Warsaw Community High School graduate Scotty Van Hawk is proud of his Native American heritage, as well as his passion for riding motorcycles.
Welcome to Four Feathers Racing, Indiana's only AMA Pro Racing Superbike team, for which the 1989 WCHS grad is the lead rider."There are less than 40 Superbike teams in the country, and we have one right here in Warsaw," said Van Hawk. "Indiana has always been crazy about racing, and a lot of people might not know that motorcycles were the first thing to race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway."
Sponsored by Toyota Trucks and www.greeneracres.org Four Feathers Racing's shop is located on CR 350N in Warsaw, and the team rides out of former NFL great Rod Woodson's dealership in Fort Wayne.
Van Hawk said that basketball great Michael Jordan has a dealership with a team as well, and that NHL player Chris Chelios and singer Kid Rock have been to the track with Jordan.
Van Hawk describes motorcycle road racing as, "the perfect mix of athlete and machine."
"It takes quite a bit of athleticism to do this," added Van Hawk. "You're going nearly 200 miles per hour at times, you're leaning over, inches from the ground. It's not something that's easy to do."
Van Hawk and Four Feathers racing will be a part of Toyota of Warsaw's grand opening celebration.
The team's transporter will be on display and Van Hawk will be available for autographs and to meet with fans.
Also there to sign autogrpahs Wednesday from 5-7 p.m. will be NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers Kyle Busch and Michael Waltrip, both of whom drive Toyotas in NASCAR's top stock car series.
NASCAR and AMA Pro Racing are family in a way, as NASCAR owns the motorcycle racing series.
There are Superbike events at some of the same tracks NASCAR competes at, including Daytona International Speedway, Auto Club Speedway and Infineon Raceway.
At this year's season opener at Daytona in March, Van Hawk was involved in an accident and suffered a knee injury.
He had surgery May 11 to repair his torn meniscus and returned to competition in early July at Laguna Seca.
Van Hawk, who finished 15th in last year's AMA Superstock point standings, said he has had nearly 80 broken bones.
"It's never really been kind to me," said Van Hawk.
He continues to race though, because that's what he has a passion to do.
Competing in two seperate classes, Van Hawk rides a Yamaha R6 and a Suzuki GSXR1000.
Van Hawk, who competed in his first race in 1997, said that when not competing, Four Feathers Racing prides itself on giving back to the community with things like helmet safety programs, children's hospital benefits, drug and alcohol abuse prevention and cancer benefits.
Four Feathers Racing will be in action this weekend at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, an event Van Hawk considers a "homecoming" because it's the closest event to the Warsaw-based team's shop.
