Copyright 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Paul Teutel, Sr. and Paul Teutel, Jr., the father/son team who star in the hit Discovery Channel reality show “American Choppers,” made an appearance Friday night during the opening ceremonies of the AMA Supercross race at Daytona International Speedway.

The Teutels and a third member of their crew rode past the very appreciative crowd on their custom bikes: the “Old School” chopper, the famous “9-11/Fire Engine” bike and a new bike the family fabricated for Dixie Choppers.

“It’s pretty cool, man,” Teutel, Jr. told reporters after the ceremony. “The thing we liked about it was using the lawnmower engine instead of the standard V-twin to break it up a little bit.” The bike also has custom “spinner” style wheels, more commonly seen on customized SUVs.

The Teutels made the Daytona appearance without compensation and without the Discovery Channel cameras filming.

“We got invited by Steve (Wheat) from Cyclestar.com. He brought us out here. It sounded cool,” said Teutel, Jr. “We just wanted to come out and support the whole industry. Bikes are bikes. We’re into choppers, but we’ve kind of overwhelmed the whole V-twin industry with media exposure. We just thought we could bring it into this spectrum. We appreciate what these guys do. I think it’s just an overall appreciation.”

“We don’t do NASCAR,” said Teutel, Sr. “We’ve done a little bit on TV, but we don’t really watch it. I think it’s really cool, but I like this better than the cars, you know?

“What they do tomorrow (road racing) , that’s that high-speed racing, I think that’s really cool!”

“You mean this?” Roadracingworld.com asked, handing an April 2004 issue of Roadracing World & Motorcycle Technology to Teutel, Sr.

The cover shot shows Chris Ulrich, Ed Sorbo and Steve Atlas ripping around California Speedway on the 2004 Honda CBR1000RR, Suzuki GSX-R1000 and Kawasaki ZX-10R.

“Yeah, these guys are nuts. All balls! And they’re loving it too,” said Teutel, Sr.

At the end of a long, casual question and answer session with reporters, the Teutels said they were going to the Florida Keys after Bike Week for a much-needed vacation before heading home to Orange County, New York to finish their new “Statue of Liberty” bike.