Membership
Shop by Vehicle
Track Order
Contact Us
When you realize that Rocco Landers already has 49 MotoAmerica race wins and has competed in every major class except the premier Superbikes, it's hard to remember that he's still just 19 years old. And now he's taking on a racing assignment that would challenge the most experienced racer.
The RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines rider is competing in two classes this year on motorcycles that have nothing in common except twin-cylinder engines and the RevZilla logo on the fairing. Landers has to switch — sometimes with nothing more than a few minutes between practice sessions to gulp some water — between an all-new Suzuki GSX-8R in Twins Cup that is still being developed for racing and a Harley-Davidson King of the Baggers Road Glide that weighs nearly twice as much and requires a vastly different riding style. And this is not like going for a Sunday ride and swapping seats between your GSX-8R and your riding buddy's Road Glide. For one thing, your buddy's Road Glide doesn't have a 36-inch seat height and won't go 185 miles per hour. But mainly, the difference is that Landers isn't just expected to instantly switch between the two. He's expected to ride both to their absolute limits.
It's a double dose of learning for Landers, getting the new Suzuki set up for maximum performance in a class where the other bikes have a two-year (or more) head start and learning to master the beast that is the King of the Baggers bike. After six Bellissimoto.com Twins Cup races, Landers has one win and sits second in the points standings, 15 behind Rodio Racing Powered by Robem Engineering's Gus Rodio. He's currently eighth in points in the Mission King of the Baggers series, where the learning curve is steepest.
That learning curve is one of the topics we asked Landers about.
Common Tread: Considering the double duty you're doing this year, I think the most obvious question anyone is likely to ask is what it's like jumping from a race-prepped Suzuki GSX-8R to a big Harley-Davidson bagger that's different in every way.
Rocco Landers: I've kind of inadvertently prepared for that sort of thing. I'll bring my 150, my 65 and my 450 to the kart track. I don't even plan it out. I'll just bounce between them. That probably helps. In 2019 in the off season I raced a 400 and a BMW 1000 back to back, so I've kind of always done this sort of thing.
But the bagger's a different story. It's similar to a supermoto bike, actually, with the way it brakes, the way it turns in. But it's its own thing. I can't really compare it to much. It rides like nothing I've ever ridden in my life.
It still takes me at least half a lap to get acclimated to the braking markers again and maybe another lap or two to get up to pace, with the throttle delivery and everything. It takes longer than I'd like it to.
CT: When you switch between the two, you have to totally change your riding style. Maybe braking is a good example. How is it different?
RL: Yeah, braking is totally different. Due to the way the weight is spread out (on the bagger), it makes it difficult to trail the front end in. So you have to kind of compensate for that by using more rear brake and using a lot of front brake while you're still straight up and down to get the bike stopped. But there's an extreme amount of rear brake. Way more than anything I've ever ridden and I ride supermoto all the time. To give you an idea, supermoto for me is probably 70% front and 30% rear. This is more than that. Closer to 55% front. It's very rear heavy.
CT: Riding for the RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines team has to be a big change from your early days in Junior Cup, when it was your dad driving the truck, your mom organizing things in the paddock, and one mechanic. How did it come about?
RL: My dad was talking to Terry Vance at the end of the year. I'd met Terry maybe once or twice. I was definitely interested and we began talking more and more and more. I went to visit them in Indianapolis and check out their race shop and everything. Originally, it was supposed to be just Twins, but then I got the offer to replace (James) Rispoli on the bagger. For me, it was better for more track time. This could snowball. See where it goes.
The vibe I have with this team is a complete lack of pressure in the most positive way possible. Even when someone doesn't put pressure on you, the pressure is there. There are certain environments that cause you to put more pressure on yourself. This one doesn't do that and that's why I like it. They encourage me to set goals, but they never hammer on me. This is just a very calm environment. It's very easy for me to focus on what I need to focus on. I'm not wearing many different hats. I get along with everyone super well. I would almost say it's a unit like the army, where everybody knows what they're going to do and when they do it, it's done perfectly. When someone does their job, that means someone else doesn't have to assist with that job and they can focus on their thing.
It's teaching me as well. I'm trying to become more... I'm trying to grow up. Terry's been doing a great job of giving me tools to use to help with that sort of thing. Oftentimes I was the weak link in my previous teams. Here, the environment kind of allows me to do my own thing and figure out where I'm at.
CT: In Twins Cup, you're having to develop a new bike, a Suzuki GSX-8R that was only homologated at the last minute, and you're racing against Aprilia RS 660s and Yamaha YZF-R7s that have a few years of development. Where do you stand and what is the GSX-8R capable of?
RL: I was apprehensive. We didn't even have a bike until just before Daytona. So we showed up with basically a street bike and tried our best to find a decent setup. We made progress. We started off at least four seconds off. We're still making progress.
We're just going to have to chip away at it. Because we've made the massive changes that were needed in the beginning to get the thing to a race geometry. The thing handles amazing. Its strong suit is corner entry, so the braking, it's like a dream. It's amazing. And I really, really like riding it in general. It's a super-fun bike to ride. The stability is what stands out. The stability and the ability to brake. It's very balanced.
When I first got on it, I knew it had potential. But I didn't realize we'd be winning so soon (in his third race on the Suzuki). And a win heads up. A good one.
CT: I'm sure every race is a learning experience, but the last Twins Cup race at Barber Motorsports Park was unusual. You fell back to fourth place, a few seconds behind teammates Alessandro DiMario and Gus Rodio, and ran in the 1:30 range for the first 11 laps, then dropped into the 1:29 range for the last three and set the fastest lap of the race on the 13th of 14 laps. What was happening there and what did you learn that will help you going forward?
RL: A little change we made to the electronics before the race. That's what was happening in the beginning. Every time I would put the thing in second gear it would accelerate. Just a little mistake on my part, settings-wise. That was my mistake. Once I found my rhythm, I was able to change my riding style through two or three of the corners where I was going all the way down into second and was just able to throw together a few decent laps. I did not think I was going to catch them, but dang, if I'd had one more lap I would have got Alessandro, as well. It's second. Clawed a couple points back but it's not where we want to be. Road America is coming up and we should be pretty good.
Postscript: Just minutes after Rocco's comment that with one more lap he would have passed DiMario, the 15-year-old Aprilia rider who had just won his first MotoAmerica race responded, "I was kind of managing the gap a little bit. I probably could have gone a little faster, but there was really no need to. Rocco was pretty close at the end, but you only have 14 laps."
Some racing gauntlets are being thrown.
Image Gallery
