Location

 

History

BRG has its origins first and foremost in a love of cars, motorcycles in fact all things mechanical and making them go faster or just work better. KC Gager the owner of BRG Racing raced with the California-based racing club the American Federation of Motorcyclists (AFM). More on KC's racing to come.

BRG Racing started back in 1988 as the result of a conversation about wheels in the garage of Larry Resnick (an ex-engineer at the Lawrence Livermore Labs and currently the Technical Steward for BMW CCA Racing). Larry was an avid racer and was explaining how a lighter wheel on a car or motorcycle would allow the vehicle to go through a corner much faster with less power. Larry did an outline design of a wheel with an aluminum billet center and a spun outer. I thought this was a great idea. I said, "let's do it" and thus BRG was formed.

We started by purchasing an old Lagun lathe something like 1940"s and a small CNC mill, using these two tools we built a spinning lathe. We eventually produced our first race car wheel. We put the wheels on Larry's race car (an ADF Formula Ford) and things worked out great.

The car was able to change direction faster and also accelerated faster than the competition. A year later we had produced a set for a motorcycle. We had a few initial problems, the main problem being that of the two spun wheel halves holding air. We tried many kinds of sealants to solve the problem but came up flat (literally). Eventually we tried an aerospace sealant which solved our problem by standing up to the demands of the racing.

Our wheels were tested and proven, First off as to the improvement in how my 1989 FZR 1000 handled. The first time the bike was raced wheel are Billet master wheels it won. Coming from that back of the pack and beating Jeff Hagen a known K.F.G.

Then I unfortunately tested the desirability of the wheels. At Sears Point on a practice day back in 1993. I entered turn 11 at around 140 mph and my brakes failed. The bike hit the wall head on at about 100 mph. As a result I broke my neck and was air lifted to the hospital in critical condition. The front forks of the bike were snapped in two and the frame was bent. The outer spun parts of the wheel were bent but the billet center was just fine with the same 0.005 run out it had when it was manufactured. They are a very tough wheel when handle properly. That do have a fatal flaw. If when you are mounting tires on to the wheels you need to be very careful about how much force you apply to the spun outer they bend very easily. That flaw meant they never made it to market....  

After the accident I was left as a quadriplegic incomplete. That means I could still walk, sort of and still and more important I could still do the work I love. My passion is making things and making thing go faster.  I wanted to stay involved in the sport. To do that I have continued developing parts and machining techniques to make high performance motorcycle and car components. 22 years later and helping in countless Championships. We have grown in to what BRG is today. We're not big shop. I have 3 full time guys and 1 parts time.  

Shop Manager Chad Hammer ,

 

B tec Freddy Martinez,

A tec Shawn Mcneil,

My Ford, GM FI dyno tuner Chris Doig.

 Are Ducati BMW KTM Master tec Jay Gessle, and  the person who keeps the shop very well clean, AJ Jacobson