Endurance road racing a Harley-Davidson Sportster 1200? It sounded like a good idea to Roy Nicholson and Tom Rose. The duo raced their Harley in the WERA Power-Mist/Performance Machine 4-Hour National Endurance race at Indianapolis Raceway Park in July of 1993. The team actually didn’t do too badly. They finished the race in 19th overall and sixth in the Mediumweight Superbike class. I believe this is Rose riding the bike through IRP’s hairpin, leading Brian Lantz on the D&B Racing Honda CBR600F2.
American Harley-Davidson, racing their Sportster 1200, leads D&B Racing in the WERA Power-Mist/Performance Machine 4-Hour National Endurance race at Indianapolis Raceway Park in July of 1993. (Larry Lawrence photo)
Rider Files 
One of my favorite teams in the series. It needs to be pointed out that they also competed in WERA’s 24-Hour race at Nelson Ledges. A pool was held between many there to pick the hour in which the bike would become terminally static. It made it to the finish, albiet with a few extended pit stops along the way. But you could say that about nearly every bike taking the checkered flag, including all of the 1993 podium bikes, all of which hit the pavement at sometime during the race. After the race we all agreed to do the right thing and gave the prize money to Nicholson’s team.
LikeLike
I never heard that story Peter. Roy Nicholson, Nicholson’s Ann Arbor, Michigan, was a long time sponser of Royale Racing a great competitor and very determined. Tom Rose sadly passed away a few years ago and was a big help to me. He built most of the custom stuff on the bike. One of the best fab guys I had ever seen. He made Team Suzukis big gas tanks for the endurance bikes after seeing mine. The other team Roy sponsered was Nicholsons Ann Arbor was Dave Bloom’s effort. Another fierce competitor and a tireless engineer who helped me immensly. Actually I recall Josh Hayes and Shawn Higbee rode in the 24 HR race for Bloom in the early 90’s when Josh and Shawn were cutting their teeth. Great times and a great series.
LikeLike
I should clarify, we didn’t hand over team contingency monies, the H-D team was given the pool money; they finished, they earned it. Was Tom Rose for a while JU’s driver? If so he built us a tank for our ’95 season. A real nice job. He never returned phone calls but he delivered product. We had also modified over-sized fiberglass tanks for that year. The riders were terrified of them. That was likely my worst idea ever, and so we relented and never raced with them.
LikeLike