User:Cbed0121/sandbox

Pro Circuit Race Team
Team Pro Circuit is a professional Motorcross and Supercross team currently competing in the United States. The team is based in Corona, California. Team Pro Circuit was formed in 1991 by Mitch Payton. Upon opening a performance motorcycle component business, mainly servicing Husqvarna motorcycles, Payton was approached to start his own professional racing effort utilising his components.

Team Pro Circuit has become one of the most successful Motorcross and Supercross teams in the history of American motorcycle racing, having numerous notable riders compete under its banner such as Ricky Charmichael, Jeremy McGrath and Ryan Villopoto.

Team Pro Circuit have over won over 30 professional championships, other accolades include: 150 AMA Supercross wins, over 100 AMA Motocross wins and 6 MXON victories.

Pro Circuit has won more championships AMA championships than any of their competitors.

History
Team Owner Mitch Payton started riding motorcycles after his grandparents bought him a Honda C90 Step Through when he was young. His passion developed over the years to the point where he was racing motorcycles competitively in the deserts of California. At age 17, Payton was competing in California City, California. Payton fell violently down a steep hill, damaging the nerve passages on his spine, resulting in him losing the use of his legs.

Following the incident, Payton wanted to stay around the motorcycle racing community and did so by purchasing the motorcycle store that supported him during his racing days " Anaheim Husqvarna " in 1978. Along with selling Motorcycles themselves, Payton designed and produced components such as exhaust pipes and suspension components to improve the performance of the motorcycles. Payton thought it unlikely that other motorcycle shops would stock and sell his performance parts if they were under the business name of a competing motorcycle shop, so he came up with a business name to sell his parts under "Pro Circuit". A Friend of Payton campaigned for him to build parts for other brands of motorcycles, something at the time Payton thought was redundant as those motorcycles were already good. The first component he produced for a different make of motorcycle was an exhaust for a 125cc Honda motorcycle. The exhaust sales far surpassed Paytons expectations. Payton took this success as a sign he should expand his product line even further to making parts for all makes and models.

Paytons success caught the attention of big name riders and industry people alike, including Motorcross legend Rodger De Coster who was running the Factory Honda professional racing effort at the time. De Coster met with Payton to try his performance parts, specifically his exhaust pipe and modified engine, De Coster was impressed and contracted Payton to supply his team with engines.

At the end of 1990 De Coster approached Payton and asked him if he would be interested in taking over the Factory Honda racing team in a management position. Payton accepted forming what formally became known as a "satellite" style team.

Team Peak / Pro Circuit / Honda : 1991-1992
In 1991 Payton ventured into the relm of professional racing with Team Peak / Pro Circuit/ Honda. In this year Team Pro Circuit won the Supercross lites class in the west division ( rider: Jeremy McGrath) and east division ( rider: Brian Swink). Both Jeremy Beuhl and Steve Lamson finished in podium positions in their respective Supercross lites championships. This represented a monumental achievement for the team. From this point the team established its place as a front runner in the Supercross lites championship.

In 1992 Jeremy McGrath again won the Supercross Lites West championship aboard a Honda, with Buddy Antunez following behind in second place. Team Pro Circuit didn't have the same success in the East division.

At the end of the 1992, Honda decided to dissolve their support for the team.

Team Splitfire / Pro Circuit / Kawasaki: 1993- 2000
The season of 1993 was Team Pro Circuits first year with sponsorship from Kawasaki motorcycles. This partnership formed late in the 1992 offseason as the team expected continued support from Honda. Honda's withdrawal lead to financial struggles. Payton was forced to search for financial sponsorship as Kawasaki was only able to supply bikes and parts as they had already assigned their sponsorship cash pool to other teams.

Hot Wheels, the popular toy brand came to the teams rescue after a dispute over the name of a video game the toy maker was producing. The game used the trade marked title "Pro circuit". Mitch Payton demanded that Hot Wheels pay him loyalties or sponsor his racing team. They chose the latter. The team achieved Supercross championships in the 1993, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000.

