Sent on behalf of Richie Morris Racing:

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Oct. 11, 2016) - Richie Morris Racing (RMR) will grow to a full-time two-rider program for the 2017 American Flat Track (formerly known as “AMA Pro Flat Track”) season.

Shayna Texter, who closed out the 2016 season with strong performances, will return to the team for her second full season effort as she looks forward to gaining even more momentum in 2017.

Joining the popular racer under the RMR tent will be 2015 GNC1 Rookie of the Year Jarod Vanderkooi, who along with Texter has signed a multi-year option with the team.

The team will continue to enjoy the support of McElroy Packaging in 2017, and will confirm its full partner program in the coming weeks.

“I’m extremely excited for 2017 with our expanded team,” said RMR Team Principal Richie Morris. "Shayna (Texter) has been patient with our team as we are wrapping our heads around this genre of racing. We experienced huge strides behind the scenes this season and were happy our hard work finally showed when Shayna finished the season ending race with her best performance of the year.”

Vanderkooi is emerging as a name to watch in American Flat Track competition, and despite his relative youth, he brings a wide scope of experience to the effort.

“We have been watching Jarod (Vanderkooi) since moving over to flat track from road racing,” said Morris. “We watched him as a GNC2 rider and were impressed. He participated on our bike for the first time a couple weekends ago at Willow Springs and finished fifth in the main event on Saturday. This past weekend at Perris Auto Speedway, he finished on the podium, a first for our team since moving to flat track! We truly feel he is a future race winner and champion so we are very happy to have him on board with us.”

In addition to growing to a full time two-rider team, RMR has also expanded its on-site staff to prepare for the 2017 American Flat Track season. James Hart will serve as Crew Chief for both riders, as RMR will grow to have one race technician assigned to each rider. Shane Hill will work as Texter’s race technician, with a final decision on Vanderkooi’s race technician expected to be made shortly.

“James (Hart) helped RMR in our limited effort in 2015, and we've stayed in touch while he was attending to his own team this year,” added Morris. “We are delighted to have him move over in 2017 and join the RMR team full time. His knowledge of flat track will help our entire program move forward. We would also like to thank Cory Texter and Mikey Martin for helping us gather useful data this past season, along with Willie McCoy for helping out with rider coaching.”

“I’m happy to be returning to RMR for my second full season,” said Texter. “There has been a steep learning curve for both Richie (Morris) and myself. It has been exciting to be a part of this program and we are all eager to show the results of this effort. We are starting to gel as a team and with the addition of Jarod and James, the future looks bright!”

“It’s quite an honor to recently finish high school and have a team like RMR support me in following my passion of racing motorcycles,” said Vanderkooi. “It has been my dream since an early age. I’m really looking forward to next season, going testing here in the off-season, and getting to know everyone on the team. We want to be as prepared as we can be and I’m very excited to have everything in place for us to get to work!”

Continuing the development curve for the team's in-house built chassis, RMR will begin testing this month and will continue to build new bikes for the 2017 season. The team is working to finalize plans for a manufacturer alliance, and is looking forward to making those announcements soon.

About RMR

RMR is a professional motorcycle race team. Having competed at the highest level in different genres of motorcycle racing, RMR has won four national championships in AMA Pro Road Racing. The team has scored numerous wins and podium finishes with many different professional riders. We believe in building a solid platform to win races and championships. In doing so, our mission is to deliver value to our riders and partners.

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