Mon, 14 Dec 2009, 02:04 PM This Holiday Season, Richard Gadson's Thankful for his Sponsors

Courtesy of Tim Hailey

"Our team set out to have a successful year and embark on a new plateau in two programs-ADRL's Pro Extreme Motorcycle and AMA Dragbike's Pro Street," said popular rider Richard Gadson, the young nephew of superstar Rickey Gadson. "We aggressively chased down sponsors by putting together proposals and attending the PRI Show in Orlando and the Dealer Expo in Indianapolis. Sponsors really responded to us and we had a lot of success. Everything was a go and we were all very excited about the 2009 season.

"Jerry Cooper of Cooper Performance spent much of the winter and offseason building our state of the art Pro Mod for ADRL. It's truly a work of art. Team manager Glenn Allen and I got a truck and trailer and dressed them and the bike in the colors of our primary sponsors Memphis Car Audio and Fulmer Helmets. Team shirts were also made thanks to Vicci Wear, the bike was completed, and I was decked out in brand new leathers thanks to Shift Racing.

"But hard economic times and some bad luck snuck up on us and forced us to park the rig and focus on quickly saving our business and getting Jerry Cooper's health back on track. Our intent was not to miss more than a race or two, just enough time to turn things around and go racing. But it didn't pan out that way. Times got tougher and tougher. Money was scarce, Coop's health wasn't getting any better, and our hopes and dreams of a championship were deflated. The bright side is, the few appearances we made showed a positive reaction from racers and fans. Everyone loved the bike and program we put together.

"So while the ADRL program moved to the back burner, I turned my attention and sponsorship obligations to Pro Street. The Pro Street Hayabusa built by Cecil Towner of HTP Performance is very, very experimental. Pro Street has been dominated by turbocharged motorcycles for nearly a decade. Turbo bike builders turned the very difficult nitrous Shootout bikes into manageable machines and the class sped up by an elapsed time of nearly a second over that period.

"Anyone who knows me knows that I always embrace a challenge. So when Cecil decided to take some of the technology that made turbo bikes so fast and manageable and apply that to a nitrous bike, I was all over it. We bought a MoTeC engine management system and got chassis parts from Terry McIntosh of McIntosh Machine and Fabrication. We also had some help from Coby Adams of Adams Performance with a custom dry sump and Brock's Performance Products with an exhaust system and BST carbon fiber wheels. MTC Engineering chipped in as well with their new Gen2 clutch system and Wizard's of NOS from the UK supported us with a nitrous system. By the way, the Wizard's products are the wave of the future for nitrous!

"I won't say that going our own way hasn't been difficult, because it has. This program has been a real rodeo ride-running quick, smooth passes one moment and launching skyward the next. But the bike is far and away the quickest and fastest nitrous Pro Street bike ever and held together well the whole year. Then we found the consistency we've been looking for this last race in Valdosta, where we qualified in the middle of the field with a 7.45. Unfortunately, I had Victor Gotay in the first round of eliminations. He was coming back from his Norwalk crash and was a man of destiny in Valdosta and won his first Pro Street event.

"The main thing about this year is that we started off with big projects and a lot of promise. I don't feel like I delivered everything to my sponsors that I intended, and will be working with them to represent their products in 2010 as a way of saying 'Thank you' for their support this past year. I can't say enough about how these people and companies supported us in 2009 even though our appearances at the track weren't all they should have been.

"I look forward to announcing our plans for 2010. Cecil's more determined than ever with the Pro Street bike and Coop's getting thing's together at his shop and has his health back on track. Thanks again to everyone for their help and encouragement. Have a great holiday season and I can't wait to get back on the track in Valdosta!"

Richard Gadson would like to thank
Memphis Car Audio www.memphiscaraudio.com

Fulmer Helmets www.fulmerhelmets.com

Shift Racing www.shiftracing.com

Cooper Performance www.cooperperformance.com

MTC Engineering www.mtceng.com

Vicci Fashion Group www.vicci.com

Worldwide Bearings www.worldwidebearings.com

VP Race Fuels www.vpracingfuels.com

HTP Performance www.htpperformance.com