HOMESTEAD, Fla. (April 24, 2007) -- When the SunTrust MOTO-ST Series gets underway April 27-29 at Virginia International Raceway in Alton, Virginia, Vallely Racing will be ready to go for glory.

A well-known name in racing, it should come as no surprise that when Tom Vallely sold his motorcycle dealership and relocated from his native northeast to Florida he had trouble stepping away from racing.

When it comes to motorsports, the 68-year-old co-owner of Vallely Racing has just about experienced it all, racing open-wheel modifieds, running in the Baja 1000 desert race four times, and overseeing motocross and supercross teams.

In his current pursuit, Vallely and his wife Gail own the Vallely Racing Endurance Road Race team, which runs two teams in the SunTrust MOTO-ST Series.

"My wife says that I'm on about my eighth life right now," jokes Vallely, who is based in Flagler Beach, Fla., about 20 minutes north of Daytona.

Vallely's No. 32 Suzuki SV1000S sits third in points in the Buell Motorcycle Company SuperSport Twins (SST) class after a fifth place finish in the previous round at Homestead-Miami Speedway April 14. The No. 33 SV1000 is ninth in points following a 10th place finish at Homestead.

Vallely got into road racing after he had sold his motorcycle dealership, Cycle Sport Centers, in Danbury, Conn. and moved down to Florida, where he and Gail already owned a house.

"I sold the business in 1990 and got out of racing," recalls Vallely, who ran Kawasaki motocross and Supercross teams through the dealership. "But after a while I got kind of bored."

Through his work with Kawasaki in motocross Vallely had become good friends with top racer Jeff Ward, who after he was finished with dirt bikes moved into a very successful car racing career. Vallely worked with Ward at the Indianapolis 500, and while attending the Rolex 24 at Daytona Grand-Am Sports Car race decided that he would like to race at the famed Florida speedway. After briefly considering running a Grand-Am sports car Vallely settled on motorcycles.

He attended the Penguin Roadracing School and in 2004 made his Daytona debut. From there the bug took hold and in 2005 Vallely and his new racing team ran a combination of endurance and sprint events. He took the ASRA GTO endurance championship that year, missing out on the overall title by a single point.

When the SunTrust MOTO-ST Series was unveiled for 2006 Vallely thought it would be an ideal venue for his road racing ambitions. With backing from Cycle World of Daytona, he entered two Suzuki SV1000s in the inaugural Eight Hours At Daytona last October, and the team of Chuck Ivey, 17-year-old Josh Day and Frank Trombino finished third overall and in the SST class. The second entry of Matt Lynn, Mike Himmelsbach and Joe Ribeiro was seventh overall and in SST.

Vallely has continued with two entries for the full 2007 season.

"I thought that was the way to go," he says. "It gives you some back up, plus there's the opportunity to transfer information, which we've found very useful already."

Himmelsbach and Day placed fourth on the No. 32 Suzuki in March's season opening Daytona USA 300 which, combined with a fifth at Homestead has put the team third in SST points with 54, 13 behind joint leaders Aprilia USA and Roadracingworld.com Suzuki, winners of the first two events.

"At Homestead the No. 32 had problems with the transmission, jumping in and out of gear," Vallely explains. "Plus there were a couple of run-offs. The No. 33 broke a shifter rod right off the bat, second lap, and came back from 27th to finish 10th."

Vallely has been pleased with the pairing of young Day and Himmelsbach, an old racing rival of his, but sees some room for overall improvement from his team.

"We're trying to get a little better strategy in the pits," he explains. "Josh and Mike are doing a great job, and we can't do any better with the suspension. Mike Fitzgerald, our suspension guy, is outstanding. In road racing you have to be very, very precise with the suspension, very technical. We've got good people helping us along the way."

While Vallely hasn't ridden either of his bikes yet in a race he is prepared to step in should the need arise. That could be the case at VIR, as Day has a conflicting racing obligation. Himmelsbach and Trombino are both expected to appear.

"I'm the alternate guy on both teams and I'm capable," says Vallely, who also spent 25 years working as a pilot. "I can always jump in if one of our guys eats a bad sardine or something."

In addition to the VIR 500K, the SunTrust MOTO-ST Series will also include the Road America 500K, July 7-8 at Road America, the Iowa Speedway 500K at Iowa Speedway July 12-13, 2007 and the 8 Hours at Daytona Finale, October 19-20 at Daytona International Speedway.

MOTO-ST is organized and sanctioned by Professional Motorsports Productions (PMP) of Toronto, Ontario, Canada and the Grand American Road Racing Association, based in Daytona Beach, Fla., provides the series with administrative and commercial support. The MOTO-ST advisory board features some of the most respected individuals in the world of motorsports, including Hall of Fame members, respected motorcycle racing journalists and renowned officials from various forms of road racing. Learn more about MOTO-ST at www.moto-st.com.