James Dellinger (394) got by Antoine Richards (45) late in the Sunday Mid-Ohio SuperSport race. (Larry Lawrence photo)

A couple of years ago I got a call from a friend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and he asked me to ask if I knew of any Indiana road racers who might good enough to race as a wildcard in the 250cc class at the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix. For being the go-to motorcycle guy I felt like a complete idiot when they asked me that question. I stumbled, muttered a few names of older racers I knew, but as far as a young gun Hoosier road racer I drew a blank.

At one time I knew about every top club racer in the country. From the early 1980s to mid-1990s I traveled all across the country from club race to club race, covering the races for Cycle News and American Roadracing and selling photos to the racers. But after I went to work for the AMA in 1995 my job was working almost exclusively in pro racing.

I quickly made some calls to friends who were racing and asked them who the young up-and-coming rider was in the area. That’s when they told me about James Dellinger.

While Dellinger didn’t quite fit the bill at that time for a wildcard ride – he was really just starting in road racing – his name was passed on to the Speedway for future consideration with the caveat that I’d never actually watched the kid race.

James and his fiancée Jacqueline. (Larry Lawrence photo)

I finally got the chance to watch Dellinger a few weeks ago at Mid-Ohio’s Honda Super Cycle Weekend. The 25-year-old rider from Danville was racing his Vesrah-backed Suzuki GSX-R600 in the SuperSport class.

Dellinger is quick with a smile, friendly and seemed to be enjoying his first pro event at Mid-Ohio. We sat and talked under his small canopy set up behind the Vesrah transporter. James’ fiancée Jacqueline (a former AMA Grand National trophy girl) sat on his bike nearby.

I was impressed watching Dellinger race. He was smooth, consistent in his lines and made clean passes. Unfortunately Mid-Ohio wasn’t a great weekend for the young Hoosier. He was just coming off a crash in a WERA event at Grattan (Mich.) the weekend before and banged up his ankle, and while he didn’t want to use the injury as an excuse, friends say he wasn’t showing his best that weekend. In spite of the injury he scored a 16th and a 17th in the two Mid-Ohio SuperSport races.

Dellinger is showing amazing promise, especially considering that, unlike most of his competitors, James never even rode a motorcycle until he was 20. After he got his first streetbike – a Triumph 675 – a couple of buddies wanted him to try a track day.

“I went to my first track day at the end of 2006 and I decided that next year I was going to go racing,” Dellinger recalls. “I ran my first WERA regional race at VIR and I’ve gone on from there. I’m happy with how I’m progressing. I haven’t been on the track as much as I wanted to be this summer, but if I get some more track time by the end of the year I should be on the pace where I want to be.”

Dellinger on the grid during the Honda Super Cycle Weekend at Mid-Ohio. (Larry Lawrence photo)

Dellinger won the WERA 750 Superbike National Championship last year, won a class championship with Team Velocity Racing in the WERA National Endurance Series and was runner up nationally in WERA 600 Superbike.

Dellinger credits Vesrah’s Mark Junge, himself a former pro road racer, with helping him prepare and learn the ropes of racing in the AMA. The goal is to move up to Daytona SportBike in 2011.

Even though he’s only been road racing for a few years, Dellinger is not without racing knowledge. He came out of the ranks of go-kart racing, something he’d done since he was nine. Former AMA Supersport and 883 champ Scott Zampach also came out of karting at a later age and made a successful transition to motorcycle road racing.

Dellinger’s day job is working as an auto mechanic for a BMW dealership.

“It makes it a little tough to race,” Dellinger said of his nine to five. “But I work hard for them and they appreciate the work I do. The boss is real friendly and let’s me get away to do what I need to do.”

This is Dellinger’s first season of AMA Pro Racing. In fact Mid-Ohio was only his second pro weekend. Earlier in the summer he’d scored a ninth at the Saturday Road Atlanta Supersport race, before a motor blew in Sunday’s race.

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway would love nothing better than to have a home-grown Hoosier racing as a wildcard someday in the MotoGP or a GP support class. Dellinger is well positioned to be just the rider they’re looking for. He’s hoping to progress quickly enough to get that opportunity someday in the future.

“I’d love to do that,’ Dellinger said of racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. “I know Mel (Harder) at the track and I’ve been poking at him a couple of times. Hopefully they’ll put my name in the hat down the road.”