The MotoAmerica Twins Cup class has had a major influx of entrants this season, and there is a large disparity in the age of the competitors: from 16 all the way to 50. In Saturday’s race one, those riders at the upper end of the age range showed their prowess, and the oldest of the group won the race. Fifty-year-old Michael Barnes, whose motorcycle road racing career has spanned three decades, won the race aboard his Quarterley Racing Ducati. He bested Curtis Murray, who finished second on his RBoM Racing Suzuki, and 42-year-old defending class champion Chris Parrish who was aboard his #1 Ghetto Customs Suzuki.
Barnes, whose plan to race in Twins Cup came together late, said, “Chris Boy from MotoCorse Performance contacted me. It was kind of just a thrown-together deal. ‘Are you interested in doing it?’ I’m like, ‘Oh, yeah. Let’s do it.’ So, we got a couple sessions out at a track day a week-and-a-half ago at Homestead. Got a little bit of seat time on it. Then we just came up here and got a wet session yesterday, so this morning was the first dry session. We had a lot to learn this morning. Didn’t change too much, but the bike’s just really solid.
“These guys built an incredible race bike. They have a Ducati shop down in Fort Lauderdale and they just put out a lot of good, good stuff. So, I’m just stoked that I was able to get these guys to build the bike. Bob Robbins has been the supporter behind Quarterley Racing. He’s my big supporter for this effort. I got to thank him tremendously for this opportunity. It looks like we’ll probably be doing VIR and don’t really have support after that. So, we’ll see what happens.”
