Hero´s American Racing Venture – A Report

It was news when Hero MotoCorp tied up with Erik Buell Racing (EBR), an American bike builder earlier in Feb 2012, for  partnership in development of new products and motorsport initiatives.

It was strategically the other way to Hero´s new rival company Mahindra Racing who ventured into the MotoGP 125 World Championships in tie up with Italian company Engines Engineering earlier in 2010 and now Moto3, Hero MotoCorp flew to the America.

Though the American market is huge and a world of its own, the American motor cycling industry is not as advanced as their European or Japanese counterparts except for their heavy choppers.

Erick Buell, a former racer, runs his own racing team and now develops his own superbikes while also being successful at it. The EBR's 1190RS features an Austrian liquid cooled 4stroke engine and swiss suspension parts, while the chassis is developed inhouse. EBR has now started to manufacture them with a limited 100 bikes for the road version.

Hero became title sponsors of EBR´s Racing activities under the banner Team Hero and Team Amsoil Hero for two different riders Danny Eslick and the seasoned Geoff May respectively.

Achievements
Erick Buell Racing takes part in the coveted AMA Superbike championship with its own bike EBR 1190 RS and Hero Motocorp sponsored them and achieved 3podiums in the season and the last being in the final race of the championship battling with the big factories like Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki, KTM and BMW. Geoff May (Team Amsoil Hero) finished 5th in the championship and Danny Eslick (Team Hero) finished 8th.

Outcome
As an outcome of the partnership, Hero is developing a 250cc sports bike primarily for the Indian Market with technical collaboration from EBR and thats a great news for India and Hero, which broke away from a 26yr old partner,Honda, to grow on its own in 2010.

Hero & Sports Sponsorships
Hero is nothing new to sport sponsorship, the brand sponsored cricket events and personalities like Virender Sehwag and much recently Hero co sponsored India´s F1 star Narain Karthikeyan to participate in the first ever F1 Indian GP in 2011 in an one–off deal with Hispania Racing Team. Albeit, this is the first time they ventured into Motor Cycle Racing although not with their own bike but with their partner company and which is a good initiative.

The Big Question
Now given all credits and achievements of the new face of the largest two wheeler manufacturer in the India, Hero MotoCorp (previously known as Hero Motors), the big question is when will Hero venture into Indian Motorcycle Racing scene or support Indian racers? Are they eyeing the Indian racing scene?