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Chuck Graves |
GRAVES MOTORSPORTS: A WINNING HISTORY OF BUILDING
FACTORY PARTS FOR PRIVATEERS
Graves Motorsports was born in 1990 out of the dreams, desire, and
dedication of brothers Chuck, Mike, and Tom Graves. Both a manufacturer
of performance accessories and a professional road racing team, the Van
Nuys, California company’s ceaseless mission is: craftsmanship leads to
championships. Serving that goal, Graves Motorsports provides privateer
racers with Factory-quality, race-proven performance parts.
Central to the success of Graves Motorsports is the passion of
proprietor Chuck Graves, whose hands steer the company and its racing
team. Chuck started his motorcycling career by taking courses in
motorcycle repair in high school. By the early ’80s, he found himself
assisting a professional racer at the local Willow Springs races. At the
track, Chuck’s love of metalworking and fabrication gave way to a
craving to compete and soon Chuck was building himself a bike to race.
FAST IS AS FAST DOES
Chuck built a highly modified fire-breathing 1100cc motor and slipped it
into a 750cc race bike, to compete in the Willow Springs unlimited
Formula USA class, quickly putting his bike on the podium. When the
class went national in 1989, Chuck contested the series on his
self-built bike, winning races and beating factory-supported machinery.
As Chuck puts it, “I had an idea that maybe I could ride better than I
could work on bikes. And for a period in my life I think I was right.”
Chuck soon signed on with the Valvoline-sponsored team and won the
Formula USA national championship. During his years of racing, Chuck has
won hundreds of races and dozens of championships, and has owned the
Willow Springs track record along with many other track records around
the country.
THE ONE THING IN COMMON
The love of racing provided Chuck Graves with an outlet for his
fabricating talents. Racing drove him to create products to help him win
and winning created interest from other racers in the fairing brackets,
clip-ons and case covers he was manufacturing. So in 1990 Graves
Motorsports officially set up shop, and in 1993 moved to their present
facilities in Van Nuys. When the all-conquering Yamaha YZF-R1 was
released in 1998, the GMS crew struck a small deal with Yamaha and
campaigned the bike in the AMA Formula Extreme series. Developing the R1
for the unlimited rules of that series gave Graves Motorsports the
opportunity to create a huge number of race parts for the R1, becoming
the granddaddy of R1 performance accessories. The bike they developed
became such a potent track weapon that it qualified on pole and won
every race it entered during the 2002 season. Midway through that season
it was banned by the AMA. This is the only time in AMA history that a
motorcycle was banned mid year while in competition. Ever since then, as
Chuck has noted, “For R1 mods, we’re the guys.”
WINNING ISN'T JUST A GOAL, IT'S OUR LIFESTYLE
Over the last decade, the relationship between Yamaha and Graves
Motorsports has continually progressed, proving itself as a winning
team. In 2004 the team finished first and second in the AMA Superstock
championship with rider Aaron Gobert grabbing the crown from teammate
Jamie Hacking, and the team’s other riders – Damon Buckmaster and Jason
DiSalvo – contributed to making the R1 the winningest bike in the class.
Rider Jamie Hacking added another AMA Superstock championship to the
list in 2006, with teammate Jason Disalvo taking third in the
championship, showing that Graves Motorsports and the Yamaha YZF-R1 are
still the winning combination. In 2005, Graves Motorsports expanded its
racing program to include the AMA Supermoto Championship Series, earning
the Supermoto Lites championship in the team’s first attempt. Chuck
said, “We’ve been on the podium so many times in the last few years,
it’s hard for me to remember when we weren’t on the podium.”
TEAM TACTICS: DIVIDE AND CONQUER!
At racing events it’s impossible to determine where Team Yamaha ends and
Graves Motorsports begins. And that’s by design. “The first minute I was
at Yamaha I felt at home. Our combined teams are like a Swiss watch,
running smooth. We have the best riders, the best team, the best
equipment, and those are just the facts,” commented Chuck Graves on the
relationship between Yamaha and Graves Motorsports. Yamaha’s Racing
Manager Keith McCarty said, “Our relationship with Graves Motorsports
has been tremendously successful. Our goals and teams integrate
seamlessly making them an important part of our extended family. And
it’s no small thing that they know how to win.”
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
Today, Graves Motorsports has a growing list of trick performance items
available for the Yamaha YZF-R1, YZF-R6, YZ450F, YZ250F, as well as
performance parts for other brands. About these parts Chuck said, “We
make rear sets, bars, exhaust systems, velocity stacks, suspension
components, marker lights, fender eliminator kits, steering damper
mounts, tire warmers, cams, valve springs, and on and on. The most
significant detail about our parts is, the ones we use for winning on
the track are the same ones available to every rider. We are dedicated
to our mission of making Factory-quality parts for every rider.”
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