Team Hammer has signed Nick McFadden to contest the 2017 MotoAmerica AMA/FIM North American 600 Superstock Championship.
McFadden will compete aboard an M4 medAge Suzuki GSX-R600 fielded by Team Hammer in collaboration with Dr. Laura Ellis and her AXcess Racing youth development and medAge advanced athlete training programs. The medAge program includes the use of biometrics, nutritional and hydration analysis and neurophysiology to maximize physical and mental performance.
McFadden is one of the most recent examples of the remarkable stockpile of racing talent from Owensboro, Kentucky. The 19-year-old burst onto the professional racing scene in 2013, registering a podium finish in his very first AMA Pro Road Racing event with a third-place result in what was then called the SuperSport class, at Barber Motorsports Park. McFadden backed that up with fifth- and sixth-place results the following weekend at Mid-Ohio.
Since the introduction of the MotoAmerica Superstock 600 category in 2015, McFadden has logged double-digit top-10 finishes, including podium results in both 2015 and 2016.
Prior to turning pro, McFadden was one of the most accomplished amateur racers in the nation. He started racing at age four and collected multiple amateur titles as both a flat tracker and road racer in the decade that followed. In 2011, McFadden was named AMA Youth Roadracer of the Year.
McFadden also comes with an endorsement from neighbor Earl Hayden, who said, “I’m really happy that M4 medAge Suzuki has given Nick this great opportunity for 2017 in the MotoAmerica series. I have watched Nick progress since he first started racing as a young kid and I feel like this is the right time in his career to join a good team like this and show his true potential. Nick will be training with my three sons–Tommy, Nicky and Roger–at my place again this coming year and I will be encouraging Nick to work hard for the results I feel he is capable of.”
McFadden’s 2017 effort will not only be backed by Team Hammer’s 37 years of racing excellence and AXcess Racing’s Dr. Laura Ellis and her medAge program, but also by Rickdiculous Racing’s Ken Hill, who will provide specialized rider coaching.
“I’m really excited to join the team for the 2017 season. I can already tell I’m with a great group and the program is really strong. I’m really honored to be a part of it,” said McFadden. “To me, this deal seems like a new level and there are some tools I’ve never had before, like working with Dr. Ellis from medAge on nutrition and training and working with Ken Hill and Rickdiculous Racing for rider coaching. We’ve been working together since the MotoAmerica season ended and I could see a huge difference in my riding even after just the first three days with Ken Hill. It is inspiring to be a part of Team Hammer and have a great crew behind me. I’m really looking forward to the season and I’m training very hard to be ready on race day.”
“In keeping with the mission of AXcess Racing and our medAge science-based athletic optimization programs, I think Nick is a perfect choice for the team,” said Dr. Ellis. “We’ve been testing him not just on the track but also in the lab for the last couple of months and he has all the qualities we’re looking for. He is extremely disciplined, responds well to coaching on and off the track, and has natural talent. It’s going to be a pleasure working with him this season in MotoAmerica and watching our efforts at rider development pay off. Of course AXcess Racing’s work to promote young riders will continue, and for 2017 we are ramping up the mini-moto demonstrations we held at MotoAmerica events during this past season. It’s going to be a great year!”
“We’ve been looking at Nick for quite a while,” said Team Hammer’s Chris Ulrich. “He’s shown great potential in MotoAmerica so far, but we think his talent is greater than his results to this point. Nick has tremendous potential. We think the key is putting him in the right environment, and we feel we’ve put together a really advanced package with the training from medAge, rider coaching from Ken Hill and Rickdiculous Racing, and our bikes.
“Our goal is to get him ready to race, and then he can really focus on his craft. We’ve put together what we think is a really good development program based on science and proven results, and with our technical expertise with the bikes, we think Nick can achieve victories in the Superstock 600 class. The team is really excited about going racing with Nick in 2017.”
This coming year (2017) will mark Team Hammer’s 37th consecutive season of operating as a professional road racing team. Racebikes built and fielded by Team Hammer have won 61 AMA Pro National races, have finished on AMA Pro National podiums 153 times and have won five AMA Pro National Championships, as well as two FIM South American Championships. The team has also won 133 endurance races overall (including seven 24-hour races) and won 13 Overall WERA National Endurance Championships with Suzuki motorcycles, and holds the U.S. record for mileage covered in a 24-hour race. The team also competed in the televised 1990s Formula USA National Championship, famously running “Methanol Monster” GSX-R1100 Superbikes fueled by methanol, and won the F-USA Championship four times.