Ricky Carmichael signed with the team in 1997. He won the team an outdoor championship in his rookie season. This was a monumental achievement as it seemed the team had finally been able to translate their success in Supercross ( indoor ) to the Motocross (outdoor) championship. Further more, this period represented the formative years of Ricky Carmichael, who would go on to be one of the best riders of all time.

Team Pro Circuit/ Kawasaki: 2001-2003
In 2001 the team again experienced a significant change in sponsorship. Hot Wheels withdrew their support for the team and Splitfire spark-plugs where far less prominent on the teams motorcycles. Kawasaki stayed on as the motorcycle sponsor.

During this period team experienced a dry spell in the Supercross series. From 2000 to 2003 no championships were won. The drought was finally broken in 2004 by Ivan Tedesco.

During the same period Mike Brown won the 2001 Motocross championship

Team Monster Energy / Pro Circuit / Kawasaki: 2004-2019
This period represents the one of massive change for the Supercross and Motocross world. Motorcycle manufacturers, including Kawasaki had invested heavily in 4 stroke technology in the preceding years, primarily focusing on higher displacement motorcycles. In 2004 the first production Kawasaki KX250F was released and as such, Team Pro Circuit changed their development focus from 2 stroke 125cc motorcycles, to 250cc four stroke motorcycles. The new four stroke motocycles were heavier by comparison to the highly optimised 2 stroke motocycles that had evolved over the years, however also represented significant advantages over the 2 stroke bikes. Payton tried to avoid racing 4 strokes, however Payton did not have his way. As such, the R&D demands on the team leading up to the 2004 season were sizeable. The team was tasks with optimising much more complicated motorcycles. Payton hired experts to advise him on how to develop his new race machines. The team engaged in rigorous testing to sort the suspension on the new motorcycles and arrived on the start line in 2004 ready to race.

Monster Energy came on as a title sponsor and the team rebranded.

They experienced success immediately with Ivan Tedesco in the Supercross season of 2004, taking the championship. This marked the start of 9 consecutive championship winning years for Team Pro Circuit.

In the following years, Pro Circuit dominated the 250cc Supercross and Motocross competitions, winning both championships that the team contested in 2005 and 2007.

2006 saw the arrival of Ryan Villopoto who would go on to become one os the most successful riders in recent history. Villopoto dominated the competition, winning at least one championship in each of the three years he competed with Team Pro Circuit before moving on after the 2008 outdoor season.

2013 resembled exciting times for Team Pro Circuit, 11 time AMA Amature National Motocross Champion Adam Cianciarulo joined the team. This came about though Mitch Paytons relationship with "Team Green" Kawasaki's amateur racing effort, that Cinaciarulo was a part of. Having been the most winning rider in amateur Motocross history, and also winning his first ever Supercross race, Cianciarulo was forecast to be the sports next big superstar. However in 2013 Team Pro Circuit failed to earn any championship titles. A championship-less streak lasting 3 years followed. Rider injuries plagued the team. Contracted riders where unable to compete and results were not as good as they had been passed.

Justin Hill won the teams first championship in 4 years in 2017, taking the Supercross Lites West title.

Results
Results for Team Pro Circuit in each year of competition.

Brand Associations and Sponsorship
Current and past brand sponsorships and associations.

Notable Riders
Over the years Team Pro Circuit has housed many successful riders. Some notable riders are listed below.


 * Jeremy McGrath


 * Ricky Carmichael


 * Ivan Tedesco


 * Grant Langston


 * Ben Townley


 * Ryan Villopoto


 * Adam Cianciarulo


 * Mike Brown


 * Ryan Huges
 * Dean Wilson


 * Blake Baggett

Contested Series
Team Pro Circuit currently competes in the following professional series;


 * AMA Supercross Championship : The premiere indoor motorcycle racing championship in the world.


 * AMA Motocross Championship: The premiere outdoor racing championship in the U.S.A.

Owner / Team Manager
Mitch Payton

Research and Development
Zach White

Iain Southwell

Jon Primo

Adam Walters

Mechanics
Olly Stone

Colter Ahrens

Kyle Defoe

Brandon Zimmerman

Transportation Specialist
James Shoffner