in collaboration with Vance & Hines Motorsports. The XG750R flat tracker motorcycle is not a production model.
The 2017 Harley-Davidson Factory Flat Track Team will be revealed during live ABC network coverage of ESPN’s X Games Aspen on Saturday, January 28 at 2:44 p.m. ET.
