TRUMBULL — Watching pro motorcycle racers duel elbow-to-elbow at 140 miles per hours, degenerative disease is probably something most spectators aren’t thinking about. Trumbull resident Chris Speights is hoping to change that.
Speights, 43, who by day is an engineer at Lockheed Martin’s Sikorsky Helicopter Division, will make his debut on the national pro racing scene Saturday in the MotoAmerica Twins Cup Class at Virginia International Raceway. Speights is also entered in races in Pittsburgh and at New Jersey Motorsports Park later this summer.
“For the past 13 years, off and on, I’ve been racing in amateur level club racing,” Speights said. “When the national pro series created this class, I applied for a license.”
Getting a pro racing license requires submitting previous results and Speights, who has been a championship level rider on the local amateur level locally and in his home state of California, got the green light to try his hand against professionals. He said the increase in competition level would be significant.
“To be honest, I’m pretty sure I won’t be standing on the podium, and I’ll really need to do my best to even qualify for the race, but just getting out on track and being seen is a win,” he said.
Speights’ one-man team SP8S Racing, will be competing in honor of Team Truman, named after his neighbor Amy Truman who was diagnosed with ALS in 2014 and succumbed to the disease in November 2018. Team Truman in the past five years has raised more than $100,000 for the ALS Therapy Development Institute (TDI), a non-profit biotech organization based in Cambridge, Mass.
“I put the ALS livery on the bike and the plan is to have people see it, these national events usually draw...
from News https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Trumbull-pro-motorcyclist-races-for-ALS-research-13804176.php
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