Victory’s Pikes Peak project suffered a huge setback on Saturday June 13th when Don Canet lost the front end during practice and crashed. Fortunatelyx, the rider was not injured and Victory Racing is still intending to compete in Pike’s Peak on Sunday 28th June. Roland Sands Design is working round the clock to get Project 156 ready on time. Click through and watch the video of the crash.
Victory was very honest about the incident
The crash is a terrible disaster for Victory since there was only one prototype made. Cycle World’s road test editor Don Canet was testing the prototype when he lost the front end and crashed on the famous Colorado mountainside.
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“We have been making significant progress on the engine tune of the motorcycle each time it went out and were able to start focusing on the handling aspects of the bike,” explained Canet, who knows the course well after taking third place in his debut at the Race to the Clouds last year. “As I was going up the mountain I lost the front end under braking, asphalt temperature was extremely low and, counter intuitively, I think the tyre was getting colder as the run went on.”
The Falkner-Livingston racing team kindly helped Victory to transport Project 156 back to the Roland Sands Designs (RSD) headquarters in Southern California for evaluation. “Not going to lie…” said RSD project leader Cameron Brewer, “Project 156 is really beat up. But we are racers at heart and I can promise Victory Motorcycles, Cycle World, RSD and Pikes Peak fans that we will rebuild the bike. She took one hell of a hit, but we are committed to the program.”
Victory Motorcycles General Manager Rod Krois said the first question on hearing about the crash was whether Don was OK. “When we heard that he was, that was our biggest relief. Racing is serious business and it takes commitment, planning, guts and skill to get through these situations,” he said.
The Victory prototype after the crash
“Victory Motorcycles took this endeavour on to challenge ourselves and make history by putting a competitive American bike back on Pikes Peak.”
